Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

There were many envious young boys and old men this week following the sports news from Crosby, a small town in northern Minnesota.  A rare rookie trading card of basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain was discovered last month after sitting in a closet over a grocery store for over 60 years. It sold for $1.7 million dollars. That was the highest price paid for a vintage basketball card ever. Someone knew the value of that card.

Regretfully, when I was in 4^th grade, my closest friend convinced me to sell him my older brother’s vintage 1950’s baseball card collection.  My friend said he was doing me a favor.  At 10 cents a pack for 10 Topps baseball cards, and a crunchy piece of powdery, pink bubble gum, his offer of $2 could buy 200 new cards to replace those old dusty cards of Mickey Mantle, Willie Mayes and Hank Aaron. It is best not to say in public what my brother said to me when he discovered I had sold his cards. As for my ex-best friend?  Well, he became a financial wealth advisor and lawyer and is living on the 18^th fairway on some exclusive golf course. Apparently, he still recognizes something of value.

If elementary school boys in the 1^st century were collecting and trading bubble cards of the early apostles, a card of St. Paul wouldn’t have gotten you much. Paul wasn’t one of Jesus’ original twelve disciples who lived along the Sea of Galilee and walked with the master.  Saul of Tarsus, as he was first known, was always an outsider.  He came to the sport of Christianity late in the game after the teams had been chosen.  Apostleship was truly a second career.  Earlier in life he had focused his energy on destroying this new sport and breaking up the teams. But one day as he was travelling on the road to Damascus he was blinded by the light of Christ who was calling him to be a part of his new team to change the world. Nobody believed Paul’s story- especially the big leaguers. Still, he wanted to play ball, so he went down to the minor leagues and worked as a tentmaker and went moonlighting as an apostle. He was traded frequently. One man, however, recognized his talent and that man would one day be his travelling companion Barnabas. He alone saw the value Paul brought to the church.

Surprisingly, there are many Christians today who would quickly trade a bubble gum card of St. Paul for almost any other apostle. Yet because of his contributions toward the writing of the New Testament, he is generally regarded as one of the most important and misunderstood figures of the early church.   Half of the Book of Acts is dedicated to the story of Paul, his teaching, his travels and his miracles. Personally, as a former missionary, I believe Paul’s witness is comparable to that lost trading card of Wilt Chamberlain buried in a closet for 60 years waiting to be discovered. So this summer, when I wasn’t draining water from the lower spaces in the church basement after the heavy rains, I wrote a 13 part sermon series on the Apostle Paul in Greece. That is right about the time when he was brought up from the minor leagues. So, in case you missed one of those Sundays, here is a brief summary of the summer.

Paul, having been barred by the Holy Spirit to enter with his travelling companions into the Roman territories of Asia Minor, felt abandoned in the port city of Troas in modern day Turkey along the Aegean Sea. When will I ever get to play ball, he wondered.  There Paul had a dream of a man from Macedonia in northern Greece inviting him over to help. With this sign, Paul and his companions sailed to Macedonia and traveled to the leading city of Philippi. Since there was no synagogue there, he went outside the city walls to the rivers banks where he met Lydia, the seller of purple cloth. She was the first person to be baptized in Europe. Days later Paul and his companion Silas were arrested, beaten and thrown in prison. While singing hymns in the prison’s darkest, lower levels, an earthquake shook and freed them. Fearing his prisoners had escaped, their jailor was prepared to kill himself, but Paul prevented him, and instead baptized him. The Roman magistrates of Philippi, recognizing their judicial error in jailing and beating Paul encouraged him to leave the city quietly, but the apostle professing himself a Roman citizens refused. Instead, he left holding his head up high and moved on to Thessalonica.  There he was initially welcomed by the Jewish community. Later these same leaders criticized him for turning the world upside down, and hired ruffians to push him out of town. It was then on to Berea, where the crowd welcomed Paul warmly and were persuaded by his preaching. Regretfully, wind of Paul’s success there filtered back to Thessalonica and the ruffians were sent out again to disrupt his work. The new followers in Berea protected Paul and safely escorted him to Athens where he was shocked by the number of idols scattered through the city. On the Hill of Mars, he offered his apologetic message to the Areopagus concerning the “altar of the unknown god.”  After Athens, Paul moved on to the bustling port city of Corinth where he took lodging with his fellow tentmakers Priscilla and Aquila.  In Corinth, Paul established a fledgling church.  Representatives of the synagogue, however, protested to the Roman authorities that Paul was disrupting city life by gathering in close proximity to the synagogue. The Proconsul Gallio, however, crushed their hopes and dismissed the case against Paul.  Now after two years on the roads of Greece, Paul was ready for his off season missionary home leave back in Jerusalem and Antioch, the city where Jesus’ followers were first known as Christians.

Soon, Paul was back on the road rooting on the small Christian communities he had fostered. To his surprise, the Holy Spirit was drafting him for the Asia Minor league where he begin his ministry in the city of Ephesus. The challenges were great and the opposition was mighty.  The ministry quickly moved behind the walls of the synagogue.  In his two to three years living in Ephesus, he began to codify the Christian teaching through the writing of his letters and lecturing in the hall of Tyrannus. He incorporated followers of John the Baptist, battled demons, healed the sick, drove out magicians and challenged the silversmith and their lucrative merch business selling shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis.  This led to the dramatic riot in the theatre where the city clerk announced that these Christians, the followers of the Way had been falsely charged and were not a threat to Ephesian culture nor society. Unfortunately, in Paul’s six-year journey in Greece and Greek territories, he had made just as many enemies as friends.  Even though his eyes were set on Rome, he discovered that a plot had been organized to kill him as he departed Ephesus. He avoided this tragic end by travelling a circuitous route back to Troas, where after a week’s stay nurturing the congregation, he was preparing to return to Jerusalem.  Anticipation was great as the crowd in the upper room saw Paul kneel in the batter’s circle, but they could have used a 7^th inning stretch-especially Eutychus.  That’s where our reading begins.

The new believers had become true fans and they were on fire for the Lord.  They grasped Paul’s value as an example of how Christianity was to be played and lived and they wanted to know everything about Paul’s master Jesus.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the benefit of our New Testament.  Most of their spiritual education came by way of letters from the disciples and oral testimony, so when God sent them Paul to speak, they knew they wanted to sit at the Apostle’s feet for as long as possible. Not knowing if or when he’d ever see these new believers again, Paul was just as eager to equip them and build them up. The church was enthralled with his discourse as the minutes slipped into hours. Young Eutychus, like the other believers, was ready to take full advantage of the limited time he had with major league player Paul. Before anyone knew it, midnight had come and after hours of hard labor followed by hours of spiritual fervor, Eutychus was simply worn out, and the young man vanished from the window seat.

The stuffy room filled with the scent of oil lamps, burst into life. No one could believe it. What had just happened? The Good Physician and Evangelist St. Luke wrote in the Book of Acts that Eutychus was dead. How did this happen when throughout the evening God had been so powerfully in their midst? Paul ran downstairs, fell upon Eutychus, and placed his arms around him. Women were screaming and wailing, the men were in a panic, children were crying. Until Paul turned to the frantic and mournful onlookers and said, “Don’t be alarmed. He’s alive!” And with that, the Apostle went right back upstairs to continue preaching through the night.  Suddenly Eutychus was alive again.

Oddly, Luke doesn’t describe the jubilation that must have followed this miracle. But he does suggest that Eutychus was not the only one brought back to life that night. Wide awake and hungry for more teaching, the excited crowd ventured back upstairs and stayed till dawn, feasting on all God has for them through Paul.  That night, Paul’s biggest fans knew that they would keep his bubble gum card for posterity.  It might be worth something one day.

Now this may sound like an odd story to read for Rally Sunday.  No doubt, we would like to announce that the pastor’s sermons at Lake of the Isles are always exciting, that the music from the Flagstone Dixieland would keep everyone awake, and that the children in the congregation are never bored. We would like to state that every member is fully engaged in worship and that no one tires of volunteering even if a meeting extends to the midnight hours. But that wouldn’t be an accurate depiction of life for any church- even at Lake of the Isles.

The story of Eutychus would be tragic if it had ended differently, but because the young man was raised by Paul from the dead, it seems almost humorous. That is the good news of Jesus Christ Paul shared in Troas, and it is worth sharing on Rally Sunday. With Jesus in your life, God is always turning sorrow into gladness, and sadness into joy. Ironically, even the young man’s name is filled with a whimsical twist.  Eutychus’ name means “Good Fortune.”

Throughout his lifetime, the overlooked Apostle Paul grew more confident of his proclamation of the power and love of God.  Although his early stats may not have been great, by the time he was in his prime he was hitting the ball out of the park every time. The crowds were skeptical in the beginning, but they grew to recognize his value and they welcomed him warmly regardless of the inconvenience of the hour.  They also learned to never to fall asleep in church, or at least not while sitting in 3^rd floor open window while he was preaching.

My friends, if there was a bubble gum card of the Apostle Paul in mint condition, it would truly be priceless- but more importantly, Paul would want you to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is more precious still.  Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus.  Amen.