Confessions of a Window Ledge Sitter:

This is my third installment of “Biblical Stories that I did not hear in Sunday School:” Rahab, Hobab and now Eutychus

In my retirement I am still the active president of Eutychus Ministries. Okay, I am the only employee and Eutychus ministries only exists as a small business for the purposes of the CRA. When I had to choose a “business” name, Eutychus was the first thing that came to my mind. His story is found in the 20^th chapter of Acts.

Acts 20: 7 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.  8There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.  9Seated 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.  10Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "He's alive!"  11Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left.  12The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

In Acts 19:21 Luke the evangelist notes that Paul was “resolved in the Spirit to revisit several churches that he had founded from Macedonia to Achaia.” His plan was to encourage these young churches before proceeding on to Jerusalem and then Rome where the Holy Spirit warned him that prison and hardships awaited him. (V.22)

Today he is in Troas. The text is only 5 verses long and is easily missed. However, this is the only time in Scripture where a “church” gathers on a Sunday. It is the only place where “breaking of bread” coincides with a gathering time. It is undoubtedly the longest sermon mentioned in the Bible, but ironically there is no highlight reel. And it is the only mention of a third story building in Scripture.

All of which begs the question what in the name of Troas is going on here?

Time to dive in for a closer look.^[1]

Consider, Paul is not the center of the story. A young man named Eutychus captures our attention. The story revolves around him. The only thing we know about Paul’s sermon is that he preached on and on and on.

The name of the man is given - Eutychus. There are many individuals who play significant parts in the early church whom we do not know their name. Providing the name is Luke’s signature way of saying I want to make this story personal. It has the effect of drawing readers inside, like when you are watching a TV show that opens by informing viewers that this is a “True Story.”

Implicitly we can surmise that Luke counted Eutychus among believers. House church meetings of this kind were not conducted for the purpose of evangelism. This was not the Sunday night evangelistic service of my youth.

All we know about Eutychus is that he was a young man and he was tired? Perhaps tired of being dragged to another meeting because his parents were so excited to hear Paul^[2] Or tired because he wondered if any of this was real? Of course, in the end we do not know why.

But the most important detail in the pericope is where he sat - on the window ledge apart from the rest of the gatherers. Yet apart, he was still more “in” than “out”, but he chose the most dangerous seat in the room – literally.

We can surmise it is the most important detail because of the attention Luke gives space and time in this short anecdote. It is rich in contrasting metaphors either implied or explicit.

we came together  one was apart

in a room              outside

many lamps          darkness

begins at dusk       ends at dawn        

alive                    dead

up                        down

It appears that Luke wants us to read this story in the light of two contrasting states of existence.

Here is a church. They cannot live here indefinitely but for now they will seek mutual strength and comfort. They are above, gathered in the light, and “alive. Presumably, below are others separated, walking in darkness. And there is Eutychus close enough to see, yet far enough away lest the hand of God should suddenly touch him and awaken him or so he thinks.

Turn the lights on! I know who Eutychus is!

I am a church rat. I went to church nine months before I was born. I am the oldest of three children. My father served on several different church Boards. My mother was a church secretary, WM. President, and even led boys Crusaders (when I still thought Crusaders was a cool name) in the late 60s. We were often the first ones to church and the last ones to leave. I prayed the “sinners” prayer in the basement of the church with our pastor Alon Hornby at the age of seven after a meeting with evangelist Don Cantelon.  

As a young teenager our family moved from Pointe Claire, Quebec to St. John’s Nfld where I discovered church as a teenage was a full-time occupation. I attended a Pentecostal high school during the week and church 3 times on Sunday. (11-12h30 morning service; 15h00-16h30 Sunday school; 19h00 – an indefinite evening evangelistic service).

I know something about sitting on the window ledge. I paid attention but not in any way that people would really notice. I had all this secondhand knowledge of what I was supposed to “believe in” and “do” but was any of it real. Did I own my faith, or was it merely inherited? As young people we would sometimes wager on how long the Sunday night sermon would last – oh my! In retrospect I know what it was like as a young man to have people try to push me out the window with legalisms all in the name of being a good Christian.^[3] But fortunately I was also surrounded by good people who held on to me. My parents, my Sunday school teacher Mr. Sparks (I still don’t remember his given name) who greeted you every class while shaking your knee with his enormous hands and asking “how are you? (And he actually wanted to know). In retrospect, it was if he was saying “no one is falling out of the window on my watch.”

In my first pastorate serving in northeast Quebec in the early 80s I found myself going back to the ledge. For five years I pastored two congregations. In the morning it was an English Presbyterian community church and, in the evening, a french Pentecostal church. Neither church was big, but they were small.^[4]After four years I had my first visit by District officials who flew in on a small plane to see how we were doing. I was excited and for maybe an hour and a half showed them the town and our church building.^[5] A week later I received a letter from the District office, it said many things but the only thing I remember was the directive to cut the grass and replace the burned out light bulbs in the building (I did not turn them all on, the visit occurred in the daytime) – back to the ledge.

A year later, I left Port Cartier and began studies at Laval University, with a French Catholic faculty and suddenly I was confronted with new theological positions that were challenging older propositions – many of which were inherited but not explored. Back to the window ledge where some again tried to push me out asking when I was going to backslide with higher education. Fortunately, some godly catholic professors held me tight.  

Several years later I applied and accepted a job teaching at Eastern Pentecostal Bible College. My reception that first year by some students was less than encouraging, but no need for a window ledge. These were simply growing pains, and I loved my job. I thought I had found my place. Then on year five after arriving, the college announced a massive shift that revealed the dark side of Denominational Leadership.^[6] As a result in the year 2000 I escaped to Providence University College where I was given the opportunity to further develop and grow in my faith. But the extraction from EPBC meant more ledge time. Could I remain a credential holder with the PAOC with all the obfuscation?^[7]

I suspect if one has been a Christian for any length of time at all one has spent some time sitting on the ledge. The reasons are vast.  It might be an event that shakes one’s belief system to the core, or it could be the slow gradual accumulation of many things.

Today I am enjoying contentment in a community Mennonite Brethren church.I live in a two-church town with a catholic church being the other choice. My faith walk is simpler than ever and I would like to think I am done with ledge sitting but here are some things I have learned.

1. There is room in the gospel for people on the ledge. It is not very comfortable. It is potentially dangerous and probably not too healthy to spend much time there. The late Fredrick Buechner described doubt as the ants in the pants of faith. And for those on the ledge, one does not need to add to their discomfort a false sense of guilt. Probably the best thing to do is sit beside them.

2. Not everything is what it appears to be. It appeared that Eutychus was disinterested. It appeared that Eutychus fell outside the confines of the gathering. But when he fell the gathering left their high abode and surrounded him with their presence. It appeared that he was dead, but the text is ambiguous on this point. Paul simply said his life is in him. Or in the words of the Princess Bride. He was “mostly dead or partly alive.” It is a reminder that we need to be slow to judge what God is doing in the life of someone else.

3 Finally at the risk of over spiritualizing the passage. Paul lays on Eutychus – (perhaps a flash back to Elijah and the widow’s son 1 King 17:21). Certainly a little unusual, if someone falls from three stories and appears to be dead it is probably not a good idea to lay on them. But could this be a symbolic gesture saying draw strength from me. In any event the “gathering” met to break bread but there was no breaking bread until everyone was restored to full fellowship.

Hi my name is Randall Holm, I am a licensed ledge sitter. Do you need some company?

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^[1] Much of what follows I owe to a friend and fellow student, Alan Bulley. At the time in the early 90s the two of us were working at the University of St. Paul on our respective Ph.D’s. Alan published a paper on Eutychus in one of St.Paul’s  journals for which I am ever grateful. I wish I could provide the resource information but that part has faded from my memory..

^[2] In the 80s I was the pastor of Christian education in a larger French speaking church in Quebec City. I think it would be fair to say that most of its adherents were first generation church goers. Unfortunately often their teenage children did not share their parents enthusiasm when told they would not be attending a Sunday School on Sundays. As a result I seemed to replace the Sunday School teachers for that demographic every other month.

^[3] When I finally held off the “pushers” with the help of some “holders” I interrupted my university studies and attended Eastern Pentecostal Bible College (1976). On fire with this new quest on week one I was cornered by the Dean of Students who gave me my first deportments because apparently someone reported that at church on my first Sunday, I was not wearing a suit jacket. Instead, I wore a sweater and tie. Back on a window ledge.

^[4] A shameless reference to the late story teller Stuart McLean and and his vinly cafe.

^[5] I rented the building from the Presbyterians for a dollar a year, in exchange I became their pastor.

^[6] I have published an early version of this story here https://www.academia.edu/5152358/Masters_College_and_Seminary_A_Case_Study_in_a_Pentecostal_Integration_of_Faith_and_Learning

^[7] In retirement I am still ordained with the PAOC.