Monday, March 14, 2022 (today’s lectionary)
So long, see you tomorrow
Lord, do not deal with us according to our sins. Remember not against us the iniquities of the past; may your compassion quickly come to us, for we are brought very low.
On the square in Lincoln, Logan County’s county seat christened by Abraham Lincoln with a caveat: “Nowhere named Lincoln ever amounted to much,” he said. None of the town fathers seemed to care a whole lot; they found a large ripe watermelon, cracked it over a hitching post, and squeezed Abe a glassful of red juice. He promptly threw it behind his back and said something like, “I hereby christen thee, Lincoln, Illinois.”
It took awhile to sell enough lots to take the town seriously. It was placed right next to Postville, which would soon become the Logan County seat. Lincoln of course became a most famous president, presiding over, and agonizing over, the Civil War and the six hundred thousand plus deaths and injuries it produced.
O LORD, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers,
for having sinned against you. But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness!
Lincoln was my mom and dad’s home town. Lincoln is the home town for Mary Kay, John and me. Lincoln does not seem to be growing much right now. One of its two colleges is drastically reducing its physical presence, hoping for online resuscitation. Large empty storefronts seem almost like giant graves for former grocery and farm supply stores.
Nevertheless, nearly two hundred years after the christening, here we are. And the square around the courthouse still looks great. South of the square is an arcade, which has drawn customers to its relatively cool outdoor covered walkway since 1929. Breakfast and lunch has been served at Mama’s Arcade Café for forty years, and at the Arcade Restaurant for several decades before that. In high school it was a favorite afternoon hangout for Nancy and me.
We are your people and the sheep of your pasture. We will give thanks to you forever; through all generations we will declare your praise.
William Maxwell, long-time fiction editor for the New Yorker, grew up in Lincoln and wrote wonderful, simple novels about his hometown, most notably They Came Like Swallows and So Long, See You Tomorrow. About the restaurant he wrote, “The faces were full of character, as small-town faces tend to be, he thought, and lined with humor, and time had dealt gently with them. By virtue of having been born in this totally unremarkable place and of having lived out their lives here, they had something people elsewhere did not have . . . This opinion every person in the room agreed with, he knew, and no doubt it had been put into his mind when he was a child.”
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Breakfast here beats a trip to Cracker Barrel on Lincoln’s outskirts near the interstate. And after breakfast, you can stroll the arcade and maybe walk around the courthouse square. Yesterday was a beautiful spring day and today promises to be even better, but I have a cold and am somewhat miserable, in spite of the sunshine and cool breeze. The temperature climbed forty degrees since Saturday, and everywhere on Sunday kids played on swings and slides, looking for smidgens of snow to make a few last snowballs, throwing off their heavy coats and jumping up and down.
But I took a nap. And then another nap. And then another one. And I hope I’ll be getting better here sometime soon.
Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.
(Daniel 9, Psalm 79, John 6, Luke 6)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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