Sermon for January 27th, 2013
Psalm 19:7-14 (KJV)
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. 8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. 11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. 12 Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. 13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
Romans 8:28-39
28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lincoln
Three Minute Film Summary
I found the film Lincoln about as difficult to summarize as the towering figure of Lincoln himself. Fortunately, the film mainly focuses in on the events of January, 1865. Lincoln has just been elected to a second term as president, and end of the civil war is in sight. Lincoln has signed the emancipation proclamation, so the end of slavery is in sight, too. But therein lies the problem: Neither the war nor slavery is quite over...yet. The emancipation proclamation was signed as a war measure, and Lincoln is afraid that when the war is over, the proclamation will no longer be considered valid. He needs to pass the 13th Amendment to the constitution, which prohibits slavery once and for all. It has been passed earlier by the Senate, but is 20 votes short of passing the house. {film clip}
Most people in the North support the amendment, but many only support it because they think that (like the emancipation proclamation) abolishing slavery will help to end the war more quickly. When pressed, at least one couple Lincoln speaks with hints that once the war is over, they would no longer support such a "radical" measure as abolishing slavery. The plot thickens: Conservative Republicans won't vote for the amendment unless Lincoln agrees to begin negotiations for peace with the Confederate States. But many congressmen, if they learn that peace negotiations are in progress, will wait to see how they go and not vote for the amendment. Lincoln sends for confederate peace negotiators, but stalls them as much as he can while seeking the votes he needs.
Abraham Lincoln is a towering figure in American history and culture. At a height of 6'4" he was actually a towering figure in every sense of the expression. It is now 148 years since his death, and, remarkably, he is still growing. Fortunately today's film, while titled "Lincoln" doesn't try to condense the life of such a complex, complicated man into two hours. It is not a biography, but rather a snapshot of the last months of Lincoln's life, the events surrounding the end of the Civil War and the passage of the 13th amendment abolishing slavery. There is a constant tension in the film between these three subjects: The man, the amendment, and the war.
Early in the film, Abraham Lincoln describing to his wife a dream where he stands alone on a boat, which is being propelled quickly through the water toward an unknown shore. And, of course, this quickly approaching shore could be interpreted as the quickly approaching end of the war, the quickly approaching vote on the 13th amendment, or quickly approaching end of Lincoln's own life.
The film takes place shortly after Lincoln's second
Listen to the following historical quotes about Lincoln taken from the opening pages of Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "Team of Rivals," upon which the film is loosely based.
The first quote is from the New York Herald in May of 1860, shortly after Lincoln was nominated for President by the Republican Party: "The conduct of the republican party in this nomination is a remarkable indication of small intellect, growing smaller. They pass over statesmen and able men, and they take up a fourth rate lecturer, who cannot speak good grammar."
The second is from the American Poet Walt Whitman, in 1879, fourteen years after Lincoln's assassination: "Why if the old Greeks had had this man, what trilogies of plays--what epics--would have been made out of him! How the rhapsodes would have recited him! How quickly that quaint tall form would have enter'd into the region where men vitalize gods, and gods divinify men! But Lincoln, his times, his death--great as any, any age--belong altogether to our own."
These words are perhaps understandable coming from such a patriotic American as Walt Whitman, but listen to the next quote from Leo Tolstoy, a (patriotic Russian author!) four decades after Lincoln's death, to get a sense of Lincoln's growing reputation around the world: "The greatness of Napoleon, Caesar or Washington is only moonlight by the sun of Lincoln. His example is universal and will last thousands of years. He was bigger than his country--bigger than all the Presidents together, and as a great character he will live as long as the world lives."
We tend to think of the Civil War and the end of slavery as going hand in hand, but this film, in an interesting twist, pits them against one another.
I could write shorter sermons but when I get started I'm too lazy to stop.
{last lines from second inaugural speech} Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 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 lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
