Eulogy - "Living in the Shadow of the Almighty God - Psalm 91

With Praise and Thanksgiving to Almighty God

for the Life, Love and Legacy

of the late

Deacon Albert O. Williams, DDS

“Living in the Shadow of the Almighty God” 

Psalm 91:1-16

Saturday, 29 December 2007

As we celebrate the life of the late Deacon Albert O. Williams, we reflect upon the myriad ways in which Almighty God sows the seeds of providence in our lives.  On many occasions, Deacon Williams shared the story of his very humble beginnings on a small farm in Texas.  He was the youngest of multiple siblings.  At fifteen years of age, he circumstantially had to begin to chart his course in life.  He fondly recalled how he did so with his beloved mother’s blessings.  Education would become the vehicle for accomplishing his dreams and goals.  Without any concrete idea of how he would obtain this goal, he harbored the ambition of becoming a dentist.  Trusting in the goodness of Almighty God and affirming the necessity of a positive outlook in life, Deacon Williams set out in pursuit of his dreams by enrolling in an adjacent college.  In his words, “I did not know how I was going to make it.”  Yet, he was determined to succeed.  More significantly, in retrospect, he discovered pebbles along his path that our loving Heavenly Father had dropped in order to direct Deacon Williams toward God’s ultimate purpose for his life. 

While some people may characterize Deacon William’s story as average, actually, it is remarkable because of the elements of divine orchestration in the plot of his life.  Additionally, the life of the late Albert O. Williams is particularly an American story in which an African-American male born to a large family in a humble setting achieves professional distinction as a dentist and deacon within his local church.  His journey encourages the ordinary person because it reminds us that God’s unquestionable faithfulness miraculously transforms daily choices toward divine objectives.  Thereby, the average person becomes an overwhelming success relative to his or her goals, dreams, potential, discipline, application and natural endowments. 

After leaving Texas and graduating with a degree from the precursor to Texas Southern University, which was not an accredited institution at the time, Deacon Williams came to Nashville.  He then enrolled in Tennessee State University where he obtained both bachelors and master’s degrees in chemistry.  Subsequent to earning those degrees, he taught at Prairie View Agricultural & Mechanical College.  There, he would meet the love of his wife, the late Dr. Marion Williams, with whom he would share forty-two years of holy matrimony.  An inexplicable college rule at the time prevented a husband and wife from both simultaneously serving on the faculty.  That regulation led the Williams to move to Montgomery, AL where they taught at Alabama A& M College for a year. 

Fascinatingly, that year was 1955!  They attended Dexter Avenue Baptist Church during the height of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which formally began the national Civil Rights Movements.  The Williams drove cars in the year in which the Black residents of Montgomery boycotted the buses in order to coerce the transportation line to grant them equal and respectful treatment for their fares.  Deacon Williams, although he could never have imagined it when he left Texas, took particular delight in sharing this story of his participation in one of the most significant events in twentieth century American history.  Each “MLK Sunday,” he would remind me that he had worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. in “the great things that he did.”  As a high school history student reading about the Montgomery Bus Boycott, specifically, and the Civil Rights Movement, generally, I wondered would names ever be attached to the countless persons who made such great sacrifices.  Personally, as an inheritor and beneficiary of that great labor of love, I am gratified to pay the debt of attaching the names of Albert O. and Marion Williams to the list of African-American forebears who bore their burdens in the heat of the day in order to make a more just and equal way for a future generation.  Nevertheless, let us consider the way in which the seeds of providence led the Williams to Montgomery to fulfill a divine appointment.

During the year that Williams spent in Montgomery, a possibility opened that Deacon Williams might attend the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa to earn a Ph. D. degree in Chemistry.  The University had recently enrolled its first African-American in the graduate school.  Yet, Deacon Williams’ heartfelt goal of becoming a dentist overshadowed this prospect.  As he told the story, it was his beloved wife, Dr. Marion Williams, reminded him of the reality that he wanted to be a dentist more so than a chemist.  That conversation led to their ultimate move to Nashville in 1956 where he enrolled at Meharry Dental School.  He would accomplish his lifelong dream and proceed to a lengthy career of practicing dentistry for forty-two years as well as teaching on the Dental School faculty for many years.

In 1969, Albert O. Williams was ordained to the Diaconate at First Baptist Church Capitol Hill.  He served with distinction for nearly thirty-eight years, electing emeritus status in 2002.  Each year, he hosted a special fellowship meal for his watch care members.  Should any of them experience bereavement or illness, Deacon Williams expeditiously responded to calls notifying him of their needs.  He diligently visited local hospitals to visit with his watch care members and faithfully made trips to their homes when requested and needed. 

Additionally, Deacon Williams was known affectionately as the “Father of the 8:00am Worship Service.”  He took great pride in its continuance beyond the pastoral tenure of the late Kelly Miller Smith, Sr.  Excluding extreme physical illness or his absence from Nashville, Deacon Williams arrived at FBCCH at 7:45am each Sunday until he began to experience a decline in his health.  Moreover, Deacon Williams particularly liked the order of service of the first service.  He often quoted Paul’s admonition that Almighty God is a God of order and desires that all matters be executed in decency and in order.  He took a proprietary interest in the liturgy and details of the 8:00am worship experience.

Let’s join in an imaginary delight of the grand reunion that occurred on Thursday night when he joined his beloved wife, the late Dr. Marion Williams.  Together, as perfect brothers and sisters in the Lord, they can share eternity in worship and praise of our Lord.  By all accounts, most especially his, Deacon Williams considered his late wife to be the apple of his eye.  I posit that all of us found encouragement in the way in which he adoringly spoke of her and the very high regard in which he held her and her memory.  As we rejoice in his total healing from illness and liberation from the limitations of human life, let us also celebrate his joy of reunion and ability to serve our Lord forevermore.

The life of Deacon Williams again demonstrates how Almighty God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary feats.  As that gospel song suggests, “Little becomes much when you place it in the Master’s hands.”  Merely living under the shadow of Almighty God offers incredible assurance to the average person.  From the resounding opening verse in Psalm 91, this passage assures any believing and committed individual of a number of divine promises and protections.  God’s very presence shall be a refuge and a fortress from the adversities of life.  God’s faithfulness will shield you from any deadly pestilence.  You will not “fear the terror of night” nor any assaults during the day.  What an amazing promise given the current turbulence of our nation and world!  Moreover, underneath the shadow of God’s presence, you will watch your enemies fall to the left and the right.  Amazingly, God “will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”  Accordingly, you will have unqualified protection in the affairs of life.  “Because he loves me, says the Lord, I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.”  Finally, in agreement with the Psalter, Deacon Williams would encourage us with a recitation of the sixteenth verse.  “With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” 

Amusingly, Deacon Williams would state his age by saying “I’m forty-one going on eighty-three.  The Lord has blessed me all these many years.” His life reflected the blessings of being in the shadow of Almighty God.  It more significantly demonstrates the mystical and majestic ways in which the Lord uses willing servants in the midst of the mundane activities of life.  I understand that Deacon Williams’ death crystallized in a nap. Soundly asleep, he slowly and surely slipped into eternal rest.  This blessed rest is the reward of the righteous who dwells in the shadow of the Almighty God.  Deacon Williams’ assurance challenges us to find a similar peace within the pervasive turbulence of our world.  Intractable terrorism, political assassinations of heads of states, nuclear proliferation, environmental disasters, all, combine to frighten greatly the average person.  Finding peace seems impossible. Nevertheless, the Psalter and the life of Deacon Williams nullify this negativism.  Instead, they remind us that peace is available perpetually for those persons who choose to live in the shadow of the Almighty God.