Acts 20:7-12
7 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. 8 There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were meeting. 9 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. 10 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.” 11 Then Paul went upstairs, and after he had broken bread and eaten, he continued to converse with them until dawn; then he left. 12 Meanwhile they had taken the boy away alive and were not a little comforted.
Prayer:
The story of Euthychus can be understood to be a story of resurrection. But I wonder if a more faithful reading of this story is a call for us to attend to those who are on the margins of our communities, friend groups, and other collections of people to which we belong. Maybe this story a call for us to reach out, invite in, check in on, and care for those on the edges of our social world. As you pray today, reflect on those for whom you know in passing, and offer them to God, trusting that God is already at work bringing them to life.
Great and loving God, I give you thanks for making me to be in community and relationship with other people. In all its beauty and frustration, joy and heartbreak, celebration and sorrow, I praise you for this wonder. I pause now to offer to you my friends… (silently name them)
In your mercy, hear my prayer.
I offer to you my family and those whom I love…
(silently name them)
In your mercy, hear my prayer.
I offer to you those whose names I know but do not know well…
(silently name them)
In your mercy, hear my prayer.
I offer to you those who I only recognize…
(silently name them)
In your mercy, hear my prayer.
I trust that you are already at work in their lives as you are in my life. Be near to them, bring healing and wholeness to them, support them and give them strength, and bless their lives and the works of their hands. For you are near to us and hear our prayers, for you are loving and compassionate. Amen.
Written by Rev. Dr. Matt Frease (he/him), Campus Minister, UKirk Tallahassee (Florida State)
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