A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

in honor of honest abe

Exodus 23:1-9, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, February 8, 2009

One of two women riding a bus suddenly realized she hadn’t paid her fare. “I’ll go right up and pay it,” she said to the other. “Why bother?” her companion replied. “You got away with it.” “Well, I’ve found that honesty always pays,” the other said virtuously as she stood up to pay the driver. On her return she sat back down, turned to her friend, and said triumphantly, “See, I told you honesty always pays. I handed the driver a quarter, and he gave me fifty cents change.” Of course honesty pays, but not always so immediately and so materially.

Honest Abe has always been my hero. He is the one person, other than Jesus of course, who I would most like to meet. Having grown up in Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, doesn’t hurt; nor has growing to the same height has lessened my attraction to this great man. Perhaps this is it: Abraham Lincoln was a great man. He was a great man because he reached great heights of power, but he was also a great man because he was always a good man. Both great and good, few, very few, are. At 7:22 a.m., April, 15, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was pronounced dead at the Petersen boardinghouse across from Ford’s Theatre. Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War, and most trusted cabinet member, gave a tribute at Lincoln’s deathbed that still echoes. “Now he belongs to the ages.” February 12, this Thursday, will be Abraham Lincoln’s two hundredth birthday, and it seems right that this morning we bring to mind a bit of his life, and in so doing recall a higher standard and better model of how to live.

There are so many stories that speak of Lincoln’s character that the most difficult part is not to be overwhelmed by the number. Now throughout his administration, he was a president under fire. And though he knew he would make errors, he resolved never to compromise his integrity. So strong was this resolve that he once said, "I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me." That type of rock-like strength and intestinal fortitude was one half of Abraham Lincoln’s character. There was another just as important side as well: kindness. Edwin Stanton was angered by an army officer who accused him of favoritism. Stanton complained to Lincoln, who suggested that Stanton write the officer a sharp letter. Stanton did, and showed the strongly worded missive to the president. "What are you going to do with it?" Lincoln inquired. Surprised, Stanton replied, "Send it." Lincoln shook his head. "You don't want to send that letter," he said. "Put it in the stove. That's what I do when I have written a letter while I am angry. It's a good letter and you had a good time writing it and feel better. Now burn it, and write another." And by write another, Lincoln obviously meant a kinder one.

In 1858, when he ran for a U.S. Senate seat against Stephen Douglas, Lincoln was asked to write a bit about himself. Here is his short and humble autobiography. “I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families—second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks…. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky, about 1781 or 2, where, a year or two later, he was killed by indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest…. My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, litterally [sic] without education. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals, still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so called; but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin, writin, and cipherin" to the Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed to understand latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizzard [sic]. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three; but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.

I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty-two. At twenty one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year in Macon County. Then I got to New-Salem … where I remained a year as a sort of Clerk in a store. Then came the Black-Hawk war; and I was elected a Captain of Volunteers--a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went the campaign, was elated, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832) and was beaten--the only time I ever have been beaten by the people. The next, and three succeeding biennial elections, I was elected to the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterwards. During this Legislative period I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practise it. In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House of Congress. Was not a candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854 … practiced law more assiduously than ever before. …I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.

If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and grey eyes--no other marks or brands recollected.”

This is the man, who grew up in the wilds and woods of Indiana, who would fight and win the war to keep this country together and would sign the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves forever. There are three reasons why Abraham Lincoln’s legacy remains immortal. The first is that America, both scholars who study such things and the rest of us, we recognize that Lincoln was our best president. Had the president in the early 1860s been someone lesser than this person, there is a good chance that the United States would have fractured into two or more countries. God raised up the right leader at the right time.

You know, what’s so wonderful about America is that you don’t have to come from somewhere important to become someone important. That is the American Dream, and it is the dream that has changed the world, country after country and continues to do so. The second reason Abraham Lincoln still and always will matter is that he represents the best of the American Dream. Nobody’s life embodies this more. Son of Thomas Lincoln, as we heard, a poor, illiterate frontiersman, Lincoln lost his mother as a child, and enjoyed no more than 18 months of anything remotely approaching a formal education; nevertheless, through hard work (he read his eyes out on Euclid, military history, Shakespeare, the Bible), good character, political talent, intelligence, and leadership skills, Lincoln made himself into a towering world figure. Bill Gates is one thing, but Abraham Lincoln is the real deal in my book.

But what’s amazing is even though he was president, with all the political savvy and worldly entanglements seemingly necessary, we can still urge our children, and ourselves, to model our character after his. And this is the third reason we celebrate Lincoln: His character held strong. He waged a four year war, the deadliest in American history, without lying or cheating. We know he was uniformly kind even to his opponents and enemies, maintained his sense of humor amid true disasters, both political and personal, loved his children, one of which died during his lifetime, and his volatile wife, and near the war’s end in 1865, “with malice toward none,” showed not a trace of vindictiveness as he welcomed the Southern states back into the Union. USA Weekend, Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2009 That is a high bar for any of us to reach for.

Some people have taken Lincoln’s refusal to join a church as a sign of his lack of Christian faith. Now while he didn’t hold to any particular denomination’s beliefs, and he didn’t call himself a Methodist or Episcopalian, or Congregationalist, Lincoln was a religious man. He knew the God of the Bible reigned. God’s providence held sway over history, and over personal lives. In the end, Abraham Lincoln lived as a servant of God Almighty, ultimately sacrificing his own life for the greater good, the highest ideals of our nation, and God’s divine justice and overruling purpose.

In 1864, Lincoln was reelected to his second term. The inauguration occurred March 4. Weeks of wet weather preceding Lincoln's second inauguration had caused Pennsylvania Avenue to become a sea of mud and standing water. An estimated fifty thousand spectators stood in thick mud at the Capitol grounds to hear the President. As he stood on the East Portico to take the executive oath, the completed Capitol dome over the President's head was a physical reminder of the resolve of his Administration throughout the years of civil war. This theologically intense speech has been widely acknowledged as one of the most remarkable documents in American history. The London Spectator said of it, "We cannot read it without a renewed conviction that it is the noblest political document known to history, and should have for the nation and the statesmen he left behind him something of a sacred and almost prophetic character." Journalist Noah Brooks, an eyewitness to the speech, said that as Lincoln advanced from his seat, "a roar of applause shook the air, and, again and again repeated, finally died away on the outer fringe of the throng, like a sweeping wave upon the shore. Just at that moment the sun, which had been obscured all day, burst forth in its unclouded meridian splendor, and flooded the spectacle with glory and light." Brooks said Lincoln told him the next day, "Did you notice that sunburst? It made my heart jump."

I would like to read the last portions of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. “The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? 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.”

A man of integrity, holding a magnanimous spirit, and a servant’s heart combined to make Abraham Lincoln a great and good man, one who belongs to the ages, an American we celebrate and for whom we give God many thanks.

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