“We live in this present evil age, and as a result, we live in the tension of the already and not yet, meaning that Christ’s kingdom has been inaugurated in his first coming and the finished work of the Cross, but the fullness of the kingdom of God hasn’t come yet, awaiting Christ’s return.”
That statement, by Ekemini Uwan at Citypoint Church in Chicago, was part of a remembrance sermon for the recently inaugurated federal holiday of Juneteenth. Falling on a Sunday this year, it commemorates the news of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation reaching Texas, the most remote state of the union, on June 19, 1865.
On Juneteenth, one can see many things, but clear among those is the biblical tension spoken of above. The cry of the oppressed in the moment, the reality of the fallen world and its sin-filled systems, but also the relentless hope of the Gospel, possibly best summarized by Jesus in Luke 4:18-19:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom
for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
As a latecomer to this day of remembrance for so many generations of African-Americans, I join in heart and increasingly I pray, in action, in remembering this day with my brothers and sisters. Together, we can all join in that future hope of God’s righteous Kingdom reign, while not turning a blind eye to the pain of the past and the challenges of the present.