SJE 26 July 2026 Emancipation Sunday
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus gives us a full-to-overflowing package of metaphors to describe what things are like within God’s new creation.
The reign of God is like a tiny mustard seed’s ability to flourish magnificently. God’s new creation is like yeast, the tiniest bit of which can make dough to rise deliciously. The kingdom of God is about abundance and flourishing – the grace-filled ‘je ne sais quoi’ that takes static things like a seed or dustings of wheat flour and turns them into something that is what they are, but greater, and, in their full flourishing as what they are intended to be, as a flowering tree or a loaf of bread, are able to give themselves away for the good of the birds and the hungry people.
And more. God’s kingdom is like a treasure buried somewhere in a field, or a pearl that is of great worth. The kingdom of God, this free flourishing, is to be highly valued above other riches.
And there’s more. God’s reign is like the greatest haul in net-fishing that you could ever imagine. It gathers all living things and then sorts out the good from that which will corrupt the whole catch. The kingdom of God is also about the gift of discernment. In today’s first reading we hear Solomon asking God for the gift of wisdom. Knowing good from bad is a constant struggle through life. In the freedom of the kingdom, God helps us by guiding us with God’s own wisdom; and the Holy Spirit is there to guide us, praying for us with sighs too deep for words, and making sure we are never separated from the love of God. The new creation, the reign of God, the kingdom of God, is about living in the freedom of grace that God gives to us all in abundance.
When I read the Psalm for today, I heard the voices of enslaved Black women, men, and children in Upper Canada – now our home of Ontario – who for 200 years under the British North America Act and also in New France, were bought and sold, brought in chains to this land to serve their wealthy immigrant masters. Upper Canada and New France never had a plantation economy, so there was not slavery on such an industrial scale as in the southern United States, but we had the institution of slavery here on farms and in homes. Throughout the wider British Empire, the wealth of that Empire was, in fact, built on the whipped backs and through the blistered hands of African slaves stolen from their homes and forced to labour to the death to grow cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane. With the psalmist, communities of enslaved women, men, and children sang their laments and their own pleas with God for release from human oppression.
Canadians often think about slavery within the narrative of Canada being the beacon of freedom to those persons enslaved by White men in the United States. As part of the British Empire, we experienced the legal abolition of slavery in 1833. The Underground Railroad was good news indeed for so very many; but their experience of the continuing racism in Canada meant that the struggle for full recognition of their dignity and worth was still with them.
And then, because evil like to reincarnate itself, even after the Emancipation Act was declared, the Indian Act and the Indian Residential School and Reservation systems still kept Indigenous people imprisoned, drastically imprisoning people with strictly limited possibilities – the most a residential school survivor could aspire to might be to be a domestic servant: that’s how the system was designed. We know too well and some of us here far too up-close how wars create imprisonment of whole populations whether under siege or forced into refugee camps or into forced labour imprisonment. The legacies of these forms of slavery still are embedded in the bodies and souls of countless people.
A year ago, the General Synod passed a resolution declaring the last day of July to be Emancipation Sunday, honouring the Declaration of Emancipation Day across the former British Empire when close to 1 million enslaved persons were released. Countries around the world have kept this Day in secular ways; those who brought the motion believed that the time is overdue for the Anglican Church of Canada to mark this day for special prayer and reflection and thanksgiving to God for God’s gifts of liberation. It is also intended as a sobering call to the church – especially to those of us who are White and live from legacies of the privilege that the economy of empire has given – to reflect on our needs to confront racism and all that stands in the way of the full flourishing of all people, especially Indigenous persons, Black persons, and persons of Colour.
I highly recommend to you – perhaps a summer road trip – a visit to the Amherstburg Freedom Museum, down near Windsor. There you can experience the many many stories of those who escaped their enslavement, and of their continuing struggles for full freedom. One of these is James Frederick Johnson, born in 1915, who in a video recorded late in his life tells of his grandfather’s harrowing escape, aided by a slave Overseer who was actually an Abolitionist working undercover. His struggle for the freedom to survive was met by the struggle of a group of Quaker Christians who risked their freedom in solidarity, putting themselves between those escaping and the furious slave owners who’d chased them all the way up to Michigan. Harrowing tales of courage and mutual support and self-giving to others for the sake of human freedom, assisted by others risking their freedom.
Freedom is a difficult word. It lends itself to all sorts of interpretations and is submitted to too many ideologies. At times it seems we need the wisdom of Solomon to figure out which versions to say “yes” to and which versions to, frankly, shun. But God’s version of freedom, the freedom of grace given for the flourishing of all living creatures, is of course our starting place. God is bringing about the new creation. God touches us in the place where our true freedom lives, in our hearts, and calls us to freely choose to be a part of this reign of abundance and flourishing for all – not just for me, or for my people, but for all – a flourishing that is beyond any price or value that the governments or corporations of this world could possibly put to it. It is the freedom of full flourishing that allows all living things, including human beings, to grow in love and peace and joy using our gifts of reason, memory, skill, our values of kindness and generosity, to reshape the world around us. This sort of freedom is far from licentiousness and it is the opposite of individualism. It is about the freedom of the children of God to serve God and to act with responsibility within God’s creation.
The Enemies of God hate this sort of freedom and go to exorbitant lengths and expend huge amounts of energy to lure us into counterfeit versions of so-called “freedom”. Amass a certain amount of wealth and you’ll be truly free; until you discover that you’re enslaved to wanting more. I trust you to think of your own examples. Perhaps this Emancipation Sunday is a good time for us to reflect on the true meaning of God’s freedom. Listen and learn from those who have experienced enslavement and its legacies, in whatever form they have suffered. Refocus our conversations about so-called ‘freedom’ and true freedom.
On this Emancipation Day in particular, there are two faces to God’s freedom that I think we need to tend to. For those who need liberation from oppression, enslavement, and other forms of imprisonment, and for those who carry the multigenerational burdens of those who bore the burdens of slavery in the past, the cry for freedom is a raising of lament and hope in deep prayer. Those of us who are not from generations of enslaved African peoples need to stand back and allow genuine lament and prayer to arise. We – and I count myself in this “we” – need to embrace the second face of God’s freedom with deepening commitment this day, and that is to embrace the freedom to take responsibility to confront what stands in the way of God’s desires for all to be liberated from oppression and to join in the joys of the new creation.
New life in God’s freedom in grace is a new life of abundance shared, Godly values pursued, and where together we can, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, lean into God’s clarity about what good things our freedom is for. Perhaps the world itself is waiting for us to live more fully into God’s freedom and our responsibilities towards each other and our neighbours within this new creation. Perhaps the Spirit is truly with us, helping us along with sighs too deep for words, so that all God’s children may live in the glorious freedom of God’s kingdom.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.