For decades, Americans have been counseled when we “see something” suspicious, to trust our government and “say something.” On Jan. 6, 2021, many Americans watched in horror as President Trump said things that further proved his untrustworthiness. And then we saw something terrifying.
Even if we anticipated violence, given Trump's consistently incendiary words, the images of armed insurrectionists occupying the Capitol were jarring. Even if we know this nation’s harrowing history of white militias acting with extra-judicial violence, a coup attempt is still extraordinary. We saw the Confederate flag paraded through the halls of Congress. We saw white Americans breaking into a federal building taking selfies with willing law enforcement officers, in stark contrast to a summer of violent policing of civil rights protesters. We saw insurrectionists literally breaking the furniture of democracy. We saw the man supposedly acting as the nation’s commander-in-chief counsel his followers towards violence, not away from it. For some, these images caused an epiphany.
For some Christians, this insurrection also happened to occur on the holy day of Epiphany.
On Epiphany or Three Kings Day, Christians tell the story of a scared King Herod in Jerusalem, threatened by the birth of this so-called Messiah named Jesus, born in Bethlehem. Magi show up from the East, following a star. King Herod gets nervous about losing power to the newborn King so he tells the Magi to check it out and report back. As the Gospel of Matthew tells it, “When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.” They find Jesus in a manger. Instead of bowing to a petty ruler, the Magi kneel before the Prince of Peace. They give their most precious gifts. “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road."
Once you see something, you have to change something.
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, a veteran, said last week, "[Republicans] are having epiphanies right now, but the problem is what they need is not an epiphany, they need to find some courage to do the right thing."
It’s not enough to just have an epiphany, you have to change direction. That’s what stepping out in faith is.
The Magi defied a violent and vindictive king who fears something new being born in the world. They saw something radiant and joyful that brought about an epiphany of love, and what they saw made them change direction.
It takes courage to change direction and turn away from the route you know. The well-worn "Serenity Prayer" from 12-step recovery asks, “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can.” But when the Rev. Reinhold Niebuhr first wrote the prayer in the early 1940s for churches in Massachusetts and then later for a book of devotions for those in the Armed Services, the lines were in reverse. "Give us courage to change what must be altered," was followed by the serenity to "accept what cannot be helped." In the midst of war and internal conflict in his day, Niebuhr prayed for the courage to do the right thing, and only after that, for serenity.
Far too often in this country, we ask first for serenity and then maybe, one day, if we have enough courage, we might change.
Moulton rightly focuses on his Republican counterparts who need to access their courage to hold Trump accountable for his dangerous actions. But Moulton’s challenge is far broader, for all of us having our own epiphanies right now. We have seen things. Do we have the courage to change?
There is little denying what we saw on Jan. 6: Armed insurrectionists took over federal buildings based on long-perpetuated lies. We saw white privilege and violent misogyny tangled up with resentment and dishonesties. As a Christian who is ill and enraged that my tradition is propping up this death cult, my stomach sunk to see a cross and a noose erected on the Capitol lawn. Those historic instruments of death are only displayed together to terrorize Black people, not to testify to the hope of resurrection in Jesus. As Black churches are desecrated across Washington D.C., and a Black church was burned just two weeks ago here in Springfield, Massachusetts, the signs are as clear as the star over Bethlehem.
Will we have the courage to change?
Laura Everett is a pastor and the executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches.
