6/18 All-Staff Gathering

Juneteenth Devotional

6/18 TAS All-Staff Gathering‌

Good Morning, staff family!

If I have not met you my name is Purshia Gambles and I work and worship at our South Congregation! And this morning I was asked to share a short word about a pretty important holiday happening tomorrow.

Does anyone know what that is?

*Listen to responses if anyone has one*

Yesssss. Tomorrow is indeed June 19th, affectionately called “Juneteenth” and it commemorates what many in the Black community see as our real Independence day.

On January 13th, 1865, 2 years following the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th amendment was passed, fully making slavery illegal in the government’s eyes across the United States.

And this might make you think, “Yaayyyyy slavery ended!!”

Not according to the Lone Star State, unfortunately. Nathan Finn aptly summarizes the events in his TGC article about what Juneteenth is supposed to mean for those in Christ,

“On June 19, 1865, as Union troops entered Galveston, Texas, General Gordon Granger announced enslaved African Americans in Texas were free. The news hadn’t yet arrived! Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had been issued in January 1863; Congress had passed the 13th Amendment in January 1865; and the Civil War had ended in April 1865. None of that mattered, though, for enslaved people in Texas—until Granger arrived announcing their freedom and enforcing its implications.”

‌Y’all still with me?

With that tragic moment in our state’s legacy…there is so much to grieve in that. SO much. But the God I serve, and the Apostle Paul’s writings to the people in Thessalonica, guides me to the truth that we, in Christ, do not grieve as a people without hope.

Amen?‌

So with that said, I want to challenge you toward just a few things:

Don’t be Awkward. Don’t walk up to any black people and say anything like, “I’m so glad you’re free”. PLEASE. But you can indeed say, “happy Juneteenth!” to the black people you know and love!

Take time to educate yourself on the holiday! Alex Cook our AMAZING HR Generalist (yes I had to look up what her job title actually is) shared some amazing resources on Slack last week. Check them out!

Read the Bible. Lastly, I have 2 scriptures to put before you because I don’t give y’all ANYTHING else…I’mma give you some Bible. And they are both coming from Paul.

Romans 6: 15-19 and Galatians 5:1

Romans 6:15–19 (ESV)

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.‌

Galatians 5:1 (ESV)

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Juneteenth is a meaningful thing to me both because of it’s implications on my life as a black person, living in Texas. But its also meaningful because of, most ultimately, who I am, who we are, in Christ. While we celebrate black people being liberated from slavery in 1865, we should also allow it to make us celebrate our being freed from the chains of slavery to all sin.

Racism. Sexism. Pride. Fear of man. Idols of Significance.

And these are just the ones I felt on my 67 minute commute here this morning.

Just me? Okay.

This year, Juneteenth makes me think heavily on the theological concepts of guilt and of shame.

Guilt is what puts us in the jail cell, shame is what keeps us in there even if we have been pardoned.

The gospel gives us, regardless of race, both the Emancipation Proclamation and Juneteenth for our sin.

‌Christ frees us from BOTH our guilt AND our shame.

I have a couple questions for you to take a snapshot of here so that you can keep them and then go process them on your own time:

What things in your life has God freed you from the guilt of (in Christ) that you still feel shame about? (Maybe having to do with race, maybe not! But think about any and all sin, because you can be non-racist and still need repentance in many other areas)

What (pertaining to Juneteenth) have you learned and how does it change your perspective on race, history, slavery, sin, etc.?

SO, yes, let this holiday make you grateful that God through his Sovereign hand freed the slaves in 1865. Let it free you to grieve the painful legacy that sin still leaves in the realms of racism in our country and in our state. But also let it remind you of the freedom we always have in Christ, and lead you to rejoice in the fact that, “Whom the son sets free…is free indeed.”

Will you pray with me?