I learned this past Sunday that my friend Dave Miller passed away after a brief illness. Dave was a long-time member of First Baptist Church of Weaverville where I served as Minister with Youth and Children before accepting the call to pastor Ecclesia Baptist in Asheville. The incident I’ve described in the original blogpost (below) happened four years ago.
Wait–that can’t be right . . . It was in February. 2015. So that’s only . . . oh. So, yeah, four years.
The interesting thing about the story below is that it’s actually the first of at least two similar occurrences when Dave had some sort of minor episode while I was preaching. This odd coincidence led to a running joke.
“I see you’re preaching Sunday, Aileen,” Dave would say on a Wednesday night at Bible study. (He was never just a Sunday morning church goer.) Eyes sparkling, grin hiding just behind his straight face, he’d quip, “I believe I’ll play it safe and just stay home.”
Or, “Hey Dave, how are you feeling today? I’m preaching so I just thought I’d check!”
“Well, I’m a little tired, but I’ll get a nap during your sermon.”
The last time I saw Dave Miller was my last Sunday at First Baptist Weaverville. “You be careful preaching every Sunday! Don’t put them to sleep, you hear?” He laughed at his joke and I laughed at him laughing. Then, getting serious, he added, “We’re going to miss you honey. We’re really going to miss you.”
I miss you too Dave. Give my love to Glory, and I’ll see you in the sweet by and by.
February 5, 2015, Weaverville, NC
I’ve only been in the vocational ministry for five years, but if you count my nearly 50 years as a preacher’s kid, that’s a good bit of ministry–or at least church–experience. So I know of what I speak when I tell you that on Sunday, February 1, I came as close to speaking in tongues as I ever have.
I was in the middle of my sermon when an older member of the church who was sitting down to my right, slumped over in the pew. (I told him later that if he didn’t want to hear me preach he could just say so and not cause such a stir.) As it turns out, he had a spell related to heart troubles and once the EMT’s got things straightened out he was fine.
Anyway, there I was preaching on the weekly lectionary text like a good little girl when Dave keels over. It took me a minute to clue into what was happening but when I did, I turned back to the choir and asked a member who is a nurse to attend to Dave. She got up immediately as did another member in the congregation who is a medical professional. Our pastor, who by God’s providence was seated one pew over, went to comfort Dave and his sweet wife of about 60 years.
That left me, mid-sermon, standing at the pulpit in front of a congregation of confusion, fear, and anxiety. I had absolutely no idea what to do.
But the Spirit did. It’s a good thing that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26) In truth, I remember very little of what I said or did. All of it was Spirit led.
Now, it’s true, I was raised in the church and have experienced tense situations before this. I’ve seen my Preacher Daddy deal with emergencies from the pulpit a time or two and have been in other situations where difficulties arose in unfortunate surroundings.
I’ve also had classes on crisis management and read books on the same topic. I’ve studied group dynamics and crowd behavior.
But I’ma tell you right now. The Holy Spirit scooped up all that life experience and book learning and molded it into something far greater than anything I could have accomplished. In the midst of that human crisis, the Spirit interceded and brought Peace to the turmoil.
Hallelujah and to God be the Glory!
