Sermon: Funeral of Myra Thalheim

4 October 2019

Text: Luke 2:25-32 (Job 19:23-27a, Phil 1:21-23)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Dear Ruth, Margaret, Richard, Mark, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: Peace be with you!  This word “peace” is the first word that Jesus spoke to His disciples after His resurrection.

When a person has been an integral part of your life for nearly a century – as Myra has been to you, Ruth, in your case, inseparable –the sense of loss is beyond words.  To lose a dear mother, grandmother, aunt, friend, parishioner, colleague, or a beloved teacher who changed the course of one’s life – to lose someone of that importance to death is truly a profound sense of loss.  It is common to console people with the words, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Indeed, upon the death of a person with a footprint as large as Myra’s on our entire community, the sense of loss is immeasurable.  

We Christians experience this loss, though in a different way than the unbelieving world.  St. Paul says that we grieve, but not as unbelievers – because we have “hope.”  And that hope is grounded in the cross and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is why St. Paul says to us in our epistle lesson: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  The word Paul uses here, translated as “gain,” is literally the opposite of “loss.”  It’s actually a business word that can be translated as “profit.”  

But we Christians see a Christian death as “gain” far differently than the world sees death, dear friends.  Our degraded culture treats death as a solution.  Twenty-five years ago, Pope John Paul said that we live in a culture of death.  The unbelieving world sees death as a solution to everything from an unexpected pregnancy, to political dissent, to curbing healthcare costs, to saving the environment.  Our popular culture has a strange fascination with death because the world does not appreciate what it means to be human, to be created in God’s image, and to have a divine purpose.

But Myra understood this, dear friends, and she wants her funeral to be about that.  If you came here for a celebration of Myra’s life, or a tribute to her and her works – you have come to the wrong place.  Myra’s handwritten instructions said, “No eulogy… Praise to God only.”  Myra was well-catechized, for according to our faith, a funeral is not about what she has done in her life, but rather what Christ has done for her by His life, death, and resurrection.

Myra’s specific and beautiful instructions for her funeral also say that people should sit quietly in place, and no loud talking.  We teachers understand.  You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you cannot take the classroom out of the teacher.  And boy, does Myra still have much to teach us, dear friends!

Myra was well-catechized and well-prepared for her death – starting when she was just 25 days old, and was baptized by Pastor Eugene Schmid in that very baptismal font 92 years ago.  She was taught the faith and confirmed by Pastor Schmid in 1940.  Her confirmation verse is Romans 6:23, in which the Apostle Paul says: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This, dear friends, is why we have funerals.  It is because of sin.  It goes back to the garden of Eden, to opposition from the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh.  This is why Myra chose the hymn: “Chief of sinners though I be” as the opening hymn of her funeral.  

Our sister in Christ Myra would return week after week to this church, to this holy place, in the presence of this font, this pulpit, and this altar, where she was absolved of her sins, where she heard the Scriptures read and the Good News preached, and where she took the Lord’s very body and blood from Pastor Schmid and from eight of his successors in the office of the holy ministry here in this parish.

And this is precisely why Myra wants you to hear about Jesus.  She understood what death is: it is the enemy.  It is not a solution to a problem, but is rather a symptom of the problem.  But it is also a symptom that goes away when the ailment is cured.  Sin is the ailment, dear friends, and the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the cure.  His death atones for the world.  And as our Lord said, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”  Our Lord also said, “I am the bread of life.... I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever… Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”  That offended a lot of people at the time, and still does, but this is what Jesus says.  This is Myra’s confession.

Myra received the true body and blood of Christ her whole life long.  This is why she was prepared last Friday when she breathed her last on this side of glory.  She was prepared, for to her, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  Not because death is good, but rather because death has been conquered.  Death has been defanged and declawed and defeated – by Christ.  As the ancient prayer of the church says, “By His death, He has destroyed the power of death, and by His resurrection, He opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.”  We Christians can even mock death with St. Paul, saying, “O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”  We can say that because Christ defeated death.

Myra, ever the teacher, wants you to know that.

I prayed our Gospel reading with Myra last Friday – which is the canticle we Lutherans sing week in and week out after receiving the body and blood of our Lord: “Lord, now you are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your Word.”  Note that word “peace.”  Again, this is the first word Jesus spoke to His disciples after His resurrection.  Myra departed peacefully last Friday in the comfort of Good Friday, knowing the joy that is to come on Easter Sunday.  We who believe and are baptized, who eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, we are prepared to depart in peace, waiting with joyful anticipation of Myra’s resurrection, and the resurrection of all who die covered by the blood of the Lamb.  She is with our Lord, and she waits – with us and with all of creation – for the glorious “resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”

For Myra knows that her redeemer lives – even as blessed Job in our Old Testament lesson confessed: “For 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.”

Yes, dear friends, this is Job’s confession of Christ.  It is the church’s confession, and it is Myra’s confession.  And it is why though we Christians do grieve and feel loss, we Christians are also comforted – even to the point of defiance, of seeing death as “gain” – for we are with Christ.  

Myra, the teacher, the Christian, the beloved and redeemed of Jesus – wants you all to know all of this.  She wants me to preach this Good News to you.  She wants you to know that she loves you, and more importantly, that Christ loves you, that He died to destroy death, and that He lives so that you too might have eternal life in His name.  We will see blessed Myra again, in the flesh, and we will behold her and her Lord for ourselves, with our own eyes.  “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Peace be with you.  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.