Agnes Angeline Miller Funeral Sermon – Hebrews 11:1, 8–16 July 16th 2024 / Holding Firm to the Promises of God in Faith

Mount Olive Lutheran Regina · “Holding Firm the Promises of God in Faith” Funeral Sermon – Agnes Angeline Miller – July 16, 2024
Agnes Angeline Miller funeral Sermon / Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Tuesday July 16th 2024: Season of Pentecost / Hebrews 11:1, 8–16 “Holding Firm to the Promises of God in Faith”

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen … By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. 

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends and family of Agnes Miller. The hustle and bustle of life can certainly be a distraction to everyone, even to a Christian; we easily become wrapped up in what we believe is urgent and most necessary and our eye is tempted to seek after everything the World offers and promises—providing you work hard and long to achieve it—and yet in the midst of it all the voice of Christ Jesus cracks in like thunder on days like today saying “Come to Me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”[1] This is an invitation to turn away from the distractions of life, the distractions of the World and the broken promises they constantly dole out to you, and instead find your rest in Jesus. In childhood, in adulthood, in old age—if we’re lucky enough to live till the ripe old age of 96 as Agnes did—we are repeatedly called to find our rest in Christ; and we listen to that call with ears of faith. Everyone has ears, the question is whether they are painted on or not, Jesus often says, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” [And in the Gospel of Saint Mark Jesus also] said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear.”[2] Pay attention to whose voice is calling you and pay attention to where they are calling you to. Listen carefully.

First: Christian faith is a gift, and like any gift we have some agency as to how we use it once it is ours; Second: no one seeks after a thing that they have never heard of, no one seeks after a thing they have no knowledge of. In our Epistle today we see how faith and hope are held together like links in a chain and bound up in our God given faith and hope are His promises to us. For example, we first receive the promise of eternal life in our Baptism and that promise is then laid before us over and over again through our life in the words of Holy Scripture, from the mouths of pastors and Christian friends and family. The question again is,

‘Are you listening, do you hear these promises; again are those ear painted on? Do these promises of eternal life in Christ Jesus sail in through one ear and out through the other? Or do they find fertile ground in your heart of faith?’

Agnes long heard these promises of eternal life in Christ and while her hearing was poor in her last years she could hear the promises of Christ Jesus loud and clear. She had ears to hear, and as a result, in these last years she again had the rest promised by Jesus when He says, “Come to Me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Evidence of her lifelong faith in Christ crop up all over the place, for example Jeannette and Gary can tell you about the keepsakes of her faith that Agnes kept from her early life and her insistence that her children would hear the promises of Jesus in their young lives as she herself had heard them in hers. And now here you are today? Drawn together again by the Holy Spirit to hear the promises, to have the fire of your faith stoked again, to be encouraged to died in faith, when your time comes, as she did, and to desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one and to seek after it in these days that the Lord God has granted to you.

Dear ones what does Jesus say, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”[3] This Jesus, the very Son of God, is the one who fulfilled what was promised in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah, Jesus is the one who in His crucifixion and death on Mount Golgotha that first Good Friday swallowed up death forever; and in the end He will wipe away tears from all faces.[4] Jesus did all of this for you before you even knew to ask for it. Christ Jesus, upon that cross, while He takes away your sins with one nail pierced hand also makes of Himself a feast and foretaste of the heavenly feast to come graciously giving it to you with His other nail pierced hand. Jesus did this for you before you even knew to seek for it. Within the month before her death that Eucharist, that meal of Holy Communion prepared for her by Christ in His crucifixion was a mighty gift of forgiveness and comfort in the face of death that Agnes was yet still able to receive; and over the last year she had received it regularly here at Mount Olive Lutheran Church when she became a member of the congregation in June of 2023 at the tender age of 95. Where then is the Kingdome of God I ask you? It is wherever Christ Jesus is and because He promises to be with us in the meal I can say with confidence that it is to be found there, and where is your rest for your weary soul I ask you? It can be found in the same place. Behold you stand again at the door of God’s kingdom, do you knock at that door or do you walk away? Jesus says of Himself, “I am The Door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved,”[5] Upon the wood of His cross Jesus in His death made Himself into that Door for you before you even knew to knock at it. Without your God given gift of faith you will not ask, you will not seek, you will not knock. With no hope in the promises of God your knuckles will not rap on that Door; your soul will not seek forgiveness and rest in the meal provided in Jesus’ Body and Blood; and your mind will be hard pressed to ask for what the LORD extends to you as a gift,[6] eternal life and a blessed resurrection from the dead on The Last Day. 

Listen now with hearts of faith to the promise of what is coming on that Last Day: in the Revelation of Saint John, Saint John says,

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And He said to me, “It is done! I Am The Alpha and The Omega, The Beginning and The End. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”[7]

Sons of God, Daughter of God, Children of God these promises are for you, Jesus Himself promises to make all things new on that Day, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” this is what we heard in our reading from the book of Hebrews, you for your part have not seen this come to pass, and Agnes through her life likewise did not see this come to pass before her death, and yet she had faith in these things and in that faith she died not having received the things promised, only greeting these promises from afar. She now knows a new life in Christ in a way we are yet to understand for ourselves but we still have something in common with her, even though she has gone on ahead of us she now likewise awaits with each of us the promised resurrection from the dead which we will all share in on The Last Day. This promised resurrection of the dead was made to us in earnest that first Easter Sunday morning when Jesus walked out of the tomb no longer dead but alive, as the one who truly conquered death where we could not, as the one who lived life without sin where we could not, as the one whose good works were righteous and full of merit where ours are not. In our last breath in this life He is the one who comes to take us to that better country, that is, to that heavenly one, to which Agnes by the grace of Christ Jesus has now traveled.    

As many of you well know, Agnes was a determined person, some might say stubborn at times, and while this can cause some frustrations in life, it’s also a valuable tool in the face of adversity; determination can get you through many hardships, it got Agnes through many hardships in her long life. By the end, one thing became very clear, her determination, her stubborn nature would not let the World, or Sin, or Death, or The Devil snatch her God given faith from her. Encouraged by her friend Marlene, encouraged by her son Gary and daughter-in-law Jeannette, encouraged by her brothers and sisters in Christ— those members of her knew congregational family here at Mount Olive—encouraged by the Word of God and the Body and Blood of Christ in the Last Supper, encouraged by the promises she received in her baptism, by the grace of God Agnes held on to her faith straight through to the end. She waited for the Lord,[8] she cried out help me and true to His word He did.[9] You therefore be encouraged, there is no time like the present, hold firm to your God given faith, if you have long been away from a church home rectify this and become part of a Christian congregation, if you have long been away from the supper start anew and receive there the forgiveness of your sin, the strength it holds for your daily life, the rest it provides for your weary soul. And remember who makes the promises to you and in whose hand you are being kept: “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. [Yes] The LORD is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made,”[10] That includes Agnes and that includes you. God is not ashamed to be called Agnes’ God, for He has prepared for her a heavenly city; God is not ashamed to be called your God, for He has prepared for you a heavenly city for Agnes and for you in Christ Jesus His Son, find your rest in Him as she did, “If anyone has ears to hear, let [them] hear.” Amen.    

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Matthew 11:28
[2] Mark 4:23–24a
[3] Matthew 7:7–8
[4] Isaiah 25:8
[5] John 10:9
[6] Third Article of the Creed, Luther’s Small Catechism, Concordia Publishing House 2017, Page 17, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.
[7] Revelation 21:1–7
[8] Psalm 31:24
[9] Psalm 118:5
[10] Psalm 145:8–9

Photo Credit: Main Photo Suplied by family and Mount Olive Lutheran Church; additional photos of Agnes provided by family.