A Blessing, an Invocation, and a Benediction for Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday

A BLESSING

Abraham Lincoln is known for among other things being brief. He wrote The Gettysburg Address on the back on an envelope. His brevity does not mean a lack of substance. In fact, he’s also known for any number of sayings. A quick google search will reveal these:

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”― Abraham Lincoln

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”― Abraham Lincoln

“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.” ― Abraham Lincoln

On this day, on which we celebrate the day of his birth, may the wisdom of Lincoln rise. May we greet it like an old friend; inviting into come to our homes, our communities, and our lives. May the blessing of laughter and friendship become guides that allow us to free all in bondage and make whole that which is broken. In Lincoln, in faith, in Love.

AN INVOCATION

Good afternoon friends. It is a joy to be with you today as the one to offer an invocation; I know it’s wise, “to never stand in front of a person and their dinner.” (According to the internet that’s a quote of Lincoln.)

Please allow me a moment of context before offering an invocation, I am; in addition to being your organization’s Vice President’s Priest, a son of Lincoln. I was born on November 19. (Someone will know the significance of that day.) I was raised in Indiana, as was Abraham Lincoln.

My parents too are from the land of Lincoln —born and raised in Illinois. They were also; and I say this with love; incredibly odd.

My parents were married on Super Bowl Sunday. After the wedding they honeymooned in Springfield, Illinois. And while in bucolic midwinter Springfield—I cannot imagine 20 something’s then or now, doing this—and yet I know they did because they spoke of often enough if it that I remember, they visited the grave of another Springfield resident—the poet Vachel Lindsay.

 Even to the Lincoln Association of Jersey City, which holds its gathering on Super Bowl Sunday you might find this strange; unless there are those among you that recognize Vachel Lindsay as the author of among other poems “Lincoln,” with the line “Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all!"

This line is the official motto of the Association of Lincoln Presenters.

So I stand before you as the offspring of odd ones, a natural born lover of poetry; a son of Lincoln; a Priest of your leaders and I wish you the spirit of Lincoln—one who seeks to work with a team of rivals; who implores the better angels of our nature; and preserves the Union. May this Lincoln live in and rouse you all. May this gathering be a blessing.

A BENEDICTION

So, if it’s wise not to stand before a person and their dinner it’s imperative to not stand before the tired and their exit and sports fans and the Superbowl.

Those who attended New Jersey’s own Princeton University may have had Tracy K. Smith as a professor. Others may recognize the African American woman as the former poet Laureate of the United States of America. Her famous poem, “Don’t You Wonder Sometimes” is about a Jersey City hero; or at least one with a portrait painted on the side of a building in front of the Holland Tunnel—David Bowie.

Her line, “Bowie is among us…” is similar to poet Vachel Lindsay’s “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight;” which imagines The Great Emancipator walking the streets of Springfield.

With this in mind may we leave this celebration of Lincoln’s Birthday with a mission:

May pop stars and a President be among us. May poets invoke their presence. May we be filled with that which inspires us to see the divine and the sublime on the back of envelopes and in the face of our neighbors. May God bless you all; Jersey City; the USA; and all in the world seeking peace.