Funeral for Hunter Gregory Kay (John 14:1-6)

Funeral Service

Welcome

Good afternoon and on behalf of the family, thank you for joining us this afternoon as we not only mourn and grieve the loss of Hunter Gregory Kay, but as we also remember his life together. This service is meant to help us grieve, to cry, and to mourn; but it is also meant to help us give thanks for the life that Hunter shared with us before his passing.

This means that tears and crying and even wailing are to be expected, but it also means that there will be moments in which memories of life with Hunter will bring about good memories, smiles, and maybe even some laughter.

This is completely normal and healthy as we mourn, grieve, and celebrate his life together.

Before we continue this afternoon, please join me in prayer.

Prayer of Invocation

Heavenly Father,

You are our God and you are a compassionate and loving God. We give thanks that you are the same yesterday, today, and forever and we pray that you make known your presence amongst us so that our souls may be strengthened. We ask that you help us see your providence and experience your grace in this time, the time of our need.

We give you all the glory, honor, majesty, and might.

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior,

Amen.

Scripture Reading

Ecclesiastes 3:1–13 ESV

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. 9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

Mercies Anew

Reading of the Obituary or Eulogy

Hunter Gregory Kay, 21 of Osceola Mills, passed away Monday, August 15, 2022, at UPMC Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh as a result of a motorcycle accident.

Born on November 8, 2000, at Tyrone, he was a son and buddy of Gregory Shawn Kay Sr. of Osceola Mills and Christina Marie (Dixon) Jones and her husband Nicholas of Clearfield.

Hunter was currently employed at Walmart Distribution Center #6027 and at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet in Clearfield. He attended PO High School and later graduated from PA Cyber. Hunter enjoyed computer gaming and riding four wheelers, dirt bikes and motorcycles, but his favorite prized possession and best friend was his dog “Snickers.”

In addition to his parents, Hunter will be deeply missed by his sister Shantelle Domanick and her husband Sean of Smokerun, his brothers Gregory Kay Jr. and Shawn Kay and his wife Teresa, all of Osceola Mills, his stepbrother Nicholas Jones II of Ellsworth Air Force Base, SD, his maternal grandmother Kathy Dixon of Osceola Mills, maternal great grandparents Wayne and Nancy (Walk) Dixon of Philipsburg, several aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. He will also be missed by lifelong friends Tara Hendershot, Ashley Gearhart, Natalie McClintic and his childhood babysitter Terri Emigh.

He was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents William R. and Garnet L. (Harpst) Kay, an Aunt Shirley Ann Dixon and a cousin, Joshua Barger.

Hunter will be laid to rest at Centre United Methodist Cemetery, Osceola Mills RD.

Remembrance

At this time, I’d like to ask for anyone who would like to share their favorite memory of or with Hunter to come up to the podium and share with us. Please do your best to keep your memory to one or two minutes so that everyone who wants to share has plenty of time to do so:

Scripture Reading

Psalm 27 ESV

Of David. 1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. 3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. 4 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. 5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock. 6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord. 7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! 8 You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” 9 Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! 10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. 11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. 12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. 13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! 14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

Sermon (John 14:1-6)

During a moment like this, where we’ve experienced the loss of a loved one, particularly one so young, it is not just appropriate for us to ask some of life’s greatest questions, it’s really to be expected:

Existentially, where did I come from?

Who am I?

Why am I here?

How should I live the life that I have?

Where am I going in life and later in death?

Circumstantially, why did this happen?

Could I have done something differently?

How could I have helped?

These sorts of questions are good, they help us grieve and they help us as we seek to make sense of the loss that we’re experiencing. And sometimes, I think that we have a misunderstanding when it comes to whether we ought to experience questions and even doubt when we’re told repeatedly throughout Scripture to have faith and to have hope. We tend to think that we ought not ask these sorts of questions, but the reality is that we have a God that loves questions and He loves to answer questions when we humbly go to Him for the answers. The prime example of this in Scripture is John 14:1-6. Let’s look at these verses together just briefly.

John 14:1-6 says

John 14:1–6 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Contextually, what’s going on in John 14 is that Jesus has just told his disciples that he was leaving them and that where he was about to go, they couldn’t go yet. It’s right around the same time that He gives the command that “you love one another: just as [He had] loved [them].”

Of course, for a group of people that had left their previous lives to follow Jesus, the fact that He was about to leave them was of great concern—they were scared and they were confused and they didn’t really know what to do.

Yet, Jesus tells them to “let not [their] hearts be troubled.” And He reminds them that since they believe in God they also ought to believe in Him before giving them a picture of the place that He is going and what He’ll be doing once He leaves them.

Jesus says that “in [His] Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

Jesus describes this place in which He’s going and in this place, there are many different rooms within His Father’s house to provide dwelling places for all His people, but note that He doesn’t really go into too many details about it whatsoever.

Really, the idea that Jesus is portraying is that He’s going to provide a new place for them to dwell with God—a new home that’s prepared specifically by God for them.

And the fact that He is going to make a place for them is evidence enough that He will bring them to that place to dwell with Him and the Father for eternity.

It’s really meant to bring them a sense of comfort—to put them at ease now that they know that Jesus is about to leave them—now that they know that their leader wasn’t going to be around for much longer.

It is a reminder that even though they won’t see Jesus face-to-face on earth any longer, they will see Him again and the next time that they see Him, it will be in a permanent, eternal sense.

And Jesus claims that they know where He is going—they know how to get there, they know what needs to happen for them to be able to join Him there.

But Thomas, speaks up. Thomas says in v. 5, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

I think sometimes Thomas gets a pretty bad reputation amongst believers today. So much so, that if I were to ask you what Thomas was known for, most of you would respond almost automatically—he was known for doubting.

There’s some warrant to that response, especially when we read passages like John 14 where Thomas is the first to question where Jesus is going; and even after Jesus’ resurrection, Thomas doubts that the resurrected Jesus was actually Jesus—he says that unless he touches the wounds in Jesus’ wrists, he wouldn’t believe.

But let’s be honest, I think most of us would struggle in the same way that Thomas did—most of us would ask questions and most of us would experience some level of doubt.

In fact, if you look at John 14:5 carefully, you’ll notice something. Thomas never says that he doesn’t know where Jesus is going, he says that we don’t know where Jesus is going.

Meaning, none of them knew where Jesus was going and they all had doubts and questions as to what was going to happen, Thomas just happened to be the only one who speaks up and says something.

Now you might think that Jesus who had just spent three years walking and talking and teaching and leading them would be a little upset that Thomas still didn’t quite understand the truth.

You might think that he would get angry or show some level of contempt and disdain towards Thomas for not understanding the truth despite all the time that Jesus spent with them, but how does Jesus actually respond?

He doesn’t get upset, He doesn’t yell at him, he doesn’t even express his disappointment with Thomas’ lack of understanding. What does Jesus do in this situation?

Jesus simply answers Thomas’ question, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

He answers Thomas’ question in a way that there is no condemnation, there is no disappointment in His voice, there is no anger towards Thomas. He simply tells Thomas the truth.

And the truth is that they know where Jesus is going and they know the place that He’s going to prepare for them because they know Him.

Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Put differently, what Jesus says is that He is the answer to Thomas’ question.

Really, in the response that He gives to Thomas, He reveals a simple truth that will help us today as well—that the question that Thomas has concerning where Jesus is going and how they can know the way is answered in Jesus Christ Himself.

Jesus is the answer to Thomas’ question and really, in what Jesus says to Thomas and the disciples, He reveals the truth that He is the answer to every question because He is the ultimate answer to every question—and to find the answer to the question, you have to go through Jesus Christ.

Application

Now, we see what the implications and meanings are for Thomas and the disciples, but the question is what does a passage like this mean for us in light what it meant to them? How do we apply such a passage to our own lives; especially considering the unexpected loss of a loved one?

Remember life’s greatest questions? The questions that we started with?

Existentially, where did I come from?

Who am I?

Why am I here?

How should I live the life that I have?

Where am I going in life and later in death?

John 14:1-6 shows us where to go to find the answers for all these questions—go to Jesus. Go to Him for the answers of all of life’s greatest questions. He provides the answers:

Where did I come from? Psalm 139:13-14 “13 For You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.”

Why am I here? Isaiah 43:6-7 “7 Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.” You were created for God’s glory.

Thus, how should I live the life I have? You were created for God’s glory, thus, give God the glory owed His name.

Where am I going in life and later in death? Jesus says in Luke 14, if you are His, you will go to the Father and dwell in His presence.

My biggest encouragement today is for you to ask these questions and wrestle with doubt and seek the answers to all these questions in Jesus Christ.

This starts by being open and honest about the big questions that you have about life and death.

And it continues by seeking Jesus for salvation and then for comfort.

And then He answers the big questions and He provides comfort and He gives peace and hope.

In the next days, in the next weeks, in the next months and years as you grieve and mourn the passing of someone that you love dearly, look to Jesus as your salvation, your refuge, your hope, and your comfort.

Pastoral Prayer

Amazing Grace

In a moment, I’m going to close the service with prayer, but before I do, the family wishes to invite you to Grace & Peace Bible Church at 110 E. Pine St., in Philipsburg for a meal. Directions to the church along with parking information can be found on the back of your programs. In my closing prayer, I’m going to pray for the food as well, so that when you get to the church, you can feel free to help yourself.

Closing Prayer

Benediction

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.