Clergy: Wringing bread from the sweat of others’ faces
Years ago, when I was living in Columbia, Maryland, two of my best friends came to town to visit for a couple days.
The main purpose of the visit was to make a pilgrimage to Camden Yards in Baltimore and Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on back-to-back nights to enjoy some baseball. And that we did.
The day of the Nationals game we headed down to D.C. early to do some sightseeing. None of us had yet been to the Martin Luther King Jr. monument or the Korean War memorial and we wanted to tick them off our lists.
Being in that part of the district we also climbed the great stairs to see President Lincoln in all his glory at the Lincoln Memorial.
On the walls to Lincoln’s left and right, etched in the rock, are the texts of two of his most famous speeches. To his right: the Gettysburg Address. To his left: his second inaugural address.
I had read the Gettysburg address numerous times before, so I made my way over to read his second inaugural address. And, boy, am I glad I did! It is a beautiful piece of writing.
“At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first,” he began and went on to weave an extraordinarily powerful and challenging message. I strongly suggest you look it up and read it.
One section of the address in particular struck me at that time and has resonated with me ever since. In these challenging times in our nation, they strike me yet again.
“Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”
The nation was embroiled in civil war. Brother pitted against brother, famously. The death toll by the end of the war would reach a staggering 750,000 souls, according to some estimates.
The nation was suffering division and violence on a scale never seen before or since. Because of deeply held beliefs — many of them rooted in and supported by widely differing interpretations of holy scriptures — American citizens regarded one another (neighbors, friends, family members) as less deserving of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Or, as Lincoln put it: “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.”
I can’t help but see similarities in the headlines of today. So many claiming God is on their side and using that claim as justification to treat others as less deserving, less human — giving in to the temptation once again “to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other (people’s) faces.”
My consistent prayer in these days (and I invite you to join me in it) is that we would remember the sins of our past, repent and seek the better way forward. The way of love and grace. The way of peace. The way of “regarding others as better than ourselves” (Philippians 2:3). The way of the Greatest Commandment: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’... and ... ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39).
For surely the bread we wring from the love of God and neighbor is far greater than that which we wring from the sweat of others’ faces.
Scott W. Hoffman is the senior pastor at State College Presbyterian Church.