"The Gospel According to Abe"
Sermon Presented August 20, 2006
Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2
No, Heather didn't make a mistake in preparing the bulletin! I'm using the same text this morning that I used last week. I did try to work with the texts for today, but nothing came. By Monday afternoon - after my recent completion of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer Prize winning biography - Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln - I knew I needed to preach Lincoln. But how to do that without the sermon becoming a book review with an emphasis on a man and not on God became my challenge.
I had a professor in seminary who said that he didn't read biographies written before the subject had been dead for 50 years, because it's only over time that the true picture of a person's life becomes evident. This biography passes that test, because in the 141 years since Lincoln's death, his leadership skills and courageous work to bring justice to those without justice have become legendary. Each one of us can learn lessons from his life that will help us to become better Christians, and the church to become a better church. These aren't lessons on how to become a great president, because I doubt if anyone here - with the possible exceptions of Tasha, Heather, David and Grey might run for that high office, but we can learn some things about living honorable Christian lives from the example Lincoln presents. I decided that the text from last Sunday fits Lincoln perfectly. As I read the text, I invite you to keep these words in mind as I share a picture of Abraham Lincoln. Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2
In 1908, in a wild and remote area of the North Caucasus, Leo Tolstoy, the greatest writer of that age, was the guest of a tribal chief who lived in the mountains far from civilization. Gathered with his family and neighbors, the chief asked this master storyteller to tell stories about the famous men of history. Tolstoy entertained them for hours with stories of people like Alexander the Great, Caesar and Napoleon. When he was preparing to close, the chief asked him to tell them of the greatest general and ruler of the world. "He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock…. His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America, which is so far away that if a youth should journey to reach it he would be an old man when he arrived. Tell us of that man."
Tolstoy couldn't believe that these crude barbarians had heard of Abraham Lincoln. He told them everything he knew about Lincoln, and before he left the next morning, they asked if he could possibly acquire a picture for them.
Tolstoy reflected on that occasion and made the following observation. "Washington was a typical American. Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country - bigger than all of the Presidents together. We are all too close to his greatness, but after a few centuries more of our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us." (pp. 747-8)
Lincoln was described as "a man of more intense religiosity than any other President the United States has ever had." This statement was made about a man who was never a church member and had no use for denominations, their creeds or their quarrels, and yet his faith was biblical and moral, and he had great respect for the sovereignty of God. (Voices from the Heart: Four Centuries of American Piety, edited by Roger Lundin & Mark Noll, p. 169.)
On the occasion of a pardon Lincoln issued in 1864, it was noted that two women from Tennessee came asking for the release of their husbands who were being held as prisoners of war. One of the women said her husband should be released because he was a religious man. The president ordered the release of the prisoners, but then said to this woman "You say your husband is a religious man; tell him when you meet him, that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their government, because, as they think, that government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread on the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven!" (Ibid. p. 174)
Abraham Lincoln was a self-less man who put the good of his country ahead of his personal image. When he chose the men for his cabinet, the top spots went to his rivals in the Republican primary - all men who continued to have political ambitions and were much better known than he. He appointed William Seward from New York as Secretary of State; Edward Bates from Missouri as Attorney General and Salmon Chase from Ohio as Secretary of the Treasury. The remaining top cabinet positions went to former Democrats.
Lincoln possessed the wisdom to seek and utilize the gifts of those who were better known, better educated and more experienced in public life than he, and by doing this, he provided the country with the best leadership possible, and he forged friendships with former political enemies. Throughout his presidency, he repaired injured feelings that if left untended might have escalated into permanent hostility. He assumed responsibility for the failures of his subordinates, shared credit with ease, and learned from his mistakes - qualities that are rare in political circles.
Lincoln didn't hold grudges. When two of his aids rushed to his office to gleefully tell him of the defeat of an enemy, he replied: "You have more of that feeling of personal resentment than I. A man has not time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him." (p. 665)
Lincoln wasn't jealous or vengeful. He dealt with the strong egos around him with kindness, sensitivity, compassion, honesty and empathy - all qualities that are uplifted in today's text.
Lincoln didn't have an easy life and was primarily self-educated. His early life was one of poverty, while all of his political rivals came from backgrounds of wealth and top educational advantages. He knew grief when his son Willie died, and he had more political defeats than victories. But he was tenacious and wise, focusing his undivided attention on his goals.
Lincoln was a patient man. He waited until the nation was ready before he presented the Emancipation Proclamation. The timing was crucial, and by waiting, he was able to bring the country along with him. He made careful preparation before enlisting blacks in the services of the Union army. He said: "A man watches his pear-tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap!" Lincoln waited and watched public sentiment slowly progress, saw the gradual shift in the newspaper editorials, and witnessed the subtle changes in the opinions of his cabinet colleagues. When the time was right, even though he knew the opposition would be fierce, he acted because now he knew his purpose couldn't be defeated! (p. 502.)
Lincoln worked diligently for peace, but he insisted on peace with justice. When the divided nation was hungering for peace, he held to these three conditions for peace:
- Restoration of the national authority.
- No receding on the slavery issue.
- No cessation of hostilities short of an end to the war.
But he was ready after the war ended, the Union restored, and the 13th Amendment passed, to seek pardon for all political offenses.
Before the battle of Richmond - which signaled the end of the war, Lincoln made a historic trip to that besieged city. When the presidential party reached the landing, Lincoln was surrounded by a small group of black laborers shouting, "Bress de Lord! ... Dere is de great Messiah! ... Glory, Hallelujah!" When they began to fall on their knees before him, Lincoln said: "Don't kneel to me. That is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy." The men stood up and joined hands, and as they began to sing a hymn, the streets filled with an ever growing crowd following Lincoln up the street. (p. 719)
Lincoln was a master orator, and his Second Inaugural Address, more than any other, expressed his godly values. Speaking with the eloquence of the prophets, he concluded with these words: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan-to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." (p. 699)
Lincoln's friend Leonard Swett observed: "As he became involved in matters of the greatest importance, a feeling of religious reverence, and belief in God-his justice and overruling power-increased upon him.… If he were judged by the higher rule of purity of conduct, of honesty of motive, of unyielding fidelity to the right, or by his powerful belief in the great laws of truth, the rigid discharge of duty, his accountability to God, then he was undoubtedly full of natural religion for he believed in God as much as the most approved Church member." (p. 699)
I would like to read our text again and let you be the judge of how Abraham Lincoln fulfilled the Christian attributes that are before us.
Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2.
May God inspire us to greater things through remembering the life of Abraham Lincoln! Amen.
