Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz … AMEN!

As a young man singing in the songster brigade at my corps, I stood next to my father for a year or so in the tenor section. I recall one Sunday, as we were singing, I felt some weight on my left side. A glance told me that my father was falling asleep. Yes. Standing up. Singing in the songsters. In front of a congregation. He was leaning sideways on me as he started to doze.

I continued singing as I elbowed him awake, and then kept elbowing him every time he leant on me. We made it through the song and took our seats back in the band … where he immediately fell asleep, far from the point of my elbow.

Dad worked hard during the week, and as he aged, he developed some slight narcolepsy. He went to sleep while driving me home once, but that’s a story for another day.

Some people can sleep anywhere, while others struggle to go to sleep even in their own bed. For most of my life, I’ve put up with insomnia – I go to bed, but my brain doesn’t!

In Acts 20, we read about Eutychus. He’s one of those characters who only appears once in the Bible, and we know little about him. The passage of Scripture says that while Paul was teaching a group of people late at night in an upper room, Eutychus fell asleep while sitting on a windowsill!

He fell to the ground outside and died, and Paul miraculously revived him – before continuing to teach all through the night. Not even the minor bother of a brief death could stop Paul from talking about Jesus!

Who is the Eutychus at your church? Who’s the one you can count on to fall asleep five minutes into the sermon each week? Who’s the one whose head starts nodding if anyone prays for longer than a few minutes? Have they ever snored or fallen off their chair?

The trick – I was taught years ago – is to train yourself to say ‘Amen’ as you open your eyes after a nap in church. Then everyone will just think you’re very holy. Mind you, if they comment on your snoring you might have to tell them off for not being able to interpret as you prayed in tongues.

Some of you will be familiar with a classic Mr Bean sketch where he falls asleep in church and tries various tricks to keep himself awake. However, I’m not sure that holding your eyelids wide open is a wise thing to do for too long.

It would be easy to say it’s not their fault and that the meeting and sermon should be livelier, and there may be some truth in that, but some people – like my dad – will just fall asleep no matter what is going on.

At one corps I was appointed to, a favourite song was ‘Storm the Forts of Darkness’. We’d often sing it after a sermon to end the meeting. While I liked the notion of the song – ‘Pull down the devil’s kingdom,/ Where’er he holds dominion’ – I often smiled when we sang the opening lines, and I watched some corps members waking up after the sermon:

‘Soldiers of our God, arise!/ The day is drawing nearer;/ Shake the slumber from your eyes,/ The light is growing clearer.’

Such wise words; so true.

–      Major Mal Davies is Assistant Divisional Commander for the Victoria Division.