by Joe Davis

Juneteenth commemorates a day when my ancestors could breath a little more freely. On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, enslaved Africans were read federal orders that they were freed, even though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed over two years prior. They didn’t know they were free because, in spite of the law, they were still brutalized by those who weaponized power. This was this liberatory announcement that initiated the joyful reunion of long-separated loved ones and the work of reconstructing after centuries of being held down by the harsh American slave system. 

Today, families of African descent throughout the United States celebrate this Freedom Day, which gave us a brief moment to inhale deeper than before. However, as a Black artist and educator living in Minneapolis, MN during an uprising that has sparked freedom demonstrations around the world, I know that oppressive powers have only shifted their weight on the necks of vulnerable Black bodies as we cried out to breathe. 

I can only imagine how profoundly the Giver of all life and breath (1) must become enraged and grief-stricken every time the breath in our bodies is snuffed out by violent power. But I needn’t imagine this response, as Jesus incarnated this reality when he protested abusive authority decrying those holding power through violence as hypocrites and snakes (2) and damaged temple property when it was being valued more than the humanity of his people (3). Although divisive and controversial to corrupt religious leaders and exploitative lawmakers, Jesus embodied a form of justice not rooted in revenge or retribution, but instead in restoration and healing. Even though he could have commanded an army of angels to battle on his behalf (4) his love for the most vulnerable was held so deeply in his body that he lived and died among them in a communion of shared vulnerability. Jesus gave his all, his last breath, to empower them, and to empower us, to rise again. His desire was that we would all be freed from the grips of power-hoarding, death-dealing systems and breathe in the abundance of life-affirming community. 

Jesus intensely understood the soul wound and how violence, at its core, is a spilling over of trauma and suffering from one body to another. Resmaa Manekem, body-centered therapist and author of My Grandmother’s Hand: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, describes the soul wound as trauma routinely passed on from person to person and from generation to generation. The only way to stop the cyclical pattern is not punitive force but reparative action and a commitment to the practice and process of healing. This calls for the healing of the oppressor and the oppressed, as stated by Dr. Joi Lewis, Twin Cities healer, author, and founder of the Healing Justice Foundation. Dr Lewis states, “Oppression is not an inevitable state of affairs and no human being would agree to oppress another person or agree to be oppressed if they weren’t already hurt.” 

The wounds of violence reach the innermost essence of our beings, it viscerally impacts our flesh and becomes ritualized in every part of society and culture from policing to politics. When we heal the systems that live inside of us, then we can also heal the systems that live outside of us. And that is the path to collective liberation that Jesus calls us all to embody (5). 

Juneteenth, also known as Jubilee Day, speaks to this call, an ancestral echo of the struggle for freedom heard in the litany of voices throughout history. If we listen, we can hear it resonating in the song of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam—among countless other scriptural leaders —organizing themselves and their people to escape the slave system of pharaohs and kings who denied their demands for human dignity until death was too close to home (6). Once their lungs were no longer constricted by the tyrannical rule of empire, they had enough space to breathe new life into prophetic visions of Jubilee, where prisoners could be liberated, debts forgiven, and the land renewed (7). 

I long to live in a world not of crippling dependence on guns and cages as lethal enforcers of systemic injustice, but a world where our bodies and our institutions rise with the deep, slow rhythms of healing. We don’t live in that world yet, but it’s worth working for with every breath we have.

Joe Davis is a nationally-touring artist, educator, and speaker based in Minneapolis, MN, whose work employs poetry, music, theater, and dance to shape culture. He is the Founder and Director of multimedia production company, The New Renaissance, the frontman of emerging soul funk band, The Poetic Diaspora, and qualified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory. He has keynoted, facilitated conversation, and served as teaching artist at hundreds of high schools and universities including New York, Boston, and most recently as the Artist-in-Residence at Luther Seminary where he received a Masters in Theology of the Arts.

1: Genesis 2:7 (CEB) the Lord God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life. 

2: Matthew 23 (CEB) Jesus Calls Out the Legal Experts and Religious Leaders; Matthew 12:34 (CEB) Children of snakes! How can you speak good things while you are evil? What fills the heart comes out of the mouth. 

3: Matthew 21: 12 (CEB) Then Jesus went into the temple and threw out all of those who were selling and buying there. He pushed over the tables used for currency exchange and the chairs of those who sold doves. 

4: Psalms 91:12 and Matthew 4:6 

5: Luke 17:20-21Pharisees asked Jesus when God’s kingdom was coming. He replied, God’s kingdom isn’t coming with signs that are easily noticed. Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ Or ‘There is!’ Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you. 

6: Exodus 12:29-50 

7: Leviticus 25: 8-18

by: Sophia Behrens

The ELCA Youth Gathering is an excellent resource for youth to explore their vocations. After attending the 2018 Gathering, I had a better understanding of how big our church was. I also realized that youth can have an empowering opinion about their faith life and how to carry that voice out through our vocations. The Gathering gave me a space to further explore my vocational call of social justice.

I’ve been involved in social justice issues since middle school, beginning with learning about women’s rights and later expanding horizons to be more involved with social justice issues relating to world hunger and diverse representation. The Gathering aided me in finding a way to better connect these issues to my faith life. During my Interactive Learning day, I was able to explore and talk with different organizations and ministries of the ELCA in the social justice space from immigration law to advocating for a better life for farmers across the globe. Along with my peers, I learned how I can get involved with these organizations. 

For me, the speakers at Mass Gathering emphasized the importance of faith communities and the support they give in relation to an individual’s vocation. We heard from strong speakers about a range of subjects, but the one that still sticks out to me over a year later is Maria Rose Belding. Maria founded and directs MEANS database, which helps distribute food across the country. Her words about the struggles of being a teenager and finding a way to fix and advocate for a unique problem inspired and reminded me of my vocation and how to find parallels with faith life and vocation instead of keeping them separate. 

While these were the areas of the Gathering that inspired me personally, there were countless other activities and speakers that could speak to other youth which is what creates the vast outreach of the Gathering.

Sophia Behrens is a freshman at Valparasio University. Throughout high school, Sophia was active in the ELCA Youth Core Leadership Team, her home congregation, and supporting ELCA World Hunger. Sophia was also a part of the 2021 Theme Discernment team for the ELCA Youth Gathering. 

by: Kyle Lefler

Jesus walked. Miles & miles across the hills and valleys of the Holy Land. He and his disciples traveled great distances with little comforts to be with, among and beside the people.

While we need not always travel great distances to be of service to others, we are called to be out among our neighbors. We are called to listen for where there is a need, to pay attention to injustice and to respond in ways that further God’s vision of justice on earth.

My own faith journey has been deeply strengthened by participating in acts of service, both in giving and receiving. As a young person, my youth group served through acts of generous charity and our leaders helped us understand how that charity could move into justice work through education and systemic change. Any work of service is best done in mutuality, where we are listening and responding to a need, rather than offering our own solution. The Gospels provide us with dozens example of that mutuality, through Christ’s society-shaking, humble actions.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I attended the 2006 ELCA Youth Gathering in San Antonio and saw service in action on the largest scale I had ever witnessed. There were dozens of organizations educating young people about needs in the world and empowering them to participate in advocating for and serving those in need. Many of us had never had the opportunity to learn and grow in such a way. We saw the Gospel being acted upon in tangible, accessible ways and learned about the calling we have as Christians to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly. 

Since then, I’ve had the privilege of leading groups through their Service Learning day at the Gathering. We have WALKED  the streets of cities from New Orleans, Detroit and Houston, listening and learning from those communities, and serving in ways that respond to their needs. I have seen young people’s attitudes transform from tiredness and disinterest to excitement and desire to do more in the course of just a few hours. Together, we become better disciples when we humble ourselves to listen and give of our own gifts of time and privilege. I believe Service Learning can be the most powerful moment of the Gathering for many of the attendees, as they experience a new place and find God’s calling within themselves… then take that calling back home to their own community.

May we always boldly go and do likewise.

Kyle Lefler serves as the year round program coordinator at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp in NW Montana, overseeing year round retreat programming and onsite summer camp operations. Kyle is passionate about working with young people in God’s Creation and striving to create intentional community spaces where they are unconditionally loved & accepted, empowered & advocated for. She loves early morning lake swims, handwritten letters & the Avett Brothers.

– Judith Roberts

“We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality… tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly” – words made famous by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

As a person of faith, this quote reminds me of the oneness of God, “We are One in the Spirit and we are one in the Lord.” As I think about the current divisions in this country along religious beliefs, the legacy of inequities based on racial and socioeconomic status, the violence attributed to gender, discrimination experienced because of sexual orientation, the abuse of the environment, the rejection of the stranger, the separation of the family, and the construction of walls that divide us from our neighbor—it is hard to consider the unity of humanity. Yet, as people of faith, that is exactly what we are called to do. The words of Dr King couldn’t ring truer, sink or swim, we are all in this together. Remembering my baptism in Christ reminds me that I am called into a world that has been turned upside down. For me, there is an unyielding hope: first in the cross, and secondly, that I am one among many that are claimed, called, and sent.

In 2015, I joined with other passionate, insightful, caring, and courageous youth and their leaders at the Gathering in Detroit. The ELCA Racial Justice program hosted an interactive learning exhibit based on the ELCA Social Statement, “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity & Culture.”

The words of the ELCA baptismal covenant and a water-filled basin represented a baptismal font. The font served as a reminder that it is through our baptism, we are filled with the Spirit to strive for justice.  The exhibit engaged participants to understand racism and the intersection of other forms of oppression through the lens of history and stories.

The work of racial justice is not just analyzing and understanding systems of inequity, but also ongoing working proactively and against it.

Some participants came with questions about working for racial justice; others shared personal stories of their experiences of discrimination. Some just came for conversation and connection. By the end of the Gathering, we collected over 3,000 handwritten pledges called “God’s Work, Our Hands for Justice.”

I left inspired by the commitments made at the Gathering.  Although the ELCA does not reflect the racial diversity of the broader country, my hope is in the vision being created by youth and the leaders that work with them. They are eager to learn, willing to use all of their privileges as a platform for transforming this world in continuing the journey of their baptism by showing up for justice.

I look forward to joining members of this church in Houston, TX for the 2018 Youth Gathering.

– Rev. Priscilla Paris-Austin

I traveled by train halfway across the country to attend the Youth Gathering in New Orleans with four youth. Months of preparation and anticipation were finally being made manifest as we rose early that first full day for our Justice Day. Our task was to pick up trash in a neighborhood still recovering after Hurricane Katrina, but the dumpsters from the city had not yet arrived. We met with leaders of the partner organization who explained that it was not unusual for folks to say they were coming to help in this area… and then not show up. The city then developed a habit of waiting to provide resources until the evidence proved they could be useful. Our presence, despite the planning, was a surprise!

After surveying the area and spending some time with leaders, our Servant Companion gathered us back on the bus for reflection. When faced with the decision of calling it a day or walking the neighborhood, I completely understood the massive number of hands on the bus that rose to end the day… until I turned to look at my youth. All of them were opting to stay. They wanted to meet the people, or at least try. It was a moment that made this veteran youth leader weep with pride. 

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

While the majority vote meant that our day was done, my youth were transformed in that moment. They recognized that while they didn’t get their hands dirty, the difference they made was not of their own doing, but it was a gift of God. They were a gift of God just by showing up.  This knowledge, it changes EVERYTHING.  

Rev. Priscilla Paris-Austin serves as the pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Seattle, WA.

When I first met Patrick Allen, he was sitting in a hotel lobby, quiet and unhappy. He’d come to New Orleans for the 2009 Youth Gathering looking forward to helping with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

On work project day, his group was assigned to clear litter and weeds from a neighborhood hit hard by Katrina four years ago. Patrick had hoped to do hands-on work that was more than “cosmetic.”

“I didn’t think it was worth our time and effort,” he told me in the lobby. The 18-year-old from Richmond, Va., felt that he’d somehow let the people of New Orleans down.

After I wrote about Patrick’s disappointment, people from New Orleans posted comments saying the effort had made a difference. They seemed to sense the sincerity of this young man in striving to serve others as Jesus commanded.

One reader wrote: “You have NO IDEA how much a CLEANED LOT, or one gutted house, one slab removed, affects us in our spirit to GO ON, to know that God is there.”

After reflecting more on his experience, Patrick sent these comments along, describing the spiritual transformation that happened for him in New Orleans. Thank you, Patrick, for sharing your thoughts:

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