August 7, 2022 - The Relevance of Emancipation Sunday
1 Peter 4:12 - 5:11
Deborah Laforet
The Relevance of Emancipation Day
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
Did anyone here recognize Emancipation Day on Monday? I admit, that I did not. August 1 was the Monday of the long weekend, and I was still catching up on my work. Jeff and I did go for a walk on the Burlington waterfront but didn’t notice any celebrations there.
In Oakville, there is an annual Emancipation Day Picnic held at the Oakville Museum. It was held this year, I think for the first time since the pandemic. People could order food, listen to some jazz gospel, visit the museum for a tour, and learn about Oakville’s early Black History and the Underground Railroad. Did you know that this picnic dates back to 1850, when African Canadians from across the province would gather at Oakville’s George’s Square to honour their journey to freedom? This is the first year I heard about it.
Emancipation Day reminds me of National Indigenous Day on June 21st. Some are aware of the day, some celebrate it or honour it in some way, but mostly people see it as any other day, sometimes not even realizing the significance of the day. In the U.S., Juneteenth has become a national holiday. June 19th, 1865, two and a half years after the Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas were told they were free. Juneteenth has been celebrated ever since and was recently made a federal holiday.
But here’s the thing. I grew up in the states, but had never heard of Juneteenth. In my small, rural, white community in mid-Michigan, I was never exposed to this holiday. It had absolutely no relevance to my life. Why would we celebrate it? In what way was it significant for the people of that small community?
We might wonder the same about Emancipation Day. It it relevant to us? The British Empire banished slavery on August 1, 1834, emancipating more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in British-controlled regions around the world, including Canada. In 2021, just last year, the Government of Canada officially designated August 1 as Emancipation Day across Canada. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear much about it this year. Did you?
But these days are important and they are relevant. Slavery, in particular African slavery, was woven into this landscape of North, Central, and South America. As Western Europeans crossed the Atlantic, as they ‘discovered’ this new land, and as they pushed out its current occupants, they also brought with them black slaves, who were actually the ones to do a lot of the back-breaking work to cultivate the land. Much of the beginning wealth of the US and Canada was due to the free labour of these slaves, with, I might add, the blessing and sometimes the participation of the church.
Days like Emancipation Day, or Indigenous Day, are relevant because Canada is still marked by slavery, by the genocide of indigenous people, by colonialism and imperialism, by racism and white superiority. These things still affect our world, giving some privilege and oppressing others.
I told you at the beginning of the summer that we could be following the Narrative lectionary, and that, instead of picking and choosing scripture every Sunday, the reading would be chosen for me, and that, at times, I may come across readings that I usually avoid and that cause some discomfort. Today was one of those readings.
As Carolyn and I both mentioned, this is one of those scriptures that has been used to oppress. In chapter two of 1 Peter, we read instruction to slaves to be subject to their masters, to endure suffering, and to wives, to be subject to their husbands. Some of the early Christian writings have been used by the church to glorify suffering and to teach people that to live with their suffering is to be Christ-like. Churches have used passages like these to keep people down and to prevent them from rising up. They have been used to justify slavery and the oppression of others, including women. When slavery was legal, and abolitionists were trying to convince people of the horrors of slavery, this would be one of those passages the church held up as a way of convincing people that the bible, God’s holy word, saw slavery as natural, with instruction for slaves, concerning their masters.
Much of what we hear from the bible in today’s discourse has been hijacked by Christians who are convinced of white and male superiority, and who are afraid of losing power. Many verses from the bible are used to enforce unhealthy viewpoints that have harmed people throughout history. The queer community calls them clobber passages and this is one of them. But the bible was not written by white men who feared losing their power. For the most part, it was written by a people who have been continually conquered, subjected to abuse, and marginalized. We need to re-evaluate the way we read the bible, reading it from a different viewpoint.
This letter, 1 Peter, was written before Christianity became a dominant and powerful force. It wasn’t as radical as the teachings of Jesus or some of Paul’s early letters, but it was a letter encouraging people to remain steadfast in the face of martyrdom. It was a letter telling people they were not alone and that people from other communities were also being persecuted for their faith, but that God was with them, was on their side, and would be with them in the end, if that’s what it came down to. This was a time, when people were literally being thrown to the lions, when Christians were seen as abominations and were blamed when things went wrong. It was a letter to say that Christ had suffered for his faith too, and in their suffering, they stood with Christ.
This was not a letter written by those in power, instructing those they oppressed to live with it, to not fight back, and to submit to their masters. Early Christians had no power and many lived in fear for their lives. This writer was offering support and encouragement and offering ways they might continue to survive through their oppression.
This is why it’s so important to hear interpretations of scripture from historically marginalized people. Read “Trans-forming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians” by Austen Hartke. Read “The Cross and the Lynching Tree” by James Cone. Read “Texts of Terror” by Phyllis Trible. Read “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church” by Rev. Wil Gafney. These are all books I have read or am reading that have helped me to read the bible in a new way. Only by reading our bible through the eyes of those who have been oppressed and who are fighting to be seen as equal can we truly understand our bible again.
Near the end of this letter, the author writes, “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to … eternal glory in Christ, will … restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.” (5:10) May this letter again someday become a letter of reassurance and not subjugation. May we all find the assurance we need through words that express a God who restores, supports, and strengthens. May we come to know that our suffering and the suffering of others is not God’s will, is not expected, is not to be tolerated, but is one way in which we connect with Christ, knowing he suffered too, even to death, and that we are never alone, God will never abandon us to our suffering, and that we have each other. May we know we can make this world a better place, with compassion and justice. Thanks be to God. Amen.