Better Late than Never

Today is June 19. For most of us, that doesn’t mean much. But to our African American brothers and sisters, this day rivals July 4. On July 4, we celebrate our independence as a nation, but even after we declared our freedom from England in 1776, not everyone in America was free. It would take another 87 years and a civil war before black men and women were also granted their freedom in America. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation officially declared the end of slavery in America. On that day, everyone in America was technically free. The only problem is, not everybody knew it.

Bad news travels fast, but good news tends to take a more scenic route. That’s why over two years later, there were still slaves living in rural parts of America who still hadn’t heard that they were free. Every day, they got up and went out to labor in the fields as slaves. It didn’t matter that Abraham Lincoln had declared them to be free – until they’d heard the good news, they were in every way still enslaved.

That’s why June 19, or Juneteenth, is such a big deal in the African American community. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865 that word finally reached the last pocket of slaves living in Texas. On that day, they learned that the great civil war was over, and so was their bondage. They were free.

Admittedly, there’s a big difference between being free and living in freedom. And as the current racial unrest so powerfully reminds us, we still have a long way to go as a country. But as a pastor, I can’t help but think of some other people who are still living in slavery waiting to hear the good news that the means of their freedom has been secured.

I’m talking about spiritual freedom from sin and death. Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed and sin came crashing into God’s good creation, humanity has lived in bondage to sin, separated from the one who created us in His image. And no amount of sin-management or rule keeping could ever break those chains. But then, two-thousand years ago, Jesus took up his cross and signed an Emancipation Proclamation in his own blood, declaring emphatically that sin no longer needs to be our task-master, shame no longer needs to shackle our hearts. We prodigals can come home.

This is good news of great joy for all humanity. And many of us have embraced this truth and begun to live out of it. But despite the effort of countless generations before us to carry this message across oceans and continents, there are still people living on this planet who don’t realize they can be free. And they’re not just in remote villages. There are people living in our own neighborhoods who have yet to hear the good news.

In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote the following words: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:13-15)

The Emancipation Proclamation was life changing for the men and women enslaved all across America, but the message of freedom that Jesus entrusts to us to proclaim is so much greater than that. It has eternal ramifications. And He’s entrusted it to those of us who have tasted and seen that life in Christ is true freedom.

This is the best news ever. Let’s not keep it to ourselves.

A few years back, I was introduced to Fantasy football. Suddenly, I found myself with a vested interest in every game, not just the one in which my team was playing. But it came at a cost. Fantasy sports completely altered the way I watch a game. Instead of rooting for my team to succeed, I ended up rooting for individual players on my roster irrespective of what team they’re on.

This has led to a whole slew of conflicting moments, like when I find myself cheering for certain players on a team to succeed while rooting for others to fail. I’ve even caught myself celebrating when a player on another person’s roster is sidelined because of an injury, completely forgetting that this is a real person and that injury has real life consequences.

Lately, it feels as if we’re approaching life as if it’s all a big game of Fantasy Football. We have divided the world into categories – have’s/have not’s, Democrat/Republican, black/white, citizen/non-citizen. And then we pick sides. This causes us to construct our own roster of players and causes that we root for and others that we root against.

Unfortunately, this leads to all sorts of self-defeating desires: we may find ourselves cheering when a politician stumbles, even though their misstep hurts others and has real life consequences. We may decry certain injustices, but overlook others because to acknowledge them could undermine our side’s grip on the moral high ground or, worse yet, cost us an election. Sometimes we even start to look at people who hold different perspectives than us as the enemy.

The problem with approaching life in this way is that it blinds us to an important truth: there’s only one team. We’re all in this together. 

This is especially true for those who claim to follow Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said as much to believers living in an equally fractured First Century context: "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28) His point is not to deny our differences or pretend they don't exist. Rather, he reminds us that despite our different cultural, political and socioeconomic backgrounds, our relationship with Jesus supersedes those natural dividing lines. While the world says we are on different teams with conflicting goals, if we're following Jesus then we're on the same team and we've been entrusted with the same goal - to reflect His heart into our fractured world. This means doing what he did: binding up the broken, moving towards the marginalized, praying for those who persecute us and serving others rather than seeking to be served.

I know that it may sound naïve to speak this way. You might be thinking, "That’s not the way the world works! We have competing perspectives that conflict with one another, so the only way to ensure that our values are championed is to do whatever it takes to get our representatives into positions of power, and to speak forcefully enough that our perspective is heard, right?!"

But that’s like a team’s defense publicly criticizing the offense, or the quarterback complaining about the receiving core. It doesn’t help the team succeed against the challenges that they face; instead, it tears a team apart from the inside and weakens their ability to rise to each challenge they face.

That’s certainly what is happening in our country right now. We’ve been blindsided not once but twice, first by COVID-19 and then by a series of racially charged deaths. We’re hurting. And rather than uniting to face these challenges head on, we’ve pointed fingers and blamed one another. We’ve been yelling our heads off, but few of us are willing to stop and listen to another perspective – so the volume and the frustration just continue to grow.

What are the solutions to the myriad problems we face as a society? I don’t know. But I know that we won’t find them when we’re trying to shout over one another to be heard. And if we keep blaming one another instead of working together every time we get blindsided, then before too long we won’t have the strength or the resolve to get back to our feet.

Worse yet, if we keep rooting for one another to fail, eventually we’ll wake up and realize that we’ve all lost. Because we’re on the same team.

"Therefore, let us make every effort to do what leads to
peace and to mutual edification." Romans 14:19

“Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” (Ephesians 6:10-18)

Our world is at war – I think we’re aware of that fact now more than ever. But I fear we’re looking at the wrong enemy. We are yelling at one another across the racial, political and socioeconomic fault lines of our society, when our true enemy is spiritual. The same enemy that convinced Adam and Eve to doubt their creator sows discord into our hearts. The same enemy that convinced the Jews to murder their Messiah now seeks to deaden our hearts towards our neighbor who looks or thinks or votes differently than us. And right now, it seems our enemy is winning.

It may feel overwhelming to battle an ancient enemy whom we cannot see. It’s easier to point at the rioting looters or the self-righteous bigot than it is to confront Satan and spiritual forces. But I’ve got good news: it’s not our job to vanquish them. That’s Jesus’ job, and He’s fully up to the task. Our job is simply to stand against the devil’s schemes. Read through the passage above one more time and pay attention to how many times Paul tells us to stand.

Thankfully, we’re not powerless in this fight. God has provided a number of defensive weapons to guard our hearts and minds from an enemy who attacks from the shadows, using lies and accusations, stoking fear and agitation. An interesting detail that is often overlooked when we discuss the armor of God is that each piece is primarily defensive, not offensive, in nature. Each piece protects us from the attacks of the enemy, from his underhanded schemes. Even the Sword of the Spirit (the word of God) is used primarily to defend ourselves against the temptations and manipulations of the enemy. That’s how Jesus used it when Satan tempted him, and it’s one of our strongest protections against his attacks.

In fact, the only truly offensive weapon Paul mentions in this whole list is prayer. If the rest of the armor is intended to help us stand our ground against an enemy who comes at us from every angle, then prayer is like the field phone by which we can call in air strikes against an enemy who is deeply entrenched. When we feel overwhelmed and lost within the fog of war, when the bullets are flying and we don’t know what to do, the most powerful and effective way to stand our ground is on our knees in prayer.

People often mistake prayer as a passive way of dealing with our troubles, but from a spiritual perspective, prayer is calling in the big guns. And we could sure use the help right now. That’s why I’m so grateful to those who surrounded City Hall on Wednesday to intercede on behalf of our city and our nation. I’m so grateful to those who begin their days in prayer. And I’m grateful that our God hears our cries for help. 

No, prayer isn’t passive. In this spiritual war we find ourselves embroiled in, it’s the most powerful way we have to take the fight to our spiritual enemy. So please don't stop praying. Our enemy won't stop attacking, so let's not give him a breather.