Sermon: "All Saints as Communion and Reunion"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

[This sermon by Bishop vonRosenberg was delivered using the following notes.]

I am not a regular participant in class reunions. However, I have returned to Virginia Seminary from time to time, especially, in order to visit students there. I enjoy going back to that place - the site of my formal theological training and the site, also, of my wedding. Thus, my professional career and my married life began, in a sense, at the same location … certainly a very significant spot for me. In particular, I do have some vivid memories of my first return visit to Virginia Seminary following graduation. This did involve a class reunion - our tenth, as I recall - and so, it was many years ago, now. It seems to me that memories of such times have a great deal to do with the occasion of All Saints' Sunday and with confirmation, and therefore, I want to share some of them with you this morning.

After I arrived at my alma mater on that visit, I parked my car and walked about the campus. I tried to soak up the atmosphere of the place and to breathe in all that it had meant to me. During the first hour or so there, I had several impressions that I remember quite clearly, even today.

In those ten years following seminary, two of my favorite professors had died. Thus, in my tour of campus, the cemetery beckoned me. I paid my respects to these two men who had played such an important part in my formation as a priest. In their lives, in their faith, in their commitment to teaching and to our Lord, those professors were very, very special individuals to me. I missed them then, as I walked over the campus, and I miss them still.

Then, as I turned to move away, I noticed another grave, recently covered, on the outside edge of the cemetery. I walked over to it, and I discovered that the somewhat irreverent former bookstore manager was buried there. He had felt outside some of the power structure in former times, but in death, he made it in - just barely. And so, I enjoyed a laugh with him about that perspective.

Therefore, my initial reunion impression - gained from that cemetery - involved the power and significance of memory … especially, the memory of those who have gone before us, showed us the Way, and died in the Faith.

I walked back toward the central part of campus, and I noticed the students as they walked along, talking with each other. Every now and then, I realized that one of them was noticing me, too. And, suddenly, a rather painful self-awareness dawned in my nostalgic stroll. I was now one of those old alumni that we students used to talk about - those folks who returned from time to time, talked about "the good old days," and generally indicated how out of touch they were.

I had the desire to go over and tell the students that I wasn't really like that. I was different. But, I concluded that I probably could not convince them…and, actually, that impression might not be so inaccurate after all.

Therefore, my second impression from that return visit was a self-awareness - a realization of standing at a different point in time…a point that cannot be repeated or recreated. Such self-awareness offers a sense of uniqueness - of being special - but, also, a kind of lonely sadness as well.

Then, as I continued my walk, a third impression emerged. This one summed up the other two in a sense, and it also incorporated additional, isolated images for me. That third impression was thankfulness.

The thankfulness I felt - and still feel - includes a deep sense of both acceptance and appreciation. Not everything done for me or to me in those seminary days seemed to be in my best interest at the time - at least, not to me. However, through the years, I can now see that most people did indeed have my best interests in mind. Perhaps they just viewed those interests differently than I did. And so, with Dag Hammarskjold, I can affirm, "For all that has been, 'Thanks;' for all that will be, 'Yes'" ("Markings," Knopf, 1964).

I believe those three impressions may describe a great deal more than my reactions to a return to seminary and a class reunion. I think they convey something of the meaning of the communion of saints on this All Saints' Sunday. Further, I believe that those impressions point to significant signs on the spiritual road map of people about to be confirmed … and, indeed, of us all, who call ourselves, "Christians."

I commend to you the richness and the grace of a life lived in touch with memory, self-awareness, and thankfulness. Surely, those are blessings bestowed on us by virtue of our inheritance in the communion of saints. And they present us also with opportunities to endow future generations with blessings as well - memory, self-awareness, and thankfulness.

I will conclude these reflections with words from a familiar hymn which presents us with a vivid analogy - "Time, like an ever-rolling stream" (Hymnal, 680). I suggest to you that the image of time as a stream is appropriate for us on this All Saints' Sunday. We - in the stream of time - find connections with those whose journeys have passed before us … and likewise, with those who will come after us. We are all parts of the same stream. Therefore, we pray, as we sing, "O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come; be thou our guide while life shall last, and our eternal home." Amen.

Copyright © 2007 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee