{"id":3753,"date":"2024-06-19T07:01:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T11:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3753"},"modified":"2024-06-19T07:01:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T11:01:57","slug":"independence-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/19\/independence-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Independence 2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

A few years ago, when I was serving as a workplace pastor for a healthcare company, one of our Black associates, seemingly out of the blue, asked me a question. \u00a0

\u201cAre you planning to write a morning reflection about Juneteenth?\u201d

\u201cI\u2019d be glad to do that,\u201d I answered enthusiastically. Then I added, \u201cUm, what\u2019s Juneteenth?\u201d\u00a0

The short answer is that Juneteenth is something most white people never heard about while growing up, whether at the dinner table or in American history classes. But today it will be acknowledged for the third consecutive year as our nation\u2019s twelfth federal holiday.

On June 18, 1865, Union soldiers under the command of Major General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas.\u00a0He brought news of something that had happened more than two months earlier: Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Virginia at Appomattox. The Civil War had officially ended.

The next day, June 19, Granger stood on the balcony of Galveston\u2019s Ashton Villa and read aloud a statement called\u00a0General Order No. 3:\u00a0<\/em>\u201cThe people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.\u00a0This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.\u201d

The quarter million slaves who were living in Texas rejoiced.\u00a0

What was the \u201cproclamation from the Executive of the United States\u201d to which Granger was referring?\u00a0It was the Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln.\u00a0Until that moment, the citizens of Galveston had no idea such a declaration had ever been made.\u00a0And they had no clue that Lincoln had been assassinated 10 weeks earlier.\u00a0

June 19 became known as Juneteenth\u00a0(a combination of \u201cJune\u201d and \u201cnineteenth\u201d) as well as\u00a0Freedom Day and Emancipation Day.\u00a0In the Black community it is regarded as America\u2019s \u201csecond Independence Day.\u201d

Block parties and barbecues have become June 19 staples.\u00a0Red foods \u2013 including red-hot sausages, watermelon, red velvet cake, and red-tinted hibiscus tea \u2013 are particularly popular. On Juneteenth, red represents the resilience and perseverance of the Black community during its four centuries in the New World.\u00a0

This day also serves as a reminder of two deep truths.

First,\u00a0<\/em>what good is Good News if we haven’t heard it?\u00a0\u00a0

The Emancipation Proclamation had gone into legal effect on January 1, 1863.\u00a0But it had had no\u00a0real\u00a0<\/em>effect on the people of Texas until two and a half years later \u2013 when the war was over and Federal troops finally arrived to announce it.\u00a0\u00a0

The same thing is true in our life with God.

God’s amazing grace is the most transforming news flash in human history.\u00a0But until we actually hear it and believe it is true, it will have little if any effect on how we experience life over the next 24 hours.\u00a0\u00a0

Second,<\/em>\u00a0freedom doesn’t happen by force.\u00a0Real change happens in the heart.\u00a0

Fully armed Union soldiers may have arrived on Texas soil to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.\u00a0But the presence of guns didn’t heal the grievous hurts of previous centuries – wounds that continue to fester today.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

Slavery was a great evil.\u00a0So is the cauldron of prejudice, hatred, and misunderstanding that continues to bubble beneath the surface of our culture. Even after 159 years, American minds and hearts remain despairingly far from celebrating General Granger’s declaration of “absolute equality” between the races.

How can we transform this reality?

Romans 12:21 reminds us, “Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”\u00a0What might that look like?

We take action.\u00a0We figure out ways to pour goodness into the lives of other people, into the lives of strangers, into the lives of people we don’t agree with.\u00a0We disarm hatred with forgiveness.\u00a0We go the second mile to cultivate understanding.\u00a0We choose to model graciousness, friendship, prayer, partnership, and hope.\u00a0

And we don’t give up.\u00a0

This journey has already taken a long time.\u00a0And it may take much longer.\u00a0

But goodness drives out evil.\u00a0It’s so easy to become paralyzed by staring into this terrible wound, this “original sin” of our country, and to take refuge in the politics of anger and finger-pointing.\u00a0

But with God’s grace and power, the world can become a different place.

Starting with us.<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here A few years ago, when I was serving as a workplace pastor for a healthcare company, one of our Black associates, seemingly out of the blue, asked me a question. \u00a0 \u201cAre you planning to write a morning reflection about Juneteenth?\u201d \u201cI\u2019d be glad to do that,\u201d I answered enthusiastically. Then… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[210,752,261],"class_list":["post-3753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-freedom","tag-juneteenth","tag-slavery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3755,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3753\/revisions\/3755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}