Lincoln again....giving thanks

Lincoln, the movie, is but one of the many ways we as a nation will be reminded of the wrenching violence and bitterness of the Civil War as we remember it on this 150th anniversary.  Lincoln penned many documents which commend themselves to us in the 21st century if not for their content, then for the beauty of his writing.

The Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863 is a perfect example and will surface in this blog several more times I am sure for it has powerful lessons on both a national and a personal level.

Let's consider the national implications.  Lincoln was president when our nation was doing its very best to bring to an end itself by shedding unfathomable quantities of blood.  Far from a confident believer, Lincoln nonetheless considered himself a tool in the hands of God ['...the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy..."]  When power and might were the recommended response to a recalcitrant South, Lincoln reached out in compassion ("with malice toward none ...and charity towards all" from Lincoln's second inaugural address) to brothers who had become the enemy.

In the midst of this blood bath, Lincoln found important things for which to give thanks which he enurmerated in his Proclamation officially setting the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving. 

He sought the nation's care for the '...widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers...' on both sides of the conflict.   Beyond this is the closing

                "I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him...[they]

                fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the

                nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes ...'

In these words Lincoln captures that place which people of faith are asked to inhabit: the place where we are acutely aware of our deep seated shortcomings, willing to look to the Divine Hand to work in its time, and to accept that ultimately God will work for the good of all.  That kind of faith simply takes my breath away.

A vote for justice

I have not seen Spielberg's movie Lincoln yet, but it is on my holiday schedule.  From the moment years ago when I read Lincoln's second inaugural address, I have been taken with Lincoln's humble understanding of what it means to 'stand before God.'  At a critical moment in our history as a nation founded on democratic principles, Lincoln pressed forward with what he thought was right and just and issued the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Yet he never discounted the political realities of his day.  I quote from Michael Gerson's column of 11/27.  It was necessary for Lincoln to "divide moral sympathies from ...pragmatic judgments."  This was Lincoln's burden, for "while justice is not defined by the majority, it can't be pursued without support from the majority." 

Lincoln is a towering figure in our history and a study of a man who felt called by God to stand in the breech when chaos reigned around him.  It is helpful, however, to remember that the constitutional changes which finally acknowledged what God had known all along, that no person can rightfully be owned by another, took the combined effort of many totally forgotten men who sat in Congress. The "dramatic culmination of the movie is a roll call - a list of forgotten legislators whose hesitant, conflicted choices were as important as the outcome of the battle."  It was these little known and even less remembered individuals who changed the course of our history.

So, my friends, it is good for us to remember that the little things we do for the sake of justice may never bring us fame, but when counted with the other anonymous acts of justice can move nations.