Truth and Lament

Church of the Cross,

I talked with Peter this morning and want to offer two brief thoughts about how we might pray and think about the riots that convulsed our nation’s capital Wednesday afternoon. Speaking of those events, Esau McCalley said, “This is not a both sides moment in American history. Speak plainly Christians.” I am going to do my best.

Lament. There are two grievous images from yesterday laying heavy on my heart. The first is of gallows standing in front of the Capitol Rotunda. Whoever erected them was sending a clear message about the perceived stakes of Trump’s second term. There is unambiguous racial hatred animating the disputes about the validity of November’s election. I am not by any means calling every Republican (or Trump voter) a racist. I am calling you as Christians to avoid the appearance of evil (1. Thess 5:22). As a majority white congregation, this involves denouncing and repenting of the demonic power that exercises itself in the hatred of Black people. To the people of color in our congregation, I am heartbroken that these kinds of images appear in real time on social media and menace actual people in real physical spaces. Lord, have mercy.

The second image is of the “Jesus 2020” banner spotted at the protests. I have no idea how sincere these people are in their Christian faith. Frankly, my hope is the banner was part of the perverse cosplay enacted in the storming of the Capital. That it was there, however, and so plainly visible, means that the name and character of our Lord is now associated with the “Save America March.” This too is cause for lament and perhaps even anger as the psalms model for us. I believe that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). I want all my friends and family who do not know Jesus to recognize him as such. Do you know what kind of damage it does to our mission if people associate Jesus (and the church) with the chaos and hatred displayed yesterday?

Emmanuel Katongole describes lament as “the prayer of those who are deeply disturbed by the way things are.” I have talked to many of you over the last 24 hours and sense how your deep disturbance by the way things are. So offer a lament. Offer to God whatever words help you express your anger, frustration and sadness. If you’re not disturbed, let me suggest that you should be. Ask God to reveal whatever idol or source of apathy is muting the groans of the Spirit (Rom. 8:26).

Truth. I caught up with an old friend on Monday morning. This is a person I admire and respect. Over the course of our conversation, they related that Covid was deliberately released by the Chinese government to destabilize the United States and that churches would not be able to legally worship in a Biden administration. Can we be real for a minute? That is crazy. And simply not true. My friend, however, in part because of the influence of their church, was convinced I was the one deceived.

Pundits tell us we are living in a “post-truth’’ moment. I am beginning to see how Christians have spread its reach by making it permissible to ignore the truth. Many of our convictions about God, the world and human persons cut against the grain of our cultural values, but that is not license to ignore reality. The Body of Jesus Christ is not an incubator of fantasy. It is a place where we are confronted by truth that challenges, convicts, converts and transforms us. We don’t have all the answers; we often get things wrong. But we are friends of truth. We herald its possibility even when it's uncomfortable. And, to riff on a statement made yesterday the floor of the United States Senate, we show respect to people by telling them the truth.

As many of you have already realized, yesterday’s events in D.C. coincided with the Christian Feast of the Epiphany. Is it too much to say the storming of the Capitol building could serve as an Epiphany, a sudden, clarifying moment of insight, for some of us? What happened yesterday was neither random nor an accident. It is the direct result of treating truth as a matter of opinion while promoting groundless conspiracies and propaganda. Maybe this horrible event could be a source of constructive interrogation. Spend 30 or so minutes this weekend to take stock of your life. Ask yourself questions like: How committed am I to living truthfully? To telling the truth? To being a person of integrity?

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, ask for God’s mercy upon President Trump, President-Elect Biden, elected leaders everywhere, and the church in our nation.

Praying alongside you,
Nick