A Call To Christians in the Wake of the Capitol Riots: “Do Not Be Amazed”
Christian maturity demands transforming the tension in the days ahead
Over the past year, I’ve been slowly working my way through Richard Rolheiser’s fabulous book on Christian maturity, Sacred Fire. Just last week I made it to the chapter on pondering vs. amazement.
Rolhheiser unpacks the difference between pondering and amazement by contrasting Mary’s response to the angelic news that she’s carrying the promised Messiah in her womb with the “amazement” the crowds following Jesus often displayed. It took me a while to wrap my head around the distinction Rolheiser is making, because “amazement” isn’t typically portrayed as a negative trait in the English language.
But amazement in the Biblical sense, Rolhheiser explains, occurs “when we simply let energy flow through in the same way as a wire conducts an electrical current, when we simply take in the energy of the group around us or the energy of a spontaneous emotion and, without holding, carrying or transforming it, act on it as it flows through us.”
Phew.
Amazement in this sense isn’t always bad–think of the euphoric feeling in a crowd when your team scores the winning touchdown or a band starts playing your favorite song at a concert. It’s a good feeling, one that leaves you breathless, on a high.
But amazement also leads to mob mentality. Amazement is what sparks riots. Amazement can kill.
Jesus was very stern with the crowds following him when he did or said something that surprised them: “Do not be amazed,” he says, again and again.
Why? Because, as Rolheiser explains, the same amazement that drew large crowds to Him is the same expression of emotion that led them to crucify Him.
Which leads me to how we as followers of Christ pursuing true spiritual maturity should respond to the events in the United States Capitol yesterday, January 6th, 2021–a day that will live in infamy.
The mature Christian should always avoid responding with amazement. To respond with amazement to yesterday’s events as a Trump supporter is to jump to rationalize, to excuse, to resort to “what-about-ism.”
To ponder, instead, is to reflect on whether voting for Trump in order to protect your so-called God-given rights was worth it if the end result is everything on display at the Capitol building yesterday. These are the ends your means justified. You must take responsibility. It’s time to repent.
But it’s equally possible to respond with amazement as a Christian who does not support Trump. We anti-Trumpers are equally tempted, as human beings, to say “I told you so!” or sink into despair. Our anger feels righteous, and it is justified. But even in instances of extreme injustice, our charge is still to ponder.
This is the “litmus test for maturity and Christian discipleship,” as Rolhheiser says: can we love our enemies? Can we forgive murderers? Can we see our own folly instead of being blinded by the folly of others? Can we mourn and lament instead of gloating in our rightness?
This is really, really hard for me. I love justice. I want to be right. I was right. But I’m still called as a Christian to resist amazement and instead, ponder.
Why? Because pondering carries and transforms the tension and, according to Biblical tradition, takes the tension and sin out of a community. We have the power as Christians to diffuse even the most fraught situations.
This should be the first and foremost goal for us with every word spoken, every Tweet tweeted, every post posted. Have I pondered this, or am I reacting in amazement? Are my words and actions transforming tension or contributing to it?
I’m still not sure how to do this well, but I’m committed to at least asking the question. And in asking the question, I am doing my part as a mature believer to heed Jesus’ call to not be amazed.
To end, I’ll share the final stanza in the poem Huntsville by Michael Maginn, reprinted by Rolheiser in Sacred Fire:
Lord,
May we never add a single drop
To the negative, destructive energies
That swirl around us every day,
Threatening to engulf us.
Amen.
