Scripture: Exodus 6:6-7a – “Say therefore to the Israelites: I am the Lord, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God.” (NRSVue)
I grew up in Marshfield, Massachusetts, in the 1980s and 90s. It was in many ways a sheltered existence. And looking back, there were a lot of details about the experiences of other people that I was not exposed to, and I think that I missed a lot because of it.
I was at a dinner hosted by the Massachusetts Council of Churches for part-time and bi-vocational pastors. From some of the black pastors, I heard about Watchnight services on December 31. I thought, “Oh, I guess it is nice to celebrate the new year at church.” I had never heard that in the African American church tradition that it was a celebration of Freedom’s Eve, when African Americans gathered in 1862 waiting when the Emancipation Proclamation would go into effect on January 1. Here was a celebration of joy and freedom that I was missing out on because I was never exposed to something beyond my own community.
Likewise, I had never heard of Juneteenth until it became a federal holiday. This was another observance tied to the abolishment of slavery, another festival of joy and freedom that I had missed because I never had to learn anything more than what was right in front of me.
Watchnight and Juneteenth are invitations to celebrate freedom, and I think that Christians should always celebrate freedom. An essential theme of the Bible is liberation from slavery, not only physical slavery, but spiritual slavery. The story of Exodus shows that faith comes from freedom. Jesus is our savior because we are saved from our servitude to sin.
When we are bound in sin, we are not only separated from God. We are often oblivious to the fact that we are enslaved at all. We miss out on how God is calling us to love and support one another and not to focus only on our own experiences.
One of the greatest threats to our happiness and our faith is living in a bubble. People lack empathy because all they hear are the words of people like them. Growing up in the comforts of the suburbs, I never had to think about people outside of my own experience except in the abstract. By focusing only on the parts of God’s message that seem immediately relevant to us, we are missing out all of what God is calling us to heart and to do.
In your prayers today, think about all the sinful and selfish behaviors that your faith in Jesus has freed you from. Then think of all the freedom that you still need, a freedom from fear, from isolation, from ignorance. Remember that if one person is enslaved, either by sin or oppression, we all are. Celebrate freedom today and remember that it our God who can truly make us free.
Prayer: Lord, help me to celebrate how far I have come in faith, and open my eyes to how far I still have to go. Amen.
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