Juneteenth

20Jun
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’  
-Matthew 18:18-20



I am writing this the day before June 19, and you are reading it the day after June 19, a date often referred to by its holiday name - Juneteenth. A reminder of the hold oppression has on both the oppressed and the oppressor. While enslaved people were freed by the proclamation of 1863, slaveholders in Texas chose to just ignore it; they did not tell those they had enslaved that the law had changed. Not until Union soldiers took Galveston in 1865 were the enslaved people of Texas told that they had been freed two years earlier. They had remained bound on earth by others. This enslavement had, I believe, bound their "owners" on earth and in heaven as well. Christ reminds his followers that our actions on earth impact the heavenly Kingdom we are helping to shape. We will not be truly free until all are free. Perhaps this is why so many of us feel we "need" guns to keep ourselves safe and free, or why we have so many alarms on everything we own, or argue over the proper balance of police protection and prison-building, or agree on what we mean by a "good" neighborhood. I can't speak for you, but I know that the weight of our distrusting and shameful past is still with me. I want it to be as simple as Jesus says: "if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." I see a lot of disagreement among our so-called leaders today, while I believe that many of us agree on much that can make life free for us all. We all need ways to get together so we can discover that, perhaps, we all seek to love and be loved. That is my hope whenever I pray together with others: "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." As I reflect on Juneteenth, I want to better understand how my actions serve to bind or loose others. And I think of those words attributed to St. Francis of Assisi - "Make me an instrument of your Peace."


Musical Reflection - Gospel Train - Aeolian Singers - arr by Ken Burton


Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

   - Prayer attributed to St. Francis

Love

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