Tomorrow will be my first time intentionally observing Juneteenth. So I am writing this post as a part of my own ongoing education and discovery. I’m still learning.
Juneteenth is a grassroots, national celebration of the ending of legally sanctioned slavery in the USA. It is a celebration of Freedom! More specifically Juneteenth commemorates the actions of June 19, 1865 in Galveston Texas when Federal (Union) troops took control of the state to ensure all enslaved people would be freed.
Prior to my research for this post, I thought Juneteenth was about the Emancipation Proclamation. Not the same thing. It was two years earlier (September 22, 1862), during the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln first issued the executive order that we now call “Emancipation Proclamation.” It’s important to remember that the American civil war was about the enslavement of black-bodied peoples.
The Emancipation Proclamation formally took effect during the American Civil War, on New Year’s Day of 1863, thus legally changing the status of enslaved peoples. By executive order all enslaved peoples in the Confederate (slaveholding states) were declared to be free, and were to be freed… but the civil war was still raging.
In early April of 1865 the Civil War ended. On April 15 President Lincoln was assassinated. But it was June 19, 1865 when Federal/Union troops’ arrived in Galveston to ensure that holders of enslaved peoples, who had migrated to Texas, complied with the Emancipation Proclamation. That was it… Emancipation Day! It took about two and a half years from the Emancipation Proclamation until its country-wide enactment. And so we remember this important day…
June 19, 1865! Freedom Day! Juneteenth!
Later that year, on December 18th, the 13th Amendment was ratified, becoming the law of the land.
It has taken me 51 years to join the throng already observing Freedom Day. This may be my first Juneteenth but it won’t be my last. Some of our much needed laws are in place, but many more still need to be crafted, or rewritten, or abolished… we have a long way to go before everyone knows freedom. It seems to me that Juneteenth is both a reminder of what is possible when people open up to God’s shalom and it is a dare to keep working for freedom for all.
I believe that freedom is part of the imago Dei (image of God). One cannot understand God apart from having an imagination for freedom. God is free. And created us in God’s own image. Themes of freedom, jubilee, shalom, and abundant life abound throughout the Hebrew and Christian testaments, and take on flesh in Jesus Christ.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and God has anointed me to be hope for the poor, freedom for the brokenhearted, and new eyes for the blind, and to preach to prisoners, ‘You are set free!’ I have come to share the message of Jubilee, for the time of God’s great acceptance has begun.”
Jesus through the Lukean community, Luke 4:18
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Jesus through the Johannine community, John 10:10
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Jesus through the Johannine community, John 8:36
Just recall how often we see, hear, and read about Jesus setting captives free… literal and metaphorical captives. And part of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the world is freedom:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
Paul to the Church of Corinth, 2 Corinthians 3:17
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage…. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
Paul to the Church in the Roman Province of Galatia, Galatians 5:1, 13-14
And so, tomorrow I will celebrate my first Juneteenth with hope that freedom will one day reign for all. LET FREEDOM RING!
Peace, dwight
