Happiest Juneteenth!
On this day, one of the last outposts of the Confederacy, Texas, got the news that slavery in the rebellious states had been ended by President Lincoln and his Emancipation Proclamation. The end of slavery in the United States would wait for the ratification of amendment XIII. When I was a boy, Juneteenth (June 19) was more regional, but the celebration has spread. Why not? We cannot celebrate the defeat of the Confederacy or the end of slavery too often. This is a Texas holiday and was long associated with church celebrations. May every church recollect that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty!
Do not believe the lie that progress is impossible or that there has been no progress in the United States. There has been progress. There is not enough, prison reform is badly need to cite just one example, but read “Dem Days Was Hell” to see some good differences between then and now. American citizens can celebrate progress, my Houston neighborhood is integrated in ways that would have been fantasy fifty years ago. When I was a boy, the fact our family was “willing” to swim with all races, was a big deal, today this was a natural event. Of course, nobody should get moral credit for basic decency. A sign of moral progress is that few would think we should! There is much to do.
My church teaches the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Why? The roots of sins, especially sins embedded in a culture, are deep. There is so much to do, so many weeds to pull. Yet mayhap this hard work also needs some celebration of progress certainly not in me, but for my neighbor. The end of race based slavery in the United States is joyous. Let us keep the feast!
Juneteenth makes me want to do better, see greater liberty, and freedom in Christ Jesus. Juneteenth is a day for listening to drowned out voices. Juneteenth is a day to recollect great evil, to thank God, US Grant, and the boys in blue for the defeat of the CSA and the demolition of the terrorists in the first KKK. Thank God for tens of thousands of African American troopers who not only seized freedom, but fought for freedom in the Civil War. Thank God for leaders like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass who were not content with an end to slavery, but demanded the Republic live up to her ideals. They seized their rights, because they were right.
We can be thankful for the Civil Rights Movement, for church changes like the Memphis Miracle (well done Dad!), and resolve to ally with leaders who liberate. There is so much to do, but so much has been done. Let us keep the feast without losing track of the fast. Black lives have not mattered for so much of American history, but black lives matter to Almighty God. They must matter to all of us or we cannot be Christians.
Happiest Juneteenth!
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