Of the monuments and memorials in Washington, D.C. commemorating our nation's leaders I find the Lincoln Memorial most inspiring. The structure's design emulates that of the Greek Parthenon reminding us of democracy's origins in the greatness of Greek civilization. Given the size of the memorial and statue within, it reminds me of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world - the enormous seated statue of Zeus in the temple of Olympia.

     Approaching Lincoln's large statue in the temple-like setting, one might be enticed to perceive him as a god-like being. We humans are often tempted to see former great leaders as gods. Yet, in this memorial to Abraham Lincoln the sculptor Daniel Chester French moderated that temptation by revealing through Lincoln's pose, face and hands his essential humanity. The poet, Walt Whitman, who worked in the hospitals in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War and saw Lincoln with some regularity wrote of him: "I see very plainly Abraham Lincoln's dark brown face, with deep-cut lines, the eyes, always to me with a deep latent sadness in their expression." The hands on the statue with one fist clenched and one hand open are suggestive of both Lincoln's resoluteness and his compassion.

     As we stand in the memorial of what is intended to be a temple of democracy, we might also squelch our desire to deify the man, by remembering Lincoln's actions that some claim subverted democracy and the Constitution when he suspended the writ of habeas corpus. As many as 13,000 people were jailed for indefinite terms without recourse during the war, some for simply protesting against the war. Did Abraham Lincoln abuse the Constitution? I think so. Given the extraordinary circumstances he faced of confronting an actual armed rebellion within the nation, was it justified? Responding to that question would require far more analysis than we could properly give it today.

     I raise this issue from Mr. Lincoln's Presidency to remind us that even as we speak of his greatness as a President and person such greatness is never unambiguous. That is, human greatness does not come to us in a purified form. Ironically, at the very heart of Lincoln's greatness was his understanding that life is ambiguous. What occurs in life is subject to varied interpretations. No person or nation can believe their version of truth is wholly right. Such an insight may not seem so startling, sitting here in the midst of this religious community whose underlying premise is freedom of belief. We do not think any one person or group can divine the whole of life's truth.

     Easy for us to say, but in his Second Inaugural Address we have the President of the United States on the verge of attaining victory in what would be our country's bloodiest war, and speaking to people whom I can well imagine would be waiting for words trumpeting our nation's triumph over evil. When you have sacrificed so much you want to be reassured your endeavor was in the right - that God blessed you with victory because you were right. I would see that as a normal human response, and for Americans there's yet another layer beneath such a response.

     As a people we have a strong need to perceive our nation's role in the world as one that unambiguously does what is good and right. I believe our nation's desire to manifest goodness in the world in its varied forms is at the root of our greatness, and I also believe that our unwavering desire to believe in our greatness blinds us to the countervailing reality that we're also capable of evoking evil in the world. In psychological terms we, as a people, are unwilling to acknowledge our shadow. Our unwillingness to engage in self-examination is age-old and deeply rooted, and is one of our greatest vulnerabilities. Was it extraordinary for the President of the United States on the eve of a great military victory to engage the nation in self-examination? Yes!

     While the Civil War had initially been undertaken by Lincoln to save the Union, by its end he had come to realize the war was truly about slavery: "These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest" he said. "All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war." Even more remarkably he acknowledged that both sides were guilty. Although benefiting differently the North was as culpable as the South in perpetrating slavery. After 40 years serving the Federal Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, one of the great 19th Century Unitarian ministers, William Ellery Channing, resigned when his congregation's standing committee refused to allow a memorial service for Dr. Channing's friend because the friend had been an abolitionist, They feared it might upset the well-to-do of the church whose livelihoods depended on trade with the South.

     President Lincoln acknowledged the responsibility for slavery on both sides. Quoting from the Bible, he declared in his Second Inaugural Address:

'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…

Abraham Lincoln seemingly had come to recognize the war as an act of God's justice manifesting in the world.

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.

     The theology that informs Mr. Lincoln's perspective here is not mine. I believe justice is a human, not a divine, construct. Nonetheless, the human ideal of justice naturally derives from life's inclination to seek balance. In the Taoist tradition that's given form in the concepts of yin and yang in which opposites continually seek balance. Justice is sought with life's surge toward balance. When a society is unjust, it creates its own dis-eased dynamics, and the dis-ease, if untreated, will effect its own retribution. It may require many, many years, even 250, but eventually a balance will be sought. In recognizing the North's guilt along with that of the South President Lincoln held out before his people the possibility and the promise of self-examination and redemption.

     The theologian Reinhold Neibuhr wrote, "Lincoln had a sense of historical meaning so high as to cast doubt on the intentions of both sides…[Lincoln could] put the enemy into the same category of ambiguity as the nation to which his life was committed." Neibuhr believed Lincoln was unique among statesmen. [Lincoln's Greatest Speech, Ronald White, Jr. p. 118] So, it seems he was. Certainly, the rhetoric we hear from our nation's leaders today is unambiguous. If anything it has shifted from a dangerously naïve belief in American goodness, to an even more dangerously arrogant belief in American goodness and might.

     Our national leaders may be right that Saddam Hussein poses a far greater threat to the world's well-being than many of us realize. Even so, I cannot help but believe, judging by the rhetoric they have used throughout this war on terrorism, that our leadership's approach to dealing with Iraq is distorted by arrogance. Many of the actions we would take, not only with regard to Iraq but with regard to our ways of dealing with terrorism, might be quite different if our leaders engaged us in a process of national self-examination. That does not mean, as some might imagine, engaging in a process of national self-flagellation. Rather it means trying to see our nation's role in the world for better and for worse through the eyes and experiences of other people of the world. We cannot and should not seek to be the world's savior, but we must realize our own salvation will ultimately depend on our ability to seek justice for all people as one nation-albeit one very significant nation -but still one nation within a community of nations.

     The primary virtue that informed Abraham Lincoln's life and words leading to the creation of his Second Inaugural Address was humility. This address offered him a natural opportunity to focus on the pending victory and to voice the shared desire to punish the South. Instead he engaged the nation in self-examination in a spirit of humility that took him in very different direction from retribution. 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.

     Let us heed the wisdom and spirit voiced by Abraham Lincoln in that address. May we as citizens do our part to raise that voice once again for our country's and the world's well-being.
     So may it be. Amen.