Funeral Sermon for Doris Miller: Faithful Unto Death

In Jesus Christ's Revelation to Saint John, Jesus is speaking in chapters 2 and 3 to the seven churches in Asia Minor. In verses 8 through 11 of chapter 2, Jesus is speaking directly to the church in Smyrna. He says, "I know your suffering and your poverty―but you are rich. And I know the blasphemy that comes from those who say they are Jews but are not; rather, they are a synagogue of Satan."

Smyrna was one of the finest seaports in the Roman world. Smyrna had exclusive rights to export myrrh, which was a valuable spice. Smyrna is named after myrrh. This is like the valuable spice in Star Wars with Han Solo's Kessel Run.

Jesus noticed that the Christians in Smyrna were enduring a great deal of persecution or pressure. There was an ancient torture where a victim was laid on his back while a series of weights were laid on his chest. The three weights on the chest of the church of Smyrna were poverty, blasphemy, and persecution.

It was a poor church -- a sitting duck for the afflictions Satan wanted to pour out on its members. Yet Jesus commends them. Despite their monetary poverty, because they held on to their faith in Jesus Christ, they were eternally rich.

The angel at Jesus' open tomb tells the women, "Do not be afraid! I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen, just as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay" (Matthew 28:5-6). The resurrected Christ later tells the women, "Do not be afraid. Go, tell my brothers that they should go to Galilee, and there they will see me" (Matthew 28:10). The ascended Lord Jesus tells the Christians in Smyrna, "Do not fear anything that you are about to suffer. Look, the Devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you will be tested, and you will suffer for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).

The force of the verbs in Greek is "Stop being afraid." Stop being afraid -- not just once -- but always. Stop being afraid, because there is no one and nothing that can defeat you, overwhelm you, or take you out of the nail-scarred hands of your Good Shepherd. St. Paul gives this encouragement to the Christians in Rome, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).

Jesus gives the goal for every Christian to be faithful in enduring whatever pressures he may allow Satan to set on our chests. Jesus desires Christians who are willing to suffer for him. Then they will receive the crown of eternal life. The crown is given to God's saints as they enter the glories of heaven. Jesus Christ is victorious as he sits on his higher throne, wearing his golden crown and robed in glory. Jesus -- our King, Savior, and Shepherd -- gifts his faithful saints with a crown as they gather around his golden throne for all eternity.

Our faithful God gave physical life to Doris on October 6, 1933, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He then gave the gift of spiritual life through water and the Word when Doris was baptized at St. Lucas Lutheran Church in Milwaukee on October 14, 1933. Doris attended Sunday School and Catechism classes at St. Lucas during her childhood years. On May 25, 1947, she made her vows of faithfulness to her faithful God in her confirmation at St. Lucas. Doris was asked similar questions as these at her confirmation, "Do you intend to continue steadfast in this teaching and to endure all things, even death, rather than fall away from it? Do you intend faithfully to conform all your life to the teachings of God's Word, to be faithful in the use of the Word and Sacrament, and in faith and action remain true to God---Father, Son, and Holy Spirit---as long as you live?" The response to both questions is, "I do, and I ask God to help me."

Doris chose Revelation 2:10 as her confirmation verse. "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." By God's grace and the working of the Holy Spirit, Doris took her confirmation vow seriously. It was a vow of life and death. Doris made another vow of faithfulness to Bob and the Lord on December 6, 1952, at St. Lucas. By God's grace, Bob and Doris remained faithful in marriage for 58 years, until God called Bob to receive his crown of life in 2011. God blessed Bob and Doris' marriage with seven children.

You can witness Doris' faithfulness in her various vocations as wife, mother, and employee. In Milwaukee, Doris was employed as an office worker. When she lived in Casper, she served as a medical records clerk, she volunteered as an office worker for the Casper Police Department, and volunteered for Meals on Wheels. She was always busy packing lunches, doing (I'm assuming lots of) laundry, cooking meals, cleaning the house, and cleaning up after seven children. It was a challenge to get seven children to church, but they always made it.

Doris was a good cook. She made peanut butter sandwiches served with chocolate milk. She made excellent potato pancakes. She even made tater tots taste good! She would get up early to ask how her kids were doing before they started the early shift at work. She made sure her children made it to doctor or dentist or ophthalmologist appointments. She volunteered to help with crafts at the St. Lucas Girls Club -- but not in her kids' classes -- to the chagrin of her children, who heard from other students, "Your mom is so nice!" She would play the organ in the family room, often taking requests. "Hernando's Hideaway" was the most popular request of her children. It seems that Star Wars theme music became popular with her grandchildren.

Bob served in the U.S. Air Force. While Bob was stationed in Tripoli, Libya, Africa, he, Doris, and the first of their two children lived in an apartment building. During the day when Bob was at the airbase, an Arab man knocked on the apartment door. Doris opened the door, and the Arab man began insisting that he babysit the two daughters. The man continued to insist, trying to work his way inside the apartment, while Doris kept telling him to leave. This had no effect. So, she reached grabbed the shotgun on the wall, that was there for emergencies and pointed it at him. The Arab screamed and ran down the hallway. He never returned. I wonder why. Doris was faithful in protecting her family ... with a shotgun, if necessary.

The family has great stories to tell. I encourage you to ask them to go more in-depth later in the fellowship hall. The beautiful part of a Christian funeral is that God is able to mix laughter and joy with our grief and tears.

When Bob and Doris moved to Casper in 1981, Lord of Lords was small and only had a handful of members. You can imagine that those members were excited to see the Miller clan in church because they doubled the size of the congregation! Ruthie volunteered her mom to Pastor Russow to play the piano for worship. She played for a long time, until her fingers didn't cooperate. Doris made many of the banners that beautify our sanctuary. These were ways that the Lord of the Church used Doris and her vow of faithfulness to the Lord for his kingdom work.

The members here miss Doris making coffee for them in the coffee pot every Sunday morning. When Doris became homebound, I took on that task of making coffee. That lasted two weeks ... until I was banned from making coffee. You can also ask me later to tell you the story of that misadventure.

As faithful as Doris was in her vocations as a wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, employee, organist, and church member, she did not do it on her own. Because of her inborn sin passed on to her from her parents Edward and Emilie, and because of her actual sins, Doris could not be faithful. None of us can be faithful for the same reasons. Not to our spouse or our children or our employers ... and especially not to our God. By his grace, God both calls us to be faithful and gives us the sanctified ability to be faithful. All through the faithfulness of his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus makes us faithful.

Jesus knows from experience about the pressures on his chest. The pressures of being born into a world that did not want him -- where the king of the country tried to murder him as an infant. The pressures of the Devil's 40-day desert temptations. The pressures of his hometown neighbors attempting to throw him off a cliff. The pressures of the Jewish religious leaders opposing everything Jesus claimed about himself. The pressures of the gates of hell being opened, so the demons possessed so many people. The pressures of one of his closest friends betraying him, another denying him, and the rest deserting him.

Jesus was perfectly faithful in worship to his heavenly Father, faithful in respect to his earthly parents, faithful in his protection of life, faithful in his sanctity of marriage, and faithful in the way he never coveted a home, a meal, or even a pillow, since he didn't own any of those things. Why did he do this? Because he knew that Doris, and we as Doris' family and friends would not and could not be faithful. We don't always worship the Lord -- we skip worship if the weather is too nasty or too nice. We disrespect our parents and are frustrated with our children. We don't protect the lives of the most helpless among us. We are not faithful before marriage or during marriage. We have been given so much, yet we still covet more.

Jesus was faithful, so he could give his faithfulness to cover our unfaithfulness. Jesus was perfect to cover our imperfections. Jesus was holy to cover our unholiness and then make us holy. More than that, Jesus went to the cross to pay for all our unfaithfulness.

For every cowardly act on our part, Jesus stood strong against the temptations of Satan. Every time we put him last on the weekend, he made our salvation his singular thought on the cross. Every time we are afraid to be forsaken by friends or family because of our faith in Jesus, he endured being forsaken by his heavenly Father. He was crowned with thorns so that we might receive a crown of glory. He walked the streets of sorrow so that we might walk streets paved with gold. He endured an eternity of hell on the cross so that we might spend an eternity in heaven with him in Jerusalem the Golden. He was covered with blood so that we might be covered with his robes of righteousness.

Today we celebrate that by God's grace, through his Word, Baptism, and Lord's Supper, Doris remained faithful to the Lord. On May 7, she entered the gates of heaven. Jesus was there to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Then Jesus put a white robe and a golden crown on his new heavenly saint. Now the encouragement for you is to follow Doris' example as your mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and friend. Remember, remain faithful to the Lord unto death. Not because of the vow you make before God's altar in church, but because of the vow Christ made to you on the altar of his cross. He is the One who is speaking in Revelation 2:10. He makes his promise to you: "Do not fear anything that you are about to suffer. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." Amen.