Paul and Eutychus: A Ballad in Eleven Limericks for Holy Hilarity Sunday

Yes. I did that.

⁷On 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. ⁸There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were meeting. ⁹A 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. ¹⁰But Paul went down, and bending over him took him in his arms, and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” ¹¹Then Paul went upstairs, and after he had broken bread and eaten, he continued to converse with them until dawn; then he left. ¹²Meanwhile they had taken the boy away alive and were not a little comforted. ~Acts 20:7-12

There once was a man, came from Tarsus

A Pharisee, who much scripture parses;

He got it in mind

Those Christians to find,

And treated them by far the harshest.

Of course, he was none other than Saul,

Who after he saw holy Stephen fall,

Set out for Damascus

With one simple task:

To rout Christians out, one and all.

But Saul had another thing coming:

For while he was threats and murder humming,

A heavenly light

Did rob him of sight,

And left him there, blinded and bumming.

But our Lord spoke to Saul in his blindness,

And out of God’s goodness and kindness,

His persecution was iced

As Paul came to know Christ,

Who frees us from all that can bind us.

Now instead of to Christians being hostile,

Our Saul started preaching the gospel.

And in a neat trick,

His P.R. to fix,

Saul became Paul the Apostle.

Flash forward, and Paul’s been out preaching,

And healing and traveling and teaching,

And scuffling with Pete

To let Gentiles meet

‘Cause it turns out they too are Christ seeking.

And Paul was a hard working guy,

And though he worked hard and he tried,

Sometimes he did drone,

He’d go on and on,

And from boredom, someone actually died.

And this was the case with young Eutychus,

And he was neither a brute nor cuss.

He just needed a nap,

So his eyes shut did snap,

He fell from a window and raised a fuss.

He fell out of a window and on his head,

And so, to their shock, they found him dead.

Paul took him in his arms,

And said, “Don’t be alarmed:

His life is still in him—let’s break some bread.”

And so the Lord’s Supper they shared.

And then, Paul more gospel declared.

Paul talked until dawn,

Yes, he went on and on,

But this time the people were spared.

So Eutychus lived to tell the tale,

For God healed him, down to the last detail.

For even a preacher,

That long-winded creature,

Can’t stand in the way: God’s love won’t fail.

Thanks be to God (that’s over). Amen.