Funeral Homily
for Robert Cornwell
December 10, 1991
We
meet here, "in the bleak midwinter" as one Christmas song has it, to
remember Robert Cornwell, and to lay him to rest. For myself, I can
scarcely remember him as I did not know him. But the rest of you certainly
did. I, as you know, am the pastor of the church he grew up in, though he
had already reached an advanced age and lived elsewhere by the time I
began attending.
Our presence here today
represents different kinds of important continuity. You and I are living
embodiments of the heritages left to his world by Robert Cornwell. In his
day he was a son and servant of First Baptist Church of Montclair. He and
his dear wife Dorothy shared the historic distinction of being baptized by
the great Harry Emerson Fosdick, whose pulpit I am proud to have
inherited. I can only envy them this honor.
By Robert Cornwell
shouldering his share of congregational life, and simply living for many
years as a member of our church, he kept breath and life circulating in
that church. He kept it alive and well so that it would be there years and
decades later to make a profound difference to me as I joined it and found
new spiritual hope there. Robert and Dorothy Cornwell were married in the
church on December 27, 1962, just as 22 years later, my wife Carol and I
were married in the same sanctuary on December 29. Later my life was
changed in equally profound ways when I became pastor, pastor of the
church that Robert Cornwell had served and helped keep going till I could
get there.
You, on the other hand,
represent another kind of continuity, a different heritage. You are what
remains in the world of your father and grandfather. Science makes clearer
today than ever before just how much of a person is passed on in his genes
to his offspring. You not only share physical marks with him, but even
personality traits, likes and dislikes, dispositions. I am quite sure of
this despite the fact that I know none of you. It simply must be so.
But beyond this, you
have been shaped and inspired by traits of the character he built in a
long life. These are things which cannot be inherited, except by the force
of a good example. And insofar as you have inherited his virtues, those
creations of his freedom, you are keeping alive his greatest good; you are
like living bookmarks, keeping the place he marked in the world.
A person is a point of
juncture where several lines of continuity meet. For you and I to share
this moment today is a witness to that. It testifies that Robert Cornwell
was not only himself the product of many conjoining lines, but that lines
of influence radiated forth from him as well, to form new webs of
significance.
Let his death be the
occasion for remembering the unique combination of influences he was, as
well as the chance for us to catch for a brief moment how his own life
continues to influence others, you and me, and our world. You will carry
on his family heritage in new generations. I will do my best to keep his
church a matrix of love and growth such as he found it. As long as we do
this the echoes of this stilled voice will never die. Amen
Copyright©2009 by Robert
M Price
Spirit of
Carolina Web Design