I have done a number of funerals over the years. At each one, I look down at the casket and reflect on the fact that one day I will be the one lying there. “It is appointed unto men once to die.” I know that the number of years ahead of me is much less than the number of years behind me.
While most funerals share some common elements, there is some variety in the details that are chosen. I have recently begun thinking about how I would like my funeral to be.
It seems to be common now for funerals to be called a “celebration of life.” While I hope that my family and friends will have fond memories of me, perhaps some that bring a smile, a chuckle, a laugh, I don’t want my funeral to be a celebration of my life. I want my funeral to be a celebration of my God.
I would like the service to start with the hymn “Blessed Assurance.” “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!” Christ purchased me through His sacrifice on the cross. In Him I have been “born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.” Through this life, as a stranger and pilgrim on the earth, I have been “watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love.” I thank God for the assurance He has given me in Christ Jesus.
Next would be the obituary. Then comes “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” God’s faithfulness is constant. God does not change. Even when I fail Him, He always remains faithful, He always picks me back up when I fall. He gives “pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.” He gives “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.” I also confess that “all I have needed, Thy hand hath provided.”
I remember when I was a young pastor with a wife and two small children. I was paid fifty dollars a week. Once we all kept passing strep throat to one another and finally had to go to the emergency room to get shots. When we got back home, someone had put an envelope in our mailbox. In the envelope was cash, just enough to pay the medical bill. No one knew we had gone to the ER or what the bill was. No one, that is, except God. Great is His faithfulness!
Then the preacher will deliver the message, a Gospel message, a message of Christ and Christ crucified. Preach it, brother!
We end with “It Is Well with My Soul.” Even now, my heart is full of love and thanksgiving as I meditate on the third verse. “My sin – oh, the bliss of this glorious tho’t; My sin not in part but the whole Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”
The Lord is my blessed assurance. His faithfulness is great beyond measure. And, it is well with my soul because of the Lord’s love and salvation.
It would be great if at the end of my funeral, celebrating my God, souls were saved. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. This is what I want for my funeral.
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:25-26)
Pastor Haney
