Juneteenth ~ Jubilee Day
In his posthumous novel Juneteenth, American writer Ralph Ellison penned this poignant exchange between two pastors at twin lecterns, speaking to those gathered at the beginning of a week-long Juneteenth celebration:
And they brought us here in chains ...
In chains, son; in iron chains ...
From half a world away, they brought us ...
In chains and in boats that the history tells us weren't fit for pigs -- because pigs cost too much money to be allowed to waste and die as we did. But they stole us and brought us in boats which I'm told could move like the swiftest birds of prey, and which filled the great trade winds with the stench of our dying and their crime ...
What a crime! Tell us why, Rev. Hickman ...
It was a crime, Rev. Bliss, brothers and sisters, like the fall of proud Lucifer from Paradise.
But why, Daddy Hickman? You have taught us of the progressive younger generation to ask why. So we want to know how come it was a crime?
Because, Rev. Bliss, this was a country dedicated to the principles of Almighty God. That Mayflower boat that you hear so much about Thanksgiving Day was a Christian ship -- amen! Yes, and those many-named floating coffins we came here in were Christian too. They had turned traitor to the God who set them free from Europe's tyrant kings. Because, God have mercy on them, no sooner than they got free enough to breathe themselves, they set out to bow us down ...
They made our Lord shed tears!
Amen! Rev. Bliss, amen. God must have wept like Jesus. Poor Jonah went down into the belly of the whale, but compared to our journey, his was like a trip to paradise on a silvery cloud.
As we honor Juneteenth as a federal holiday for only the second time in our nation's history this Monday, let us be mindful of the painful history that undergirds the experiences of so many of our brothers and sisters. The word "Juneteenth" is a condensed version of "June 19," commemorating the June 19, 1865, pronouncement by Union Army General Gordon Granger that enslaved people were freed in Texas, the final state to abolish institutional slavery.
Juneteenth celebrations date back to 1866 in Texas and spread across the South in the 1920s and 1930s; on June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, making the day a federal holiday. Emancipation celebrations across the country were frequently called "Jubilee Days," a nod to the biblical Year of Jubilee in which enslaved people are freed.
Isaiah 61:1 says this:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners.
The Holy Spirit is ever-at work, Friends, but he needs our hands and feet to bring the love and peace of Christ to those who are suffering. What role will you play in proclaiming freedom for those who are captives, releasing others from darkness, and proclaiming good news to the poor?
Blessings on your week,
Jennie