Job 19:21-27; Revelation 7:9-17; St John 10:27-30
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Phil, Bonnie, David, your beloved spouses and children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, of our dear sister in Christ Mildred, dear family in Christ from St Peter’s, grace, mercy and peace be unto from God our Father holds you in His hand and raised our Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, from the dead.
It is common now to change the names of things to sterilize them. Funerals, for example are called “celebrations of life,” supposedly because it sounds nicer. But we are not gathered here for a celebration of life. Though there is, indeed, much to celebrate in the long life of grace that our Lord granted unto His dear child Mildred. 98 years. Perhaps some of you learned the Fourth Commandment according to its older version as the first commandment with a promise: Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother that it may be well with thee and thou mayest livest long on the earth (Eph 6:2-3). Our Lord, in His mercy, has fulfilled this promise, among others, to Mildred.
But we are not here to celebrate her life. We are gathered here because this dear mother, grandmother and friend, has died. She has departed this life in the faith. This is her funeral. And first and foremost the Christian funeral is a solemn service to the glory of God in Christ Jesus in thanksgiving for the life and blessed death of His ones in the faith. It is written, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Ps 116:15). And elsewhere, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them! (Rev 14:13).
Mildred indeed is a saint in Christ who now rests in the eternal Sabbath which He has secured by His own innocent, suffering and death and glorious resurrection and ascension.
That I call her a saint is not hyperbole. It is not for her kindly disposition. Nor her elderly frame. It is not because she would say, “Thank you,” to every worker at Ashford Place after they helped her to the restroom, gave her medicine, turned down her bed, or as in my case, brought her the Lord’s Supper.
Rather, I call her saint, and rightly so, because she is a holy one of Christ Jesus, declared so by faith alone in Him, who by grace alone has atoned for all her sins and has imputed to her His righteousness as a free gift. You may think her a saint for the other reasons, but her Father in heaven beholds her as a saint on account of her faith in Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord.
Though to ask Mildred, she knew she was no saint.
It is my practice, whenever I visit the sick, shut-in, or homebound, to bring them Holy Communion, that we have service. For someone like Mildred, who grew up in the Lutheran church, the very words of the Divine Service were still fresh in her mind even when other things began to fade. Such is the precious blessing of our Lord, the Good Shepherd, who says, My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me. In the liturgy the sheep hear the voice of their Good Shepherd. Even when they forget others - family, friends - He knows them and they follow Him. That is, they listen to His voice and believe His word and promise that He has laid down His life for them to give them a share in the life that never ends.
Mildred knew this. She heard His voice. Even when her eyesight failed she would recite the words of the confession of sins from memory: “O almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.” Then, even when her speech began to fail, I would confess the words aloud and then ask her, “Mildred, is this your confession?” “Yes!”
Yes was always her answer. For she knew her sin. 98 years of life, especially in those last years when her physical abilities waned, 98 years, and then to lie in one’s bed waiting upon the Lord for a blessed end, 98 years is a long time, a lot of life, for the devil to bring to her memory past sins and throw them in her face as if she wasn’t forgiven. As if the blood of Christ did not avail for her. As if she needed to do something to earn her salvation.
But no one understands justification by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone better than one who is dying. Mildred knew that she was dying. She prayed for it. As is fitting for the saints in Christ. But she knew it was a gift. Death is a gift, given at the Lord’s time.
A gift like the gift she received every time immediately after her confession of sins: “Mildred, Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That, that, is the voice of her Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that is the promise that He kept unto her again and again, to never leave her or forsake her. Our Lord Jesus made that promise to Mildred first in the waters of Holy Baptism, when she was clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness that covered all her sin. That baptismal reality is symbolized today with the white funeral pall, marked with the Cross of Christ, covering her. Just like that reality was symbolized the day she was baptized at the old St Peter’s Lutheran Church on Brookside and Jefferson. Old because the “new” building is only 90 years old, whereas our dear Mildred, well, she’s a little older.
Our Lord Jesus kept and reiterated that same promise to her again and again in the forgiveness of sins that I and all her pastors before me were privileged to speak to her.
That same promise was presented to her as gift when set before her in bread and wine was our dear Lord’s Body and Blood, given and shed for her for the forgiveness of sins. He prepared this table before her whether it was at St Peter’s or her apartment in Beech Grove or her bedside in Shelbyville. Wherever she was, our Lord carried His promise to her in His Word and in His Sacraments for the full and free forgiveness of all her sins, leading her in the path of righteousness for His name’s sake.
And because of these promises, grabbed by faith at an early age and never let go, Mildred believed and confessed with old Job, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
This is her confession!
Until that Day, however; until the Day when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead, Mildred has been given the white robe, washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, the palm branch has been placed into her hand, and she has been told to wait. She has taken her place around the throne of the Lamb with the whole company of heaven singing the eternal liturgy, saying “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
But for today, in a moment, we shall place the body of our dear sister in Christ, the beloved lamb of our Lord Jesus, into God’s acre and wait the fulfillment of the promise of her resurrection unto eternal life.
For Christ Jesus has died and been raised, never to die again. His resurrection is the guarantee of the promise of her resurrection. And she shall be raised, as old Job said, in her flesh. Immortal. Imperishable. Perfected and without blemish. For goodness and mercy have followed her all the days of her live, and she shall be raised, together with all the faithful, to dwell eternally before the throne of God; He will shelter them with His presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Phil, Bonnie, David, your beloved spouses and children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, of our dear sister in Christ Mildred, dear family in Christ from St Peter’s, grace, mercy and peace be unto from God our Father holds you in His hand and raised our Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, from the dead.
It is common now to change the names of things to sterilize them. Funerals, for example are called “celebrations of life,” supposedly because it sounds nicer. But we are not gathered here for a celebration of life. Though there is, indeed, much to celebrate in the long life of grace that our Lord granted unto His dear child Mildred. 98 years. Perhaps some of you learned the Fourth Commandment according to its older version as the first commandment with a promise: Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother that it may be well with thee and thou mayest livest long on the earth (Eph 6:2-3). Our Lord, in His mercy, has fulfilled this promise, among others, to Mildred.
But we are not here to celebrate her life. We are gathered here because this dear mother, grandmother and friend, has died. She has departed this life in the faith. This is her funeral. And first and foremost the Christian funeral is a solemn service to the glory of God in Christ Jesus in thanksgiving for the life and blessed death of His ones in the faith. It is written, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Ps 116:15). And elsewhere, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them! (Rev 14:13).
Mildred indeed is a saint in Christ who now rests in the eternal Sabbath which He has secured by His own innocent, suffering and death and glorious resurrection and ascension.
That I call her a saint is not hyperbole. It is not for her kindly disposition. Nor her elderly frame. It is not because she would say, “Thank you,” to every worker at Ashford Place after they helped her to the restroom, gave her medicine, turned down her bed, or as in my case, brought her the Lord’s Supper.
Rather, I call her saint, and rightly so, because she is a holy one of Christ Jesus, declared so by faith alone in Him, who by grace alone has atoned for all her sins and has imputed to her His righteousness as a free gift. You may think her a saint for the other reasons, but her Father in heaven beholds her as a saint on account of her faith in Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord.
Though to ask Mildred, she knew she was no saint.
It is my practice, whenever I visit the sick, shut-in, or homebound, to bring them Holy Communion, that we have service. For someone like Mildred, who grew up in the Lutheran church, the very words of the Divine Service were still fresh in her mind even when other things began to fade. Such is the precious blessing of our Lord, the Good Shepherd, who says, My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me. In the liturgy the sheep hear the voice of their Good Shepherd. Even when they forget others - family, friends - He knows them and they follow Him. That is, they listen to His voice and believe His word and promise that He has laid down His life for them to give them a share in the life that never ends.
Mildred knew this. She heard His voice. Even when her eyesight failed she would recite the words of the confession of sins from memory: “O almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.” Then, even when her speech began to fail, I would confess the words aloud and then ask her, “Mildred, is this your confession?” “Yes!”
Yes was always her answer. For she knew her sin. 98 years of life, especially in those last years when her physical abilities waned, 98 years, and then to lie in one’s bed waiting upon the Lord for a blessed end, 98 years is a long time, a lot of life, for the devil to bring to her memory past sins and throw them in her face as if she wasn’t forgiven. As if the blood of Christ did not avail for her. As if she needed to do something to earn her salvation.
But no one understands justification by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone better than one who is dying. Mildred knew that she was dying. She prayed for it. As is fitting for the saints in Christ. But she knew it was a gift. Death is a gift, given at the Lord’s time.
A gift like the gift she received every time immediately after her confession of sins: “Mildred, Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That, that, is the voice of her Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that is the promise that He kept unto her again and again, to never leave her or forsake her. Our Lord Jesus made that promise to Mildred first in the waters of Holy Baptism, when she was clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness that covered all her sin. That baptismal reality is symbolized today with the white funeral pall, marked with the Cross of Christ, covering her. Just like that reality was symbolized the day she was baptized at the old St Peter’s Lutheran Church on Brookside and Jefferson. Old because the “new” building is only 90 years old, whereas our dear Mildred, well, she’s a little older.
Our Lord Jesus kept and reiterated that same promise to her again and again in the forgiveness of sins that I and all her pastors before me were privileged to speak to her.
That same promise was presented to her as gift when set before her in bread and wine was our dear Lord’s Body and Blood, given and shed for her for the forgiveness of sins. He prepared this table before her whether it was at St Peter’s or her apartment in Beech Grove or her bedside in Shelbyville. Wherever she was, our Lord carried His promise to her in His Word and in His Sacraments for the full and free forgiveness of all her sins, leading her in the path of righteousness for His name’s sake.
And because of these promises, grabbed by faith at an early age and never let go, Mildred believed and confessed with old Job, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
This is her confession!
Until that Day, however; until the Day when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead, Mildred has been given the white robe, washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, the palm branch has been placed into her hand, and she has been told to wait. She has taken her place around the throne of the Lamb with the whole company of heaven singing the eternal liturgy, saying “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
But for today, in a moment, we shall place the body of our dear sister in Christ, the beloved lamb of our Lord Jesus, into God’s acre and wait the fulfillment of the promise of her resurrection unto eternal life.
For Christ Jesus has died and been raised, never to die again. His resurrection is the guarantee of the promise of her resurrection. And she shall be raised, as old Job said, in her flesh. Immortal. Imperishable. Perfected and without blemish. For goodness and mercy have followed her all the days of her live, and she shall be raised, together with all the faithful, to dwell eternally before the throne of God; He will shelter them with His presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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