Thought for the Day - Friday 8 May

Thought for the Day – Friday 8^th May

I know the days are running into each other but yes, today is Friday and the day when we try to take a lighter hearted look at a Bible text. So here is the text for today - Acts 20 v 7-12 where Paul is in Troas:

On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight. There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were meeting. 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. But Paul went down, and bending over him took him in his arms, and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” Then Paul went upstairs, and after he had broken bread and eaten, he continued to converse with them until dawn; then he left. Meanwhile they had taken the boy away alive and were not a little comforted.

I have always liked this little quirky story of Eutychus because it creates such a wonderful mental image as you read it. You can just imagine this room filled to the brim with folk desperate to share bread with Paul and desperate to hear him speak before he leaves them. You can feel the heat of those many lamps lighting up the room causing a stifling atmosphere and also imagine the dimly lit setting which those lights cast. Probably too in such an enclosed space there would no doubt be the smell of all those bodies crammed together in that muggy heat. Is it any wonder then that Eutychus decides he will sit in the fresh air of the windowsill and listen to Paul speak – indeed maybe it was the only place left for him to sit, for all the older folk may have taken the places closer to Paul.

However as we see, in that dimly lit, muggy, crammed room, Paul does speak and he goes on and on and on right up until midnight sending Eutychus into his deep sleep. Paul then drones on and on even more until at last Eutychus being in such a deep, deep sleep falls from the windowsill three floors down! But never fear! Paul declares him alive! And what does he do next? Well he then goes straight back upstairs and drones on and on and on some more until dawn then leaves them! All we hear of Eutychus is that he is taken away alive and his family were comforted by that!

Now I could ask do you know any preachers who drone on and on so much that you feel like falling asleep – but then that might be a dangerous question for me to ask! Maybe even do you know someone in your life who drones on and on so much you feel like falling asleep – but again in lockdown that might be a dangerous thing to ask!

Rather, I was thinking more of how at the moment we are being bombarded with folk talking about coronavirus. We have people theorising, giving their opinions, wanting to put in their ‘pennyworth’ and it seems to be like an endless stream of thought which just drones on and on and on. At times it does seem so overwhelming that it makes you, if not fall into a deep sleep at least feel like switching off and listening no more. Actually, it saddens me that while we do want to be aware of what is going on around us, it seems that we have forgotten all that is going on in other parts of the world – we are hearing nothing of the injustices going on in Brazil where no action against the virus has been taken at all and the poor are dying in their masses, we hear nothing at all of how Africa is fairing at this time, we hear nothing of the on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict – it just seems as if we have become so focused on the one voice of Coronavirus in Britain and like that has made us fall asleep to the rest of the world.

The folk in the story were so focused on Paul it wasn’t until Eutychus fell three floors to possible death that they even noticed him – we must be careful not to fall into the same trap for we just might wake up and discover something dreadful has been going on in the world around us and we haven’t even noticed!

Prayer

Loving Lord,

Give us eyes to see and ears to hear all that is going on around us in our communities and our world and give us willing hearts and hands to respond as you would wish us to do. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Friday Fun Time:

Here are your five questions for today!

1. If you have to get out of the house fast in the morning what is your ‘grab and go’ breakfast?

2. What is your most memorable moment - ever?

3. Who is your favourite poet or what is your favourite poem?

4. What makes you laugh?

5. Where do you like to go for some ‘time apart’ in the way that Jesus took some ‘time apart’?