January 6, 2021 was an Epiphany
Sermon on Genesis 1,1-5 and Mark 1,4-11
Last Wednesday, on January 6, the church celebrated Epiphany. The day when we are reminded that an insecure king named Herod was super threatened by the birth of Jesus. A baby born to immigrants in great poverty. A king to be without armies or weapons. This child made Herod so anxious that he tried to overthrow the results by putting a hit out on a toddler. But not he himself was going to do it. He sent 3 formidable men he had just met to report back to him. And then, he would come in and kill that kid. Or one of his people. Epiphany. It’s the day when truth is revealed. When a king learns that he is not God or even the son of God. And when a king starts shivering in his shoes about this quite obvious truth. And so, he shows his real cruel self, aiming to manipulate and kill to stay in power. Epiphany, the day when God turns on the lights and reveals the truth about people desperately clinging to power and what he thinks about them. Not much, that’s for sure. Yet, God isn’t threatened. God acts. He tells the magi the truth, he warns Mary and Joseph. God saves the world by fooling the powerful and leading the powerless. Epiphany, the day God destroyed the dreams of religious nationalism whatsoever.
The last days have been quite wild. Many would say the last year has been quite wild and waste. And not too few would say the last years have been a thick fog. Maybe even decades or centuries.
Overclouded by fear of change. Overshadowed by the fear that someone would turn the lights on and shed light on all that lays wild and waste, covered up in the deep waters of history. And people proudly saying they are old-fashioned, meaning they can’t accept that the world changes, that countries change, that some or even many people living in their neighborhoods don’t look like them anymore, don’t worship the same God anymore or don’t have any faith at all. And while many of us have had the privilege to constantly ignore the signs of trouble and live peacefully, so many others in this country can’t. And thus, we have come full circle from May 2020 when George Floyd was murdered and when we learned about the killing of Breonna Taylor. Black and brown people in this country never had the privilege to ignore the signs. That something isn’t right yet. That too many people feel entitled to their own sense of justice and truth.
The last days and months have been something between rainy to foggy. And January 6 was a true epiphany. Because suddenly white people who didn’t get the power, they feel they are entitled to, didn’t just oppose racial justice movements anymore. They didn’t just rant online. Suddenly, they opposed the very idea of a democratic nation. Called and motivated by the president of the U.S. It could have ended in a coup. Which is nothing unprecedented in this world at all. Suddenly, not Black and Brown people’s rights to live peacefully were in limbo but your right and my right. Everyone’s right who believes in peaceful political transitions and democracy and leaves the eternal reign to God. God is essentially the only one we never got to elect and can never run out of office. And worst of all, at least from a Christian perspective, these people openly displayed Christian symbols along with Confederate flags and other signs that they feel utterly superior to anyone who isn’t of Anglo-Saxon descent. There were crosses, “Jesus Saves” signs and “Jesus 2020” flags that mimicked the design of the Trump flags.
Some of the participants, organized as part of a “Jericho March,” blew shofars — Jewish ritual horns — as they circled the Capitol, reenacting the siege of the city of Jericho by the Israelites described in the Book of Joshua. And one video showed the Christian flag — white, with a blue canton containing a red cross, used by many white evangelical churches — being paraded into an empty congressional chamber after the doors had been breached and members of Congress evacuated. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg wrote that “the conflation of Trump and Jesus was a common theme at the rally” among people he interviewed. “It’s all in the Bible. Everything is predicted. Donald Trump is in the Bible. Get yourself ready,” one told him. “Give it up if you believe in Jesus!” said another, then “Give it up if you believe in Donald Trump!” — which elicited loud cheers from nearby rioters. [1]
Christian nationalism is nothing new. The more we need to shed light on this unholy alliance. It has brought Nazi-Germany and the entire world in big trouble before. It has helped kill Millions of Jews. It’s being used by demagogues in Russia and Hungary alike today. It’s nothing new under the sun. It’s extremely dangerous.
On January 6, 2021 we witnessed an epiphany. And no one with eyes to see and ears to hear can say anymore that we didn’t know. The signs were all there, of course. People of color and many of their allies have long warned us. Yet, many of us chose to stand in the fog and enjoy the coziness of ignorance. Last Wednesday destroyed this option for us as Christians. If we didn’t get it every time somebody was killed just because of the color of their skin, now we can’t opt out anymore. Because people who look like most of us and share our faith in their own ways threatened our democracy, claiming to do it for all of us. Us, white people. Us, Christians.
But there is no us. And it’s on us to show them and the worlds that we are different. That we can hear the truth about our sin and accept it. That we know our history and do not want to repeat it. That we are willing to work, willing to serve. That we are willing to die to ourselves, and let something new be born. That we are willing to learn and take action and take a stand against anyone who feels superior to the rest. That being beloved means to love all of our neighbors. The ones we like and the ones we don’t.
There is chaos, nothing can be seen and suddenly the lights turn on and we see what we always knew but hoped not to be true. That this country is not only divided but that our very own president will incite an insurrection to stay in power. That Christians will take Herod’s side and kill God, just to feel a little bit better. And that the police response will be very different from last summer. Systemic racism is not just a phrase anymore. It’s manifested in pictures we will not forget. In images of white men ravaging through the country’s house that most symbolically stands for freedom and justice and democracy. Bishop Eaton and Bishop Mark have together with the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA signed a letter, calling for President Trump’s immediate resignation. They write: “Our faith instructs us to take seriously positions of leadership, not to lead others astray and to be careful about what we say and do. For the good of the nation, so that we might end the current horror and prepare the way for binding up the nation’s wounds […] we believe the time has come […] to resign.” And I wonder: Why does it always need an Epiphany? Why aren’t the many stars showing us the signs enough? Why aren’t we wise enough to decode them?
January 6, the day of Epiphany. The day God destroyed the dreams of Christian nationalism in the US whatsoever. The day God condemned wild power. The lights were turned on, Herod had shown his true intentions. But that’s not all. Every epiphany has the potential to become a beginning of an exciting creation story. The very first epiphany led God to create the world as we know it. 1When God began to create the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was wild and waste, utter darkness covered the deep, and the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters.
In the beginning nothing could be seen. And God appears and turns on the lights. God turns on the lights and suddenly everything can be seen. At least for half of the time. The deep of the waters, the beautiful earth. It was all there before but no one knew.
Another epiphany called out Herod’s unscrupulousness and dishonesty while exclaiming the Prince of Peace to the world. And the world was changed forever by Jesus, the boy who lived and loved and healed and died because love is threatening to people who can only rule or hate.
Today’s Gospel talks about yet another epiphany. When God openly claims Jesus as his beloved Son. Of course, Jesus was that before his baptism already. From the very beginning of this world, Jesus was God’s son. But in the Jordan, after being baptized, God again turned on the lights and revealed this truth to everyone standing there in awe. And something huge developed. A Jesus revolution took place, turning the world and its values upside down. And yes, we are still a part of this revolution. And it’s still revolutionary.
Epiphanies don’t create new realities. They just show them. And maybe, just maybe, people get it and it changes our lives forever. Which might create a new reality. But that’s up to us.
“The power of life and death is in the tongue.” Said the Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black in a prayer on Wednesday. Ending a joint session of Congress hours after a violent crowd of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Words matter. Words creatively create or ordinarily destroy. Depending on which ones we choose. Truth or lies. Facts or Fakes. And while God’s words come in effect immediately, worldly words might take a while to show their full power. They might have to be repeated a thousand times, or typed into a phone or yelled to a crowd. Nevertheless, their power remains unleashed. We, as Christians, should know. Because we know how powerful words are. We even believe in a God who created through few words and a word that became flesh.
Mark says that immediately after Jesus’ baptism the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. There was work to be done. Demons to be driven out. People to be healed. The Gospel to be preached. A hill to die on.
Baptism is a gift and a task. It empowers us. It calls us to repent our sins and to rebuke the evil. No matter in which form it may appear. There are worlds that need to be seen, healed, rebuilt and even created. It won’t be easy. We know. There will be wild beasts. And angels. And epiphanies. And the power of God will be with us.
We can make this country and this world truthful and beautiful. We can dismantle evil by turning on the lights of loving truth. We have the power and through our baptism we have the duty. For though we are sinners, we are named beloved children of God. May this year’s epiphany remind us forever. Amen.
