Picture the scene...
Gettysburg Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863... 150 years ago today!
The keynote speaker of the day has just delivered a two hour speech. Two hours!
Next up to the podium with the black stovepipe hat atop his head, stands the tall, humble 16th President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln.
In his hands, written on a borrowed sheet of paper are 271 words...
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Most of us know the beginning...
Most of us know the end...
Most of us know not the middle...
It was a powerful and inspirational speech that Lincoln thought no one would remember.
But... we do...
One hundred and fifty years later...
My iWitness...
Picture the scene...
Huge crowds followed him everywhere...
Jesus goes up on a mountain, sits down and begins to preach...
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5. 3-12)
I have provided the first 138 words of Jesus' sermon. The sermon goes on from Matthew 5 through Matthew 7.
I wonder if Jesus thought anyone would remember, much less record the words He said that day.
But...we do...
Two thousand years later...
I am wondering what words you and I will say today.
They're just words...
We might, like Lincoln and maybe even Jesus, think that no one will remember or record our words.
Let's think that through again.
The words of Lincoln have inspired a nation for 150 years.
The words of Jesus have inspired the world for 2,000 years.
The words you and I offer today just might inspire someone for ten minutes, or ten years or maybe even a lifetime.
The words we say...
Are more than just words...
And that's my iWitness...
Laugh often and Fear not!
David!
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