How are you today? How is it with your heart, your soul, your mind today?
Today marks the 5-year anniversary of an event that rocked our nation to its core and revealed just how fragile our democracy is…and how fractured we are as a people. While January 6, 2021, might be behind us, it’s not finished with us.
History doesn’t disappear with the dawning of a new day or the turning of a page on the calendar. It shapes us…it reveals us. And sometimes, it asks us to make a choice.
On that day 5 years ago, many of us watched in disbelief as symbols of democracy were overtaken by anger, fear, and violence. Others experienced it through very different lenses. Still others felt a deep grief – not just for what happened, but for what it suggested about who we are becoming as a nation.
I’ll be honest: I wrestled with whether I should share my thoughts today. But I truly believe our faith in Jesus Christ doesn’t allow us the luxury of indifference. Scripture insists that how we live together matters to God. How we treat the truth matters to God. How we use power matters to God. How we share our voice matters to God. When fear becomes the guiding force of a community, scripture warns us that love is always the first casualty.
For Christians, January 6 raised an especially painful concern not because faith was present – faith is always present in public life – but because the name of Jesus was used in ways that seemed to contradict his very life and teachings. Jesus, who rejected domination. Jesus, who refused violence. Jesus, who told the truth even when it cost him everything. The use of Christian prayer, symbols, and rhetoric on that day seemed to tie divine support and sanction to political violence.
Five years later, and we are still choosing. We’re choosing which voices we trust. We’re choosing which stories we repeat. We’re choosing whether outrage or compassion will shape our hearts. We’re choosing whether fear or love will have the last word.
None of us makes these choices perfectly. That’s why grace matters. But grace does not remove responsibility…grace empowers repentance, growth, and change.
Remembering January 6 isn’t about staying stuck in the past. It’s about refusing to repeat it. It’s about recommitting ourselves to truth, to nonviolence, to the dignity of every person, and to a vision of community that is larger than our loyalties and stronger than our fears.
The church does not exist to baptize the brokenness of the world. We exist to bear witness to another way of being human, another way of living together, another way of holding power.
Hope is not naïve optimism. Hope is courage. It’s the decision to believe that God is still at work even when the headlines seem to scream otherwise. It’s the choice to speak the truth in love, to listen deeply, to work for a world where the dignity and humanity of every person is recognized.
So today, let’s recommit ourselves:
- To pray for our leaders – not because we agree with them, but because Christ commands it.
- To seek justice – not just for our tribe, but for all God’s children.
- To practice humility – not shouting louder but listening better.
- To love – not in theory, but in costly, concrete ways.
Five years later, let’s not settle for despair. Let’s be repairers of the breach. Let’s build bridges to connect us and tear down the walls that divide us. Let’s be people who choose hope. Let’s be people who choose peace. Let’s be people who choose to follow the One in whom we live, and move, and have our being.
Do you remember that scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? Indiana stands in front of a table full of cups and chalices, but only one of them is the true cup of Christ…the holy grail. The wrong choice brings destruction. The right choice brings life. The guardian says, “Choose wisely.”
Friends, that’s where we are. Every day, we are confronted by choices that shape our hearts and our communities. Will we choose the cup of fear, resentment, and power? Or will we choose the cup of Christ…the way of humility, truth, and sacrificial love?
The wrong choice destroys. The right choice gives life not only to us, but to the world God loves. The question is, “Will we choose wisely?”