May the mumbling commence!
Talk about boring someone to death! For all those preachers out there who worry about sermon length, read this passage from Acts chapter twenty:
On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "He's alive!" Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. (Verses 7-12)
Paul was burning the midnight oil. Though we do not know exactly when Paul’s preaching and teaching started (perhaps the noon meal or the evening meal?), we know that he was burning the midnight oil. To keep everyone’s attention until midnight, Paul most have been a very good teacher and preacher.
Anyone who has preached knows that keeping everyone’s attention is nearly impossible to do – even for fifteen minutes. To keep everyone’s attention would take a miracle of the Spirit. Where do most preachers look for wandering minds and/or drooping eyes? Most preachers look to the young men and women.
Yes, attention spans are waning in these days of smart phones and sound bites. Some preachers have consciously decided to aim for eight to ten minute sermons. Even with eight to ten minutes, it would take a miracle of God to keep everyone’s attention.
But don’t get me wrong – some mental or spiritual wandering during sermons is not bad in and of themselves. Some of the listener’s mental or spiritual wanderings are Spirit-led. That’s why preachers, from time to time, get specific comments about specific material that the preacher knows was not in the content of his or her sermon.
Yet, when the eyelids droop, I think we can assume that the drifting off into sleep is a bad thing. As Paul continued to preach, a young man named Eutychus started to fall into deep sleep. How long had Paul been preaching? Let’s go with the assumption of the evening meal in deference to Paul. That would mean that Paul may have began to preach and teach around seven o’clock in the evening. Do the math, and you will get a minimum of five hours!
Paul had done many miraculous things in the Spirit, but this young man was defying the miraculous. Eutychus fell into a sound sleep. His mistake is that he fell into a sound sleep on a window seal – probably at the back of the room. It seems that things do not change much. Young men and women still tend to sit in the back of the sanctuary.
Okay, so Eutychus feel soundly asleep in the window seal – so what? That window seal was on the third story of the building! Can you see where this is going? Eutychus had a very realistic dream of falling, and he hit the bottom and died. [As Pastor John of Hesston (KS) Mennonite Church would say, you'd of cussed too if you were falling from a third story of a building.] Paul simply got up and brought Eutychus back to life.
Okay, preachers out there, the moral of the story is do not preach too long because you may cause the death of a young man or woman – and in most churches today young adults are at a premium. Do not preach too long unless you can raise someone from the dead!
Paul preached too long and inadvertently killed the young man Eutychus. Paul raised Eutychus from the dead; and, then, Paul did not learn a thing. Not only did Paul burn the midnight oil Paul also preached until the sunrise. The miracle was only on intermission accompanied by food and drink. Paul talked to sunrise! Say that sunrise was at five o’clock. That’s another five hours! So we’re looking at a bare minimum of ten hours of preaching and teaching.
Do my brothers and sisters at Community Church think my sermons are long? My sermons are but a bat of the eyelash in comparison to this marathon sermon of Paul’s. But, don’t worry – my sermons will not get any longer. I cannot raise Kylie or Philip or Lee or Anna or Alicia or… (you get the idea) from the dead.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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