Understanding the Times 

It's About Freedom

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Its Summer!  This Season of Pentecost is about Freedom!  First, we acknowledge Pentecost, the day when we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit on the gathered disciples after the resurrection of Jesus marking the beginning of the Christian church.  Next, we acknowledge Juneteenth, the day we remember the coming of federal troops with the word that the Civil War and Chattel Slavery were over almost two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Pride, Pentecost, and Juneteenth may seem like strange bedfellows, but they have more in common than meets the eye.

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Each is disruptive—upsetting the status quo and the expectations that people had come to have about the way the world worked. The Spirit caused an outpouring of praise in numerous languages and broke down the barriers that separated people—barriers of race, national origin, language, and faith.

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Pride, too, is disruptive; it breaks down the walls that some people seek to erect to mark who is in and who is out. Pride says that everyone, without exception, is made in the image of God and belongs in the circle of love and grace.

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Juneteenth is so disruptive that it's not clear how those with a vested interest in the status quo will deal with the contradictions the day presents. The one thing that is clear is where the spirit of the Lord is there is FREEDOM!

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This Church's theological foundation is grounded in Liberation. Specifically, as carry out the Great Commission we are compelled to liberate people from the multiple forms of political, social, economic, and religious subjugation that contradict the biblical mandates and the abundant life promised through Jesus Christ.