ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS ON FACEBOOK!

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." (John 7:24)

July 1. Today, July 1, 2013 is the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. This horrific event is one of the most memorable of the American Civil War, officially known as the War Between the States. The one thing that most of us probably remember best about the Battle of Gettysburg and its aftermath is President Abraham Lincoln's famous "Gettysburg Address". Over the years, many a school child has been required to memorize this short speech. Yes, it's short. The story is told that Abraham Lincoln wrote it on the back of an envelope while traveling by train from Washington, D.C. to Pennsylvania. In its day, it wasn't considered all that great. In fact, it was considered way too short and way too simplistic. But you didn't know Abraham Lincoln was on Facebook!

That Matt Zuckerberg is an amazing young man! Are you aware that he traveled through time?! Well, he did. He got Abraham Lincoln and a bunch of key people of the early 1860s on line. He brought Wi-Fi and computers and a whole bunch of other stuff to them. And, how did it work without much hardwiring? Well, actually they had telegraph wiring and he just performed a bunch of technological feats and got a bunch of key people "plugged in"! Lincoln had an e-mail address: honestabe@whitehouse.com He also had a Facebook page and account. Mary Todd Lincoln took it down after his assassination, though. And, folks were so devastated that they pitched their laptops and desktops into the trash and tried to pretend none of it ever happened. And, the government knows all about it but they've covered it up.

That's why even historian Doris Kearns Goodwin did not find out about it when she did her extensive historical research about Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln didn't really write the Gettysburg Address on an envelope. He wrote it on his laptop. He posted it on Facebook. Lincoln was disappointed that despite his 256 Facebook friends, it only got 3 "likes"! It got four comments. None of the comments was positive. Two actually contained profanity that I cannot repeat here. Lincoln hoped some of his Facebook friends would "Share" it, but only his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln did. No one else "Shared" it and no one else reposted it.

"Boy," remarked Lincoln to his wife, "I thought it would get at least 50 'likes'! And I thought a bunch of people would repost it."

Lincoln also sent copies of the Gettysburg Address as a mass e-mail to his Cabinet. He assumed they'd forward it on to their friends and that within twenty-four hours it would be published from one end of the land to the other, but amazingly not one of his Cabinet forwarded it on. In fact, the Gettysburg Address might have been better received by that generation if Lincoln's so called "friends" had paid a little bit more attention to it.

Now, lest Matt Zuckerberg sue me for posting improper and inaccurate information on the internet, I'm sure most of you figured out this is a work of fiction. Lincoln was not on Facebook. Zuckerberg did not travel through time. I hope this causes you to reflect upon a couple to things today, however. One is to recall that this week marks the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. I can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like, nor how the heart of President Abraham Lincoln must have ached over the "house divided" that was America of the early 1860s. The other is to reflect upon how we can trivialize greatness. Perhaps there's way too much "stuff" available on-line and being posted on Facebook. We're all inundated with it. There are some phenomenal pieces of poetry and prose on-line. There are magnificent photos. There are powerful true stories. For every one that (for whatever reason) circulates to millions of people, there are many as good or better that are never read by more than a handful. Oh, may we be more discerning and not take lightly the great gifts and responsibilities we all have!

Of course, this week, we also remember that "fourscore and seven years" before Gettysburg was the Declaration of Independence that we all remember on the 4th of July! May we not take our freedoms that we enjoy as Americans for granted, either! May this be a blessed, memorable, and special week!