“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:

       that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

       to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”

Funeral. It’s quite a unique setting, right? Quite an unusual situation for most of us. Quite unusual thoughts may come to our minds. And then there is that one thing that funerals make crystal clear – everything in this life comes and goes.

Everything ends. Even those things which we may value the most. And eventually even our very lives. So, this is a good time to reflect on what is important for you, is there anything that will remain in your life? Is there anything that will last?

You will know this from your own experience; your loved ones, your work, your friends, your career, success, fitness, beauty, brilliance, fame, hobbies, you name it, they all seem to be rather important, very real for us.

They are tangible. They are right in front of us. Around us. But not so with this God. Not so with this Jesus Christ. Yes, we hear about Him, we sort of know about Him, literally everyone has heard about Him, but… that is not the same.

Think about this – your family, your spouse, your children, your parents, your studies, your work, career, business, hobbies, interests – they are right here and it is easy to focus on them. They demand our attention. They feel so real.

It is quite easy to believe that they are more real than that Jesus of the Bible. It may be nice to hear about Him, from time to time, sure, it may be nice to be told that He loves you more than you know, perhaps, we can even spare a couple hours for Him on Sunday mornings, or on Christmas, but then we need to rush back to the real-life stuff.

Sounds familiar? Sure, this is how we experience our life. But there is something we all are blessed to learn as we go through this life, some sooner, some later. All those seemingly real and urgent things in our lives, those that seem so much more real and urgent than the God of the Bible, they are not here forever. They all fade away.

This is true also about people, even the most important people in our lives. We don’t live forever. And even while we still live, our relationships have ups and downs and sometimes go sour. The excitement of our careers may turn into burden and toil.

Fame, beauty, fitness fades. Wealth can disappear. Health deteriorates. Even our very lives one day come to an end. They do. Everything is only temporary, whatever important it may appear at any given moment. Then what remains? What will last?

The answer is – true God remains. Jesus Christ remains. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We may pursue God’s good gifts – good marriage, good family, good work, good friends, good health, good life… and we may forget about the Giver, we may ignore Him, we may even reject Him.

Especially when things go well in our lives. Especially when those very real things that we mentioned take up all our attention and time. But… none of them will remain. Sooner or later they all are gone. What will remain?

Your Father in heaven. Your Brother Jesus. Caring for you, calling you, waiting for you. Always ready to embrace you, even if you come to Him bruised, broken and desperate, He will embrace you. He is always offering you freedom; He is always ready to restore the relationships that we have ignored.

He always remains with you. We don’t deserve such faithfulness, we can’t appreciate it fully, we are not capable of fully rejoicing in it, but He remains. Betrayed, but faithful. Despised, but loving. Not needed, but here for you. Jesus always remains with you.

What a beautiful wish is expressed in Psalm 27: “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”

As you know, Roy had quite a few interests. He enjoyed the good gifts of gracious God. His family, work, friends, hobbies. But he was also learning from his own experience that sooner or later everything we value in this world goes away.

Roy knew what was that one thing that we needed to ask for, that we needed to seek for – that we may dwell in the house of our God all the days of our lives and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and inquire in His temple.

It’s interesting how we may inspire others in ways we don’t even realize. During the last month of his life, Roy did just that. Even with his health deteriorating and his abilities leaving him, he still was seeking after that one thing… to dwell in the house of His Lord, to be nourished by His Lord Himself, to partake in His meal of forgiveness. He rejoiced hearing the words of His Lord: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

For most of us it is easy to make it to the Divine Service on Sunday morning. Not much effort is required. But too often we are too busy with those seemingly real things we have right before us, we just don’t care much about that God…

Even in between his treatment session, even when that required quite an effort from Roy and his family, he longed to partake in Lord’s blessings. He was holding to that one thing, or rather – to that one Person who will remain.

Roy is gone. He is not among us anymore. But he has received one thing that he was seeking – “that he may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.”

I can only pray that we all sooner than later are able to see clearly what is real, what matters the most, what will remain forever, in this life and the life to come, and then seek with all our hearts for that one thing, for that one person. For He is always patiently waiting to embrace each one of you. Seek that one thing!

Seek true God and He will find you and will never abandon you. Amen.