Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him ... The eternal God is thy
refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
My first glimpse of the kind of man Cecil Davison was came
just a few feet from where I am standing now. It was over at
that window. We had scheduled a workday to get some
crucial maintenance work done on this building. The
windows needed scraping, as many of them had been
painted shut, or would not close properly. Several volunteers
were at work, most of them with ladders reaching up from the
ground outside, some of them attempting to reach the high
spots from inside on the floor. But Cecil Davison was
standing up in the window, hanging on for dear life with one
hand, leaning out, and scraping away with the other hand. It
was an astonishing performance, and I remember joking with
him that I hoped his insurance was paid up and that I wasn’t
ready to do his funeral. He just laughed and went on
scraping away, standing in that window, doing his work, not
concerned about his own safety. Little did either of us know
at that time, quite a few years ago, that a conversation like
that would come to have special meaning today.
That incident came to my memory the other day as I sat with
you in the hospital, and Velma told me how Cecil had had a
dream in which he saw himself dying, and that ever after that
dream he had been very diligent, trying to complete various
tasks around the house. And you mentioned that in
particular he had been concerned to finish some work on a
window at your home. That window work came together in
my mind with this window work, and brought me to a little
story in the Bible – a story which, like Cecil, has a touch of
gentle humor in it; an account which, like Cecil’s situation
over these past several months, has an element of the tragic
in it; but, at rock bottom, an incident which reveals for us, as
Cecil came to understand, one grand and glorious truth
about our God. And that is that we may fall through the
window to our death, in truth we are falling through an open
window into life. We are falling through an open window into
life.
In this little story in the Book of Acts, the apostle Paul has
come to the city of Troas, in Macedonia, with several
traveling companions. There is an atmosphere of both
excitement and tension – excitement, because the plans for
the future are grand plans, and the accomplishments of
recent days are solid accomplishments. Paul and his friends
have much to review and much to plan for.
But there is tension too. Tension because word has come of
a plot against Paul; enemies want to take his life. And so
that too concentrates his attention and the attention of his
friends. They must build their plans, but they must also
guard their flanks. This will take time. This requires a great
deal of discussion.
And so it was that their meeting began early enough, but
went on and on, well past midnight. The speakers were
animated and able to stay awake; but not everybody was up
to it. And so a man named Eutychus – by the way, in Greek
his name means “good fortune” – Eutychus, “Mr. Good
Luck”, got sleepy listening to Paul drone on and on, and fell
out of the window to his death. What a tragic thing, that
someone should fall to his death while attending to the things
of the Lord! (But I understand! I stand here every Sunday
and put folks to sleep!)
However, what happened next is the reason this story is
recorded in the Bible. If it had not been for this, the story of
Eutychus would have been relegated to the back pages of
history as but one of those unfortunate things that just
happens – a young man, an accident, ho-hum. But it is not
ho-hum. It is the occasion for the life-giving work of Christ.
For, says the story, Paul went down, bent over, picked up
Eutychus in his arms, and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his
life is in him.” And the young man returned to life.
Charming as this story is on its face, it has in it so much
more. For this story teaches us that through every open
window through which we may fall, Christ waits to embrace
us and give us life. And so through that open window of
disappointment that we see in Cecil Davison’s death,
discover with me how Christ gives life, just as He gave life to
Eutychus there in Troas.
I
First, I want you to notice that Christ was present to give life
when someone who served Him had been faithful to the task
and wanted to see it through to completion. Christ gave life
in a setting where all hearts and minds were focused on the
Kingdom, everyone’s will was bent toward the work of God,
and there was a drive to get it done.
Paul, for example. Paul was so committed to finishing what
he believed he was to do, on mission, that he would not stop
talking until it had all been said. Paul was a driven man –
driven to accomplish what the Lord had asked him to do.
Paul’s traveling companions – they too had that persistence.
They too stayed by the stuff until they had it right. They
stayed in that room and debated the issues, making their
plans and developing their strategies, no matter how late it
was or how dingy and dark the room. Get it done.
And Eutychus. Eutychus intended to see it through.
Eutychus expected to be a part of all that was to be done.
True, he sort of sat off to the side; quiet people will do that,
but they are none the less committed. Still, Eutychus’ heart
was in the task and on what he might contribute to it. His
heart was there; but his body did not cooperate, and he fell
asleep.
Cecil Gordon Davison was a determined man. When he put
his mind to a task, he was determined to complete it. In the
days before his final hospital stay, and when he had
experienced his dream, he went about all sorts of household
tasks. You know now, don’t you, that it was not really the
house he was concerned with? It was you. He wanted you
to live in comfort and safety, and so he persisted, even when
it was not the easiest thing to do. And if his body failed him,
you know that his heart and his mind did not fail. He loved
you, he wanted the best for you. He saw the night coming,
when no man can work, and determined to finish all he could.
I think Cecil felt the same thing about his spiritual work.
Cecil attended this church for many years before he joined
us formally. He was a member for only about four years, but
he attended here, and worked here long before he joined. I
think that he just decided, one day, that he needed to
complete what he had begun in his relationship to the Lord’s
church. More recently, he would come here to worship week
by week, and each Sunday at the door I would see that
swelling face and would say, “Cecil, are you getting this
taken care of? What can they do for you?” And he would
answer that his doctors were doing what they could, and
that, no, he did not feel at all well. Some of us at that point
would have gone to bed and decided to wait it out; we would
have thrown a pity party for ourselves. But not Cecil. Cecil
was here; Cecil was at worship; Cecil was about the things of
the Kingdom, determined, we now know, to complete his
spiritual work. And if his body failed and fell through an open
window, let us know that there was so much life, so much
vitality, so much energy, and so much strength in what he did
accomplish. It was an open window to tragedy, yes; but it
was also an open window to life.
II
For we are here today to proclaim the good news, the best of
news, that even when we fall, our God is present to embrace
us in His arms and to give us life. Even when we reach
these extremities, and can no longer stay here, even then,
no, especially then, God is giving us life. I love the way this
text puts it .. that Paul bent down, took Eutychus in his arms,
and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is him.” That
tells me how we should look today at this window man, Cecil,
a window-walker at church and a window-worker at home;
through the open window of his death, see what it means to
bend down, to take someone in arms, and to give life.
Velma, I believe that in your fifty years with Cecil, you bent
down, you took him in your arms, and you gave him life.
Over these past weeks, you have spent every possible
moment at the hospital, nearby, attending to his needs,
watching over him. We will never really know how much
assurance and how much joy you gave him during those
days. I salute you, and your family does as well, for you took
him in your arms and you gave him life.
Sons and daughters; daughters-in-law and sons-in-law;
grandchildren – you took your father in your arms, and you
gave him life. I have seldom seen a family so devoted and
so available to a father. You were there, one or two or three
of you, at almost all times, attending your father, supporting
your mother, doing what you could. You gave him life. Make
no mistake about it. He turned to you and he drew strength
from you. One of you he asked to cut his hair; another he
asked to clip his toenails. Little things; but signs of how he
had come to trust you and to depend on you. You bent over
him, you took him in your arms, and you gave him life.
But we are here to proclaim not just good news, but the best
of news. And the best of news is that Cecil Gordon Davison,
Jr., long before he fell through the window of death, had
already placed himself in the embrace of Christ. Long before
this illness brought him to such a terrible struggle, he had
already struggled with his spiritual issues, and had found rest
and forgiveness, love and satisfaction in Christ Jesus. Death
feels so tragic, so awesome, so free fall to us; but long ago
the Word of God assured us, “The eternal God is thy
refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” It is
God in Christ Jesus who bends over, takes us in His arms,
and gives us life. Praise God for that!
And so today, boldly and with confidence I echo the
assurances Paul gave to Eutychus’ friends, “Do not be
alarmed, for his life is in him.” Do not be alarmed, Cecil’s
family, for his life is in him. Do not be dismayed, Cecil’s
friends, for eternal life is given him as the gift of Christ. Do
not be anxious, Cecil’s church, for “The eternal God is thy
refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Do
not be alarmed or dismayed or anxious or afraid, for he has
gone through an open window – to life!
