A Nation Weeps

​
A NATION WEEPS

November 24, 1963 – The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

 
“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 so 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 cannot dedicate––we cannot consecrate––we cannot 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.”
 
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
 
LITTLE DID I REALIZE — Thursday night as I looked upward toward the monumental face of Abraham Lincoln that I would be repeating this morning the words of his famous Gettysburg Address, which came to me at that time. I was more than 500 miles from where we stand now. I was walking along one of the streets of Louisville, KY. Suddenly, we came upon it — there it was, this monumental statue of Abraham Lincoln.
 
The spotlight was thrown on this face –– black with the tarnish of time, as black as those people who he unchained, to whom he gave a new birth of freedom. Mysteriously, the feature of this statue depicted a man whose life was filled with love –– love for humanity, for nation, love for God. It was like a magnet –– pulling you upward until you found yourself present, with this man of history. 
 
And there the words of history spoke softly to your listening ears: “Fourscore 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.”
 
Tenderly I placed these words back into my subconscious where they had come from in this moment of encounter — I walked quietly onward towards the Sheraton Hotel where I was staying.
 
I had planned this morning to preach on the subject “The Unbalanced Diet” to point out the unbalance of our physical–spiritual life. The sermon died with the tragic death of our President at 1:00 PM Friday. 
 
At the time, I was in a car driving back from Louisville. I did not hear the news immediately. It was not until we stopped in St. Louis at 1:35 (more than an hour after he was shot) that I learned the tragic news. It was in the Men’s Room of the Ramada Inn, an employee, dressed in work clothes with tears in his eyes at the death of our President. It was a heavy blow to me as it was to everyone I came in contact with. The President of the United States of America was dead. 
 
The President was killed by a man whose life was filled with hate. He did not hate the President or America; he hated himself. To say that he was a lover of Russia and the Communists and for this reason he killed, our president — are gullible and senseless words.
 
He did not love Russia.
 
How could he? 
 
He did not love himself.
 
His unstable mind may have favored Communist thinking, but he loved no one; for you cannot love one person and hate another — anymore than you love God and hate humanity.
 
Listening on our radio from St. Louis to Kansas City, we heard reporters from all over the world. While many of our stations in the early hours following his death were still playing “Rock-N-Roll” Europe was listening to funeral music. Their networks announced the news and immediately and switched from their regular program. Willy Brandt in West Berlin called upon his people to place a lighted candle in every window. The reporter from Moscow spoke these words: “A general condolence has been expressed by the Russian people.” 
 
All across the world, people were shocked at the word of the President’s death. Here in America, a Nation Wept. It still is weeping. Theaters which closed bear no shame — no sign of weakness, but the love that every American must-have for their President. 
 
In such a moment the walls — which I believe are necessary in holding our country, together –– the walls which separate one political party from another come down. People from the north and south and east and west forget their political differences and weep the tears of suffering for their leader who is dead. 
 
Why? — came the voice from Rome. Why? — came the voice from London England, Paris France, Bonn Germany, Moscow Russia, Ontario Canada, Sidney Australian, Tokyo Japan. 
 
Why? Came the voices from every home in a nation that is still weeping. Why? There is but one answer: for the freedom of humankind. This is why Lincoln was assassinated –– and Garfield and McKinley –– and John F. Kennedy.
 
These men who served as our Presidents dedicated their lives to the freedom and dignity and respect that man should have and must have for one another. They did not die in vain unless we, who live on allow America to be destroyed and our Freedom taken from us.
 
And this goes much deeper than any animosity we have towards those countries we call our enemies. You do not preserve freedom through hate. You do not create freedom out of coercion. 
 
The preservation of the world depends upon our accepting one another despite these differences or ideological thinking. It is this balance of power that has thus far preserved America –– the wall of differences between one party and another. 
 
In a very real sense, the death of our President should make us re-think our own part in the political structure of our nation. It should make us read and re-read American History until every stream, and avenue, is discovered anew. It should keep us abreast of this land, causing us to give something instead of always wanting something.
 
We moan of taxation — our minds are burdened with grievances and complaints; and yet did you ever stop, to think that this is a part of your freedom. Our blessings in this land are so great that all we have time for is to complain; we have no time to go down on our knees and thank God for America.
 
0 beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties,
Above the fruited plain!
 
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.
 
The continuation and preservation of our land are no longer dependent upon the 35th President of the United States, who gave his life for that cause. It falls upon our 36th President, upon our willingness to work with him and pray for and love him. Symbolically speaking this is a new birth of freedom, which has arisen out of this tragic event.
 
Its survival will depend upon the wholeness of its creation: and its wholeness in turn depends upon God. Who in the first instant gave to us this new birth of freedom. Where then shall we go from here as Americans, as Christians? 
 
There is only one place we can go — or one place from where we can start. We must start with prayer. First, a prayer of sorrow for our President who lost his life for this freedom. Second, a prayer for our new President.
 
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
 
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 
 
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”  Do you believe this? “.... Yes, Lord, I believe.”
 
And in a little while he said to her again; “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
 
And he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”
 
The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
 
This is what Jesus is saying to our deceased President, to our New President — even to you and to me. 
 
“Unbind him, and let him go!” 
 
This is your new birth of freedom — to go now; go stripped of that which has bound you unto death —- go in His name and for His sake.
 
In closing might there be a moment of silent prayer. There may be those who would prefer to come and kneel at the rail here this morning. If you feel so compelled — do so. Come quickly and go quickly so that others may come too.
 
Breathe on me, Breath of God, 
fill me with life anew, 
that I may love the way you love, 
and do what you would do. 
 
For all the saints who from labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia! 
 
 
 
 
 
Sermon delivered at Valley View Methodist Church in Overland Park, Kansas, on November 24, 1963.