Most people don’t get teased for dying, but I do.

When we meet together to worship God, if I ever go and sit near the window, someone in the congregation is sure to say, “Oh, no you don’t!  We all know what happens when you sit there!”

If a meeting is being arranged at a house we haven’t been to before, someone always has to ask the householder, “Do all of the windows have bars across them?”  And then they both look across at me, slyly.

It’s not a great feeling to be the one who everyone remembers as the man who went to sleep while brother Paul was talking.

I suppose the strangest thing about the whole episode is that I don’t actually remember any of the important parts, the parts that everyone laughs about.

It was at the very start of spring that Tychicus and Trophimus arrived in Troas and reported that Paul and several of his other friends and helpers would be visiting soon.  Naturally, we were very excited, looking forward to seeing them again, and hearing more news and encouragement.

Tychicus and Trophimus also told us about the time Paul had spent in Macedonia and Greece after that amazing riot in Ephesus, a riot that sort of fizzled into apathy after the town clerk gave the crowd a stern warning.  Don’t think that Paul’s enemies left him alone, though.  Apparently, just as he was about to set sail from Greece, the Jews again made plans to kill him.  I can’t help wondering whether sometime they might succeed, but obviously Jesus still has work for Paul to do in his name – Paul keeps escaping.  He is just so brave, too.  I don’t think that I would have been so very eager to go back into Macedonia if I were Paul.  The Jews of the area have tried to kill him several times in several places.  But he has complete confidence that they will continue to fail until his work is finished.

It was less than two weeks after Passover when they all arrived, having come by ship from Macedonia.  Passover is still an important time to many of the Jewish believers, and to us Gentiles as well.  After all, Jesus died and was raised at this time of year about 25 years ago, and Peter was freed from prison on the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread about 13 or so years ago.  Not only that, but John’s beloved brother James was killed a little before that same feast, so these are times when we have much to remember.  Of course, I am too young to remember any of those actual events – I wasn’t even born when Jesus ascended into heaven.  But I love to hear the stories from the people who do remember them, and Paul can tell some amazing tales of his own life, too.

We had a whole week – seven wonderful days – of listening to his teaching and his stories, hanging on his every word as he explained details about history and the Jewish law that I had never even thought about.  It is amazing how much more everything means when you know more about the background.  I’m not a Jew, but I often catch myself thinking of Abraham as my natural ancestor because I get so used to thinking about his family tree and the way he lived.  It has all become more a part of me than my own family tree with its ingrained idolatry – and those other tawdry details that no-one in the family ever wants to talk about.

Every evening, we all gathered together and listened to Paul and the other visitors talking about God’s work around the world, and his work through righteous people in many different times.  Back then, nobody ever introduced the speakers with words like, “Tonight, the brother with the job of keeping Eutychus awake is…”  Now they often do.  I try to be patient.

But how those brothers made the word of God come to life!  One evening, Noah’s faith was made so real that the next morning I couldn’t help imagining myself getting up for another day of ship building, building that enormous monument to faith that saved life on God’s earth.  And when it started to rain on me the next afternoon, I imagined the ark slowly starting to float with its precious cargo.  At the time, I was placing a wooden beam to support the new roof on an extra floor that my master is building for a customer, but that didn’t stop my imagination seeing the ark standing rugged and safe as the sudden disaster engulfed those around.  What a magnificent testament to a strong and steady faith.  Ah, the encouragement that others can give us through their faith!

Then, sadly, the seven days were coming to an end and the first day of the week came.  As usual, we met together to break bread, and Paul spoke to us.

I really enjoy listening to Paul speaking, but his style is a bit unusual.  He can be talking about a subject in fine detail and be just about to examine some small point when suddenly he jumps to a completely different subject, and never quite gets back to the first point.  Some of the brothers find it distracting and end up feeling a bit cheated, but I find that he gives me lots to think about from what he does say, while also leaving me with many things to think about that he didn’t get around to saying!

But on that last evening it was quite warm, and the room was pretty full.  The older ones sat closer to Paul so that they could hear him, while we younger ones sat against the walls around the edges.  I was sitting on the window sill where the frame was set into the thick walls of the upper room in which we were meeting.

The way people tell it now, you would think that I went to sleep as soon as Paul started speaking, but it wasn’t that way at all.  In fact, I saw lots of others snoozing much earlier in the evening while Paul talked on and on.  It didn’t hurt anyone.  People listened while they were awake, then snoozed for a while before awaking again ready to listen some more.

And there was plenty more to listen to!

Paul spoke on for three hours, four hours, five hours, and by then I was starting to have a problem.  It was quite stuffy in the room, and every so often I leaned out of the window a bit to get some fresh air, to help me stay awake.  But it was getting harder and harder.  Some of the sentences I heard weren’t making any sense at all – I suppose I was missing bits in the middle – but I kept struggling on.

And that’s all I remember – until suddenly I saw Paul bending over me, with others crowding around holding up lights.  He had a smile on his face and he was telling everyone not to worry because I would be alright.  I tried to work out what was going on – it was just like waking up from a deep sleep – and slowly realised that Paul had his arms around me too.  He kept looking at me as if demanding that I wake up.  Now Paul is not a man who is easy to resist, so I did my best, and after a while, I was able to sit up.  That was when the big surprise really hit me, because we were outside on the street, and I had been lying on the cobblestones.  Sleep sometimes leaves me feeling a bit disoriented, but that couldn’t explain how things were then.

It was only later that people explained to me that I must have gone to sleep and fallen out of the window, causing sudden consternation amongst the entire audience, and Paul in particular.  I imagine it would be horrible to feel that you were the preacher who had put someone to sleep so that they fell to their death!  And that’s what everyone tells me happened.  They say that when people got down to the street and found me, there was no doubt that I was dead.  What a way to die!

Apparently, though, Paul had also hurried down and quickly reassured them that I would be alright, and so I was.  After I woke up, we went back upstairs, and finally got to breaking bread together.  We asked Paul to keep talking, too – after all, the ruckus had woken everyone up very thoroughly!  At daybreak, he and his companions had to leave, while most of us had to go to work.  It was a hard day, that one, but Paul had given us a lot to think about, so that helped to keep some of us awake.  Me at least.

I don’t know how much you have ever thought about the miracles of Jesus, Peter, John, Paul and others, but when God does miracles, they are done properly.  I didn’t even have a headache.  No broken bones, nor even any bruising.  All I had to remind me of what had happened was the dirt from the street on my clothes.  It was really ground-in dirt, too, exactly the sort of stains that would remind me just how hard I must have hit the ground.

I have been given another chance.  More days to become more like Paul.  He was my hero before, but now I feel even more attached to him.  Without him and the power of God, I wouldn’t be alive at all.

So now in our congregation, if anyone is feeling tired and is suddenly brought abruptly back to wakefulness after the shortest of snoozes, everyone calls it a “Eutychus moment”.

In fact, if I stay awake when someone speaks to the congregation  – as I almost always do – people praise me for staying awake.  It’s completely unfair, but I suppose people enjoy it, and it really won’t hurt me too much.  It just hurts my pride.

No doubt people will still be talking about me and my embarrassing gaffe hundreds of years from now!