My mom usually mentioned, “do proper as a result of it’s proper to do,” by which she meant that we must always doggedly decide to reality and to the appropriate it requires. In John 8, Jesus’ proclamation about reality and freedom is met with the phrase: “we’re descendants of Abraham and have by no means been slaves to anybody.” However anybody who is aware of the story must be scratching their heads. Did these Jewish leaders rewrite historical past? Did they reject the historical past of Abraham’s descendants having been slaves in Egypt (Deut. 5:15, the decision to recollect), a core to their name to justice? Their legal guidelines requested them to deal with widows, orphans, and foreigners (aliens) with justice exactly due to this historical past. However Jesus mentioned, “you’ll know the reality and the reality will make you free.”
A buddy, Rev. Dr. Claudette Copeland, as soon as mentioned to me, “the reality that units you free is the reality you’re prepared to know.” Is that the issue, as we method Juneteenth? Culturally are we not prepared to know the reality? Are we willfully amnesiac? Does digging our heels in to carry on to the tales we’ve informed ourselves plague us?
I wish to have some “do proper” in my soul, in my life. I wish to face the reality, even embrace it, even whether it is painful and requires repentance. This Juneteenth, as I recall the indomitable spirit of enslaved ancestors that endures, I would like us to embrace what’s true.
