Daily Lesson for November 21, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 18 verses 1 through 7:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ 2He called a child, whom he put among them, 3and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

6 ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. 7Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling-block comes!

Earlier this in preparation for Sunday’s sermon I went back and re-read President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued on the third day of October 1863 in anticipation of a National Day of Thanksgiving set aside for the fourth Thursday of the following month. I have read this many times over the years; and I am always touched by the pastoral nature of Lincoln’s words as he called our nation to give thanks even amidst our terrible Civil War.

But what I had forgotten is in this Proclamation is another pastoral task — the call of the people to a greater humility and repentance from what he called the Nation’s “national perverseness and disobedience” which ended in the scourge of widow and orphan hood afflicting both North and South. By the time of the Proclamation, Lincoln had decided the War was a judgment upon the Union for its sin of slavery, and the Proclamation was a pastoral call to prayer of thanksgiving for God’s mercies even amidst the sword of judgment, and also a call to humility and contrition, that the victims of the Nation’s hubris be spared even greater suffering. 

One hundred fifty-eight years after Lincoln’s Proclamation, our nation is again caught up in a time of deep division. The closing words in Lincoln’s Proclamation speak to us in our own time that we might “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 to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”

“Peace”, “harmony”, “tranquility”, and “Union” are wonderful words of hope for us now. But they come not without another important word Lincoln used in the Proclamation: “penitence”. We will not have the former without first having the latter.  And the wounds of the nation will not be healed, lest we see and admit what sad suffering our hubris has caused, especially for the young and vulnerable. 

This is the season for giving thanks, and also the season for making contrition.  Let us prepare ourselves for both as we make our towards the fourth Thursday of November yet again.