That Time Someone Died At Church

Pannikin Coffee & Tea, Encinitas, CA

No, this isn’t about Eutychus (Acts 20:9.) This is about the first Sunday of March in 2019 when someone suddenly died at the church we were serving at.

It was one of those days where a series of events leads you to remember it well. 

I was pregnant at the time and my sense of smell was heightened by five hundred percent. The neighborhood’s Callery pear trees - also known as the trees that smell like dead fish - were in bloom.

Someone at work had recently quit and I had just gone through the first week without him. I liked him too. We had played on the office soccer team together. He was good at his job. He was going to be hard to replace. 

I was coordinating a women’s retreat for the upcoming weekend and I had pregnancy-brain. It was not a good combination.

We came home from church and our bathroom (our only bathroom) started its semi-regular back up annoyance. We tried what we could. Jeff climbed up on the roof to see if an air pocket was to blame while I gave the plumbing-snake a shot. No dice. Jeff had to get to church to co-lead a systematic theology class. I stayed back to get an estimate for a plumber. After making the call and learning that an emergency plumber was out of our price range, I headed to church to attend the class.

People were out front and I heard an ambulance was on the way. 

Someone, we’ll call him Juan, had come early that night and was talking to Jeff when he unexpectedly gasped and fell limp. He died. Someone else came in and attempted CPR. The ambulance arrived and took Juan to the emergency room. 

We didn’t know Juan too well. He had just started coming on Sunday mornings around Christmas. What we did know was that he was hungry for God’s Word and was eager to talk about things of the Lord with anyone and everyone. 

It’s striking to me to remember that day and how it was filled with both the bustling of life and death. For this 21st century American, living in an unrooted age, this was a unique experience. I’m fully aware that for most of human history, families were simultaneously surrounded by baby cries and death croaks. Even recently, we’ve seen reports of babies in Ukraine being born underground while bombs go off above ground and maternity hospitals being hit by an air strike. This was an experience that helps connect me to that human history.

And, this was an experience that reminds me that we are not owed tomorrow. Juan didn’t plan to die at church that night. 

“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’”

James 4:14-15

All this talk about war and death dragging you down? Good news! Jesus offers an abundant life to those who follow Him (John 10:10.) 

Just like that Pannikin coffee cup, my body is compostable. But guess what? The Bible says all those who have died will be resurrected. Believers will be resurrected unto life and unbelievers unto judgment (John 5:28–29.)

We showed this video at church a few weeks ago and I think it is incredibly powerful. I pray that it is powerful for you too and that it points you to hope (or keep hoping) in Jesus. Whether we die or whether we are alive at Christ’s second coming, we will all be changed.