Funeral Sermon for Shirley Brown: "Help of the Helpless"

 + In Memoriam – Shirley Brown +

December 4^th, 2021 – Yahn and Son Funeral Home

Isaiah 25:6-9; Revelation 21:1-7; John 11:17-27

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

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

 

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?

 

For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.

 

So writes David in the Psalms (124 and 27). The Psalms, as with the rest of Scripture, are full of words like these. Words from God to us. Words our Lord gives to comfort, forgive, and save us. Words to help us who are helpless.

 

These words – and many more – are the kind of words that helped Shirley throughout her earthly life. 

 

When our members at church heard that Shirley had died, the first thing several people told me is what a great helper she was around Beautiful Savior. That’s a marvelous thing to be known for. To be known as a helper. As one who serves. No doubt each of you in some way were on the receiving end of Shirley’s help. Like the Beatles sang…I get by with a little help from my friends.

 

This helping, servant’s heart can come from one place, and one place only, the gift of faith planted, sown, nurtured, and fed by our Lord Jesus himself. 

 

As David declares in Psalm 27, Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

 

Shirley knew and confessed and lived by this great Biblical truth. That on our own, apart from Christ our Savior, we are utterly and completely helpless. Yet she also knew and confessed and believed in our Lord Jesus who came to rescue and save we who are helpless and lost and dead in sin. 

 

This is what our Lord did for Shirley in the waters of her baptism, just as he does for each of you who are baptized as well. We come to those waters unholy and helpless, dead in our trespasses. But we come out of the water clothed in Christ, washed, forgiven, and alive in Jesus forever.

 

This is what our Lord promises through his prophet Isaiah when he foretells of a day when He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. That day arrived on Good Friday. A day when it appeared that Jesus, God himself in human flesh, hung helplessly on the cross. And yet, he was on the cross for Shirley and for you. 

 

This is what our Lord promises through the apostle John when he says, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.” 

 

For Shirley and for you, God is not an absent God. He is present. With us in our grief. With us in life. With us in death. With us in his Word. With us in his promise. With us in the grave. With us in rising from the dead. With us forever.

 

This is what our Lord promises Mary and Martha, at the death of their brother Lazarus, the same word and promise he declares to us today… I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

 

There is no greater comfort, no greater promise, no greater word of help than this. Jesus’ words are our help and comfort today. For our Lord not only promises to be with us here in this life in all the ways he provides and cares for us. But he also promises an eternal help. Because he died and rose again, so too, Shirley and all who are in Christ, will also rise from the dead in him.

You see, death has a way of making us feel alone, helpless. Yet Jesus reminds Mary and Martha, and each of us, that in him, that’s no longer the case. Death does not get the last word for Shirley or for you. Our Lord Jesus rose on the third day, just as he said he would. A physical, tangible, visible, flesh and blood resurrection. So it will be for Shirley and for all the baptized when our Lord returns again. To make all things new. To crown us with the crown of Christ’s righteousness. To wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Indeed, in Jesus, help is always on the way. And until that great day of our Lord’s appearing, the day of the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting…may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

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