Sermon, March 9, 2008 - A young man named Eutychus
Pastor Wesley Howell

"A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, began to sink off into a deep sleep while Paul talked still longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell to the ground three floors below and was picked up dead" (Acts 20:7-12).

Paul was preaching and he's on a roll. Paul has come a long way to be at First Church Troas and so he gives them everything he's got, the whole ball of wax. The sermon begins about 11:20 a.m. and continues "until midnight." (And you have the nerve
to criticize the length of my sermons!)

Well, Paul is going on and on…who knows when he’ll be back so he’s going to feed them the whole bale of hay here… and "a young man named Eutychus" is mentioned. Ever heard of him?

This is where you come in if you are a 15 or 16-year-old who has trouble staying awake during the sermon. His name Eutychus means in the Greek, "Lucky."
Young Lucky is seated on a sill at an open window, maybe trying to get some fresh air. As Paul drones on, Lucky falls asleep just before midnight, topples out of the open window, falling to his death three stories below where a couple of ushers "picked Lucky up dead." (I guess his Mama goofed when she called him "Lucky.")

Well, Paul stops just long enough to go downstairs, resuscitate Lucky and announce to the others, "Do not be alarmed, his life is in him. Now, as I was saying . . ."

That's it? Paul's not going to let a little thing like death stop him. Paul's on a roll, it's only 1:00 a.m., so he continues with the sermon. As one biblical commentator says, Paul's resurrection of this dead boy "appears as a mere hiccup" during the middle of his lecture!

Lucky is brushed off, his breathing resumes, and church continues. Next day Lucky is back at school with a bad headache but raised from the dead and no worse for wear.

In this little story we could have missed we are told that Paul has paused just long enough in his sermon to raise a young man from the dead and then church goes on as if nothing happened and young Eutychus, Lucky, was named patron saint of all of you who have trouble staying awake…maybe even alive, during church.

Which brings us back to the Gospel for today. So much going on here. Lazarus is Bound by Death, and he’s Wrapped up like a mummy. What does Jesus say? Unbind him!” But all the way through it you have people bound by expectations. The mourners. Let’s cry, he’s dead. The disciples, bound by expectations,”Odd that Jesus is waiting around. We thought he loved this guy and yet when he hears he’s sick he doodles around.” Mary….Martha… ”Lord, If you had been here. You can do mighty things. You can heal the sick…but now it’s too late. If you’d been earlier…but now.”
The others…you can understand their disbelief…but his closest friends?

Wrapped up in expectations. Luther said that when we look at resurrection we’re like a Cow looking at a new gate. Can’t REALLY believe it’s there.
We didn't know that we were all wrapped up when we kept our faith safely hidden away within ourselves, when our religion became something that we practice only in the safety, behind the closed doors of the church, instead of out in the world where we work and spend so much of our lives.

We didn’t know we were locking him out when we were afraid…afraid our world was changing around us and we didn’t like the way it looks so we do everything in our power to make sure THIS PLACE stays the same.
We didn’t know we were locking him out when we opted to set up safe rules that replaced him. Rules that we thought would lock away anything that could harm us, harm our kids…We thought we were wrapped in security…We didn’t know we were locking him out… But we did. We don’t expect miracles anymore. Or maybe we don’t see the miracles around us. Is it because we’re bound up? That OUR expectations have cut us off from God? That they are stifling us?

So ponder this one…this could be a call for you to throw wide the portals of your heart, to let Jesus into your life.

What have we gotten used to? Just accepted as “The way things are”. Lazarus! Lucky! Tom! Edith! Vern! Insert name here! Come out! Unbind...you’re all wrapped up. Wake up, break free… And live again!