FAITH CONNECTION – FARMERSVILLE UMC
Ministry Updates for Friday, June 19th, 2020
Worship—Sunday, June 21st, at 9:30 a.m.
Please join us as we again worship through Facebook Live. Use this link to watch the service. And please consider passing it along to a friend. https://www.facebook.com/events/650555092154417/
Return to In-Person Worship
We are planning to return to in-person worship on July 12th. The service time will be at 9:00am. We will continue our Facebook Live Worship indefinitely, but it will be moved to 11:00am on July 12th.
Pastor Patty is Retiring! Patty Matthews served our congregation for 10 years and touched many lives during her time at Farmersville. If you wish to send a note or card; her home address is – 919 Walnut St., Milford, OH 45150.
Scripture for reflection – Exodus 5:1
Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.’”
Reflection – Juneteenth
I must admit, until just a week ago or so, I was ignorant of what Juneteenth was. I would challenge you to do a little research. But here is the short story. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to be effective on January 1st, 1963. But the Civil War was still raging, so those enslaved were not yet free. Texas was the last state to hold slaves. On June 19th, 1865, the enslaved in Texas were shocked to hear they were now free. Juneteenth became the name of this celebration, held ever since.
Texas made it a day of observance in 1938, and then was the first state to make it a state holiday in 1980.
The two major events of the Bible can be couched in terms of slavery, liberation, and celebration. First, the liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt, acknowledged annually by Jewish people in their Passover Celebration. Second, the liberation of all people from slavery to sin and death, through the sacrifice on the cross of Jesus Christ, acknowledged by Christians through the Easter Celebration.
God is obviously big on freedom.
20 years ago, I went to Ripley, Ohio with a group of United Methodist clergy to see the historical sites and learn about the ‘underground railroad’ operated there. The tales of this pre-civil war liberation effort had an indescribable and profound effect on me.
It is not open again yet, but I feel strongly that a trip to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati needs to be high on my agenda as we emerge from this pandemic. I would suggest the same for anyone who has not yet been, because God is big on freedom.
Prayer
God of freedom, God of love, God who liberates those trapped in slavery, cycles of oppression, sickness and brokenness, we give you thanks you continuously seek to draw every last person into the fullness of life. On this day, we celebrate the end of legalized slavery in the U.S. May we continue to labor as a church toward calling all people into the liberation and celebration which is your kingdom of heaven. Amen