06/19/2026
Today, June 19th, is Juneteenth, which became recognized as a federal holiday in the United States only five years ago. Juneteenth is a day of liberation that remembers when enslaved human beings in Galveston, Texas, became the last to learn of their emancipation following the defeat of the confederacy.
Our faith calls us to accountability on this day that celebrates freedom. The apostle Paul writes in Galatians 5:13-14, “You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love. All the Law has been fulfilled in a single statement: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” In these days of oppressive history repeating itself through such brazen acts as slavery exhibits being removed from national monuments and public school curricula sanitizing the history of slavery in America and even removing Black history altogether, We The Urban puts it plainly: “May we never become so comfortable with our own freedom that we stop noticing and advocating for who is being denied theirs.”
Not only are we called to use the privileges afforded us to push for liberation in witness to the Gospel of the liberating Christ, we must listen for marginalized voices in our midst calling out oppressive injustices and apply what those voices are saying to our faithful advocacy. Take Sojourner Truth’s voice for example. An allegedly illiterate enslaved human being, she was a great orator who possessed unbelievable courage and perseverance in standing up for justice as a Black woman, challenging the racial and gender caste system of slavery. When an angry heckler once declared, “Old woman, I don’t care any more for your talk than I do for the bite of a flea,” the great abolitionist Sojourner Truth replied, “The Lord willing, I’ll keep you scratching.”
Beloveds, keep scratching. I invite you to do so by reading today’s offering from the Equal Justice Initiative in their series, “A History of Racial Injustice,” that honors Juneteenth, and to watch the short EJI video “The Legacy of Slavery in America,” both of which can be found here: https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/jun/19.
As Paul also writes in Galatians, “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). So, celebrate today with joy, advocate always with perseverance, and keep scratching.
Happy Juneteenth,
Pastor Dan
Image from Revolutionary Love Project
