Sermonettes

'On the first day of the week we met to break bread together. Paul spoke to the people until midnight because he was leaving the next morning. In the upstairs room where we were meeting, there were a lot of lamps. A young man by the name of Eutychus was sitting on a window sill. While Paul was speaking, the young man got very sleepy. Finally, he went to sleep and fell three floors all the way down to the ground. When they picked him up, he was dead.

Paul went down and bent over Eutychus. He took him in his arms and said, “Don’t worry! He’s alive.” After Paul had gone back upstairs, he broke bread, and ate with us. He then spoke until dawn and left. Then the followers took the young man home alive and were very happy.'
-Luke, writing about the Apostle Paul, 1st century

Acts 20:7-12

This story is not supposed to be funny, but in a way it is.

Think about it, Paul preaching his long sermon has caused this young man to fall asleep (which is not unusual).

What is unusual is that while sleeping, this man actually fell three storeys to his death. I think the outright moral of the story is while listening to a sermon, do not to sit in a window sill three storeys up.

The good thing is that Paul backs up his long and probably boring sermons with the power of the Holy Spirit.

And thus while the Lord used Paul to share the Word, God also used him to bring this young man (who died because of his preaching) back from the dead. And then Paul continued on preaching and they even ate together afterwards. I dare say, no one else probably dared to fall sleep again during the preaching anymore.

Talk about all's well that ends well.

Sermons

Back in the olden times, going back to Old Testament times, people can listen to sermons for very long periods of time (several hours over several days even).

And up to a generation ago, there was a whole generation who can still listen to up to an hour and a half long sermons, even longer.

Today's modern day sermons are typically shorter --anywhere from 25 to 50 minutes long. And even with that short a time, most of us would be tuning out after 15 to 30 minutes.

Sermonettes

I know traditional believers do not consider sermons shorter than 30-40 minutes as sermons. These shorter sermons they would call as sermonettes. And older believers actually have a saying which goes 'sermonettes make Christianettes'. As in sermonettes are kids meals.

In a way, there is some truth to that. (The Lord said the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these -- children).

Power of the Word

Let us not forget that when the Word of God is preached, it shall not return void, meaning it will not come back empty-handed. It will do the work for which it was sent out to do and accomplish.

The Word if preached and backed with the power of the Holy Spirit (and not merely by human effort and human ingenuity) will be like a sword that would separate the good and the bad, the spiritual and the temporal, the godly and the ungodly. It judges thoughts and attitudes. It convicts and never condemns. It changes us from the inside out. It leads us closer to God, not away from Him

And it will not matter if it comes from a sermon 5 minutes long or 55 minutes long.

The spoken Word is the very breath of God -- the breath which made the first man and the same breath which resurrected, renegerated and renewed every born again believer.

Short But Sweet

In today's fast paced world, everything should be readily available in an instant. The world we live in now is inhabited by busy, bored and impatient people, most with short attention spans. If preachers cannot deliver what they need to say in 5 minutes or at least capture the interest of listeners within that time then people will be tuning them off. Yes even if they are wide awake and not like Eutychus who along with most other people of today will be dozing off if not daydreaming.

Sermonettes are mini meals, bite sized bread of life. It is effective. It is essential. It is efficient. It is God's Word.