JustDad.Blog

“While Independence Day marks the conception of a free nation, Juneteenth is a celebration of the fulfillment of this ideal through the Emancipation Proclamation.”

Gov. Tom Wolf (former Governor of Pennsylvania)

So…. I was one of those people that didn’t know Juneteenth was a thing…. I wish I had had…but I didn’t.

I grew up in a small town in Northern Michigan… about as far from Galveston, Texas as you can get in the U.S. I had a total of three people in my class of African descent. All three of them were pretty cool…. There were some others with Native American blood, But aside from that my world was pretty white.

A lot of people are like me in that… they just don’t have a ton of exposure to a multi-cultural world, aside from what they see on TV.

I loved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I loved the stories of the civil rights movement… but to me they were exactly that. Stories… true stories… but stories. Truth is so were the stories of the American Revolution… something that happened in the distant past. I know that’s not true.

That being said… I love Juneteenth! I love what it represents… I hate that it HAS to be represented….

But welcome to the fallen world we live in.

I’m thankful that I live in a nation where an African American has been President. I’m thankful that I live in a city where two of the largest multicultural churches I know are led by African Americans (including the one I go to).

I admit that I am still a student and novice at multi culture. I’m still learning. Please teach me.

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The gospel has a lot to say about freedom… it also has a lot to say about racial reconciliation…

It’s true the Bible has been misused to “support” slavery…. But the idea that the Bible supports wholesale slavery is a mistake. It doesn’t. Its a misunderstanding of some passages that were never meant to say what slave owners said it said.

The Jewish faith…. Really started when God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt. Passover… the most important holiday ever celebrates freedom from slavery among other things.

The Christian faith… being an extension of the Jewish faith… celebrates multi culture and racial reconciliation at its core.

Many of the early conflicts in the church surrounded conflict between Jewish believers and non-Jewish believers.

I was about to say something silly. I was about to say that the first two great movements of God in the book of Acts were multicultural experiences.

Why is that silly?

Because just about every move of God in the book of Acts is a multi cultural experience, often leading to some form of racial reconciliation (whether they knew that was happening at the time or not).

The first one is on the day of Pentecost… the first big miracle (post Jesus return to heaven) is God gives his community the ability to speak in languages they don’t know naturally.1

The introduction of the ministry of “deacons” happens in the context of helping creating equitable distribution of resources between Jews who speak different languages.2

Soon after, God takes one of these new servants to talk about Jesus to Samaritans… a historical enemy of the Jewish people. The Spirit moves so powerfully there it shocks the local magician/illusionist.3

Next comes the introduction of Cornelius… a Roman… not exactly the Jews favorite. As the Spirit pours out, He and His whole household get saved/meet Jesus and get baptized (to the amazement of their new Jewish spiritual brothers and sisters.4 This only comes after Peter is rebuked by the Lord through a vision for his own prejudices. 5

I skipped one story intentionally, but I would like to go back to it here.

In it… Philip meets a eunuch from Ethiopia. The Eunuch already believes in God but as Philip talks about Jesus he gets saved and baptized… and the gospel goes to Africa.6

I share this last… because this is one of the true introductions of the gospel into an African culture…. not the power corrupted version that comes through the slave trade. The gospel goes to Africa BEFORE it goes to the Romans in Caesarea. BEFORE it goes to Rome, Spain, and England.

Christianity is ALWAYS at its best when it does the work of racial reconciliation. Sometime in the early centuries of the church some in the western church stopped doing this.… by AD 325 Western Christians began to persecute Jews, first passively, then actively. This persecution touched both believer in Jesus and non-believer alike.7

Since that time comes the Great Schism… where the Roman Churches and Greek Churches split. Since that time comes the crusades, where Jewish people and Muslims were killed.

Since that time comes the enslavement of Africa.

Where was God in all this? Well in my opinion…. Largely being ignored by the church in the west…. At least in terms of certain things that matter deeply to His Heart.

Throughout time though there has always been a remnant… a people willing to stand up for Gods ways. There are many I could list here… the Moravians, the early Methodists, etc.

It was a community of mostly believers who fought for the abolition of the slave trade in England… a movement that continued until the eventual abolition of slavery in England. My hero, William Wilberforce, was among them.8

It was a vision from God that inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin… something that influenced the American Civil War, which ended slavery in the United States.9

It was the Spirit of God that inspired Martin Luther King Jr. to fight for the rights of all people.

One of the lesser known facts of history is that racial reconciliation lies at the heart of one of the greatest movements of the 20th century… leading to one of the largest “denominations” of the 21st century.

It was a group of African Americans who were meeting together in Los Angeles, when the Holy Spirit came and moved in power: “when suddenly, as though hit by a bolt of lightning, they were knocked from their chairs to the floor,”10

This movement included people of many races:

During a time of heavy racial segregation, Seymour, the leader of what became known as the Azusa Street Revival, created a place where everyone would be welcome regardless of their skin color or nationality. One of the biggest breakthroughs at the Azusa Street Revival was that the walls of race, gender, and age were broken down. Eyewitness and historian Frank Bartleman observed that “the ‘color line’ was washed away in the blood.” This was in relation to racial divides being abolished by the blood of Jesus.

Jennifer A. Miskov, Ph.D., taken from Ignite Azusa: Positioning for a New Jesus Revolution11

This movement has spread and covered the earth.

In my experience it is precisely where you find the most unity in diversity in the people of God….where you will find the most Spirit of God.. I base this on the passages above… but also on this.

When Jesus is worshipped in heaven… in the book of revelation… the first claim of his worthiness is this:

“And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.””
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭5‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Jesus is on the move in the world today…. His ministry is a ministry of reconciliation.12 He is calling and preparing a bride for Himself from every corner of the earth.

We,His bride, while called to love one another and be completely faithful to our King… are also called to retain our cultural and racial beauty.

Around the throne of God we will see Scottish Bagpipes, Irish fiddles, African Drums, and Australian Didgeridoos.

Chinese Gongs, Brazilian Pandeiros, and more

And more than that… we will see Jews, Africans, Greeks, Partians, Medes, Iranians, Sudanese, and a remnant from every tribe and tongue… for He who has called you is faithful to complete His mission and love you well.

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So I implore you dear brother, dear sister. If you have any prejudices against your fellow human… lay them down at the foot of the cross…

If you bare any Ill will towards the cause of reconciliation. Lay it down. Ours is a ministry of love and reconciliation.

Where you find enemies… pray for them. Love them… so you may be children of God.

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May you know Jesus. The King of all Kings. The Lord of all Lords… and the husband of His multi-cultural multi-personnel bride

Footnotes

1. Acts 2:1-13

2. Acts 6:1-7

3. Acts 8:4-25

4. Acts 10:34-48

5. Acts 10:9-34

6. Acts 8:26-40

7. Decisions made at the Council of Nicea codified certain Christian practices. They were made without any Jewish believers influence and resulted in persecution of Jewish people.

8. Look up William Wilberforce and the Clapham community

9.https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/06/13/the-persuader-annette-gordon-reed accessed June 19,2023

10.Pentecostal Church of God General Bylaws, Historical Perspective, Section 3 and History.

11. William J. Seymour, Azusa Street Revival, and Racial Reconciliation Today. https://jenmiskov.com/blog/azusaracialreconciliation. Read June 19, 2023

12 “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬