Happy Lutheran

Juneteenth celebrated the proclamation issued to enslaved African Americans by Union general Gordon Granger, in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, that they were free, and the Civil War had ended. General Granger’s announcement put into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued nearly two and a half years earlier. From the website www.juneteenth.com: “Today Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. It is a day, a week, and in some areas, a month marked with celebrations, guest speakers, picnics and family gatherings. It is a time for reflection and rejoicing. It is a time for assessment, self-improvement and for planning the future. Its growing popularity signifies a level of maturity and dignity in America long overdue. In cities across the country, people of all races, nationalities and religions are joining hands to truthfully acknowledge a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today. Sensitized to the conditions and experiences of others, only then can we make significant and lasting improvements in our society.”

At the Seminary, we celebrated Juneteenth [technically June 19th] on Friday with an uplifting worship service, that included a commemoration of the Emmanuel Nine and the pouring of libations. Here is how libations are described in This Far by Faith, an ELCA hymnal:

Libation is a practice primarily used to accompany a call to worship or gathering prayer. The gesture of libation involves the pouring of a liquid such as water or a fermented drink into the earth or a container of soil. The leader pours from a pitcher or glass during a brief silence that follows each petition or response.

The Bible makes use of the image of pouring or libation in a number of places. These references help to supply meaning to the Christian use of this symbolic act. St. Paul says to the Philippians, “But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you” (Phil. 2:17) and again in the letter to Timothy, “I am already being poured out as a libation. … I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:6-7). Thus, the image of libation is a metaphor for the dedication of one’s self in service for God’s sake. The image of pouring is also used as an image for the outpouring of the gifts of the Spirit (Acts 2:33, 10:45).

Communities of faith might consider the use of the libation gesture as a symbolic action of thanksgiving for the creation of humankind from the dust of this earthly home, and thanksgiving for those who have gone before, the mothers and fathers in faith whose mortal remains rest in the earth until the day of resurrection. The gesture may also be a sign of dedication to be poured out for the sake of the world in the same way Christ “poured out himself to death” (Isa. 53:12), even as the church is empowered by the Holy Spirit who has been poured out on us richly” (Titus 3:6).

This is the sermon I preached on Exodus 6:28-7:13.

In my sermon today, I am going to rely liberally on the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to help elucidate and emphasize why the story of the Exodus—the deliverance of the Hebrew people out of Egyptian slavery—resonates so strongly and so powerfully with the Black church. And, in doing that, I hope to remind us what we in the ELCA can learn from that experience of the good news of God’s liberating grace, and persistent love; love and grace that invites us to participate in God’s ongoing work of justice, freedom, and the dismantling of racist structures that continue to enslave God’s children.

In particular, I want to emphasize three facets of this good news: first, the sure hope we have in the victory of good over evil. Second, God’s inspiration that empowers us to speak out against injustice. And finally, the hope we share that God is at work in us and in the world today, reconciling and restoring God’s people, doing a new thing.

So, first: “good over evil.” In May, 1956, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, Dr. King preached a sermon on Exodus titled “The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore.”

Hear now an excerpt from that sermon. [And, with all of Dr. King’s writings I have changed “man/men” to “human/people.”]

This story symbolizes something basic about the universe. It symbolizes something much deeper than the drowning of a few people, for no one can rejoice at the death or the defeat of a human person. This story, at bottom, symbolizes the death of evil. It was the death of inhuman oppression and ungodly exploitation. The death of the Egyptians upon the seashore is a glaring symbol of the ultimate doom of evil in its struggle with good. There is something in the very nature of the universe which is on the side of Israel in its struggle with every Egypt. There is something in the very nature of the universe which ultimately comes to the aid of goodness in its perennial struggle with evil.

Let us not despair. Let us not lose faith in humanity and certainly not in God. We must believe that a prejudiced mind can be changed, and that a person, by the grace of God, can be lifted from the valley of hate to the high mountain of love. Let us remember that as we struggle against Egypt, we must have love, compassion and understanding goodwill for those against whom we struggle, helping them to realize that as we seek to defeat the evils of Egypt we are not seeking to defeat them but to help them, as well as ourselves. God has a great plan for this world.

God’s purpose is to achieve a world where all people will live together as siblings, and where every person recognizes the dignity and worth of all people.

People aren’t evil, but they—we—can do evil things; slavery then and slavery now is proof of that. But as we heard this morning, God empowered Moses and Aaron to stand up to the evil that had infected Pharaoh, clouding his eyes and his judgment. God worked through Moses and Aaron to overcome that evil; and God continues God’s good work through you and me today to overcome evil today as well.

Second, God’s inspiration—God’s breathing of the Holy Spirit in us— that empowers us to speak out against injustice. Here these words from Dr. King’s sermon, “A Time to Break Silence,” delivered on April 4^th, 1967, exactly one year before his death.In this sermon, Dr. King is speaking out against the Vietnam War, and he says, “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” A time comes when silence is betrayal.

…I share with all people the calling to be a child of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of siblingship and brother, sisterhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for God’s suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.

This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation’s self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls “enemy,” for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our siblings.

Let us not forget Moses’ fear, his lack of confidence, his doubt that he could do this sacred work of freedom-proclamation to which God was calling him. This doubt was pretty common with all the prophets, frankly; and it is common with us, too. And yet: God persisted, and assured and reassured the prophets that God would give them the words they needed. They would not be alone as they stood up and spoke out; God would be them. And just as it was for Moses and Aaron, God is with us, too, when the time comes for us to “break silence.”

Finally, hope. Dr. King references the Exodus in his “I have Been to the Mountaintop,” speech, delivered April 3, 1968 in Memphis.

He starts the speech this way: 

Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, ‘Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?’ I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land.

And then he reflects on other human milestones up until the present and concludes by saying how glad he is to be living in this time, because he sees God at work, he knows something is happening.

King is confident in his sure hope that God is working for justice in the world; and that divine work will lead to the promise land—for all God’s children, in spite of all the forces that would thwart it; forces that would result in his death not 24 hours later.

Siblings in Christ, especially today, we lift up and celebrate the liberating power of the gospel, the indefatigable power of our God—the God who breaks the chains of slavery, who turns hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, who makes a way out of no way, and who brings life out of death. And, today, we rejoice with our African American siblings in their freedom from slavery; and join our voices and hands with theirs, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to continue to bear witness to God’s liberating goodness, and the good news of freedom in Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God. AMEN.