Good Faith Media attended the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride through New England on April 18, 1775. Revere rode through the streets and warned the New England faithful that tyranny was on the move.
Revere helped deliver the warning signal high above the New England landscape, where the Old North Steeple shone bright. Revere, a silversmith, had been a bell ringer at the church as a child. So he knew the details of the tower and the long view from the steeple.
However, Revere was not in charge of lighting the lanterns. He was already making his way to Charleston, just across the river. The British were on the move, leaving Boston for Lexington and Concord, departing by night and taking the fastest possible route up the river.
Back in Boston, the two lanterns were set ablaze, held by the church’s sexton, Robert Newman, and vestryman, Captain John Pulling. Captain Thomas Barnard kept guard outside.
Revere and the other Sons of Liberty had previously developed a warning system, settling on one lantern in the Old North Steeple to indicate that the British were coming by land and two lanterns to suggest that they were coming by water.
The two bright lanterns held by Newman and Pulling communicated everything that needed to be said. The warning had been sounded, the faithful notified, and tyranny began its march.
The lanterns burned for one minute, a minute that changed the course of history forever.
The British were responding to the Boston Tea Party, where colonists dressed like the Mohawk people and dumped tea into the harbor in protest against the British Tea Act. Colonists opposed the actions of the British Parliament and the King, as the Brits were using taxes on colonists to support the East India Tea Company.
In response to the protest, King George III ordered 4,000 troops to leave Boston and enforce law and order upon the colonies. According to historian Heather Cox Richardson, Boston’s 7,000 residents were already living with 13,000 British soldiers and their families.
Colonists knew this was a threat to their freedom and way of life. They still recalled the fateful day on March 5, 1770, when British troops opened fire on citizens, sealing that moment as the Boston Massacre.
With the lanterns lit and riders sounding the alarm, the revolution against tyranny began through the streets of Boston and the rural roads of Massachusetts. The night of April 15, 1775, led those attending the 2025 service at Old North Church to conclude that the most significant export from Massachusetts was the spark that led to democracy.
This year, as dignitaries and others filled the Old North Church for the Lantern Service featuring historian Heather Cox Richardson, a new sense of urgency hung in the air.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu struck the opening chord when she recalled the bravery of Revere and his friends. The mayor said, “I’m struck by his (Revere) refusal to fail. To continue to choose action, to choose to press on in the face of uncertainty, is more than resilience. It’s faith, faith that there is a right and a wrong, and that what we do in each moment matters.”
Wu pointed to Revere’s faith in others as well: “Faith in the community and the people around him, faith that his friend would hang the lanterns as asked. Faith that friends would roam to safety, faith that a horse would be ready and waiting. Faith that when he was caught just outside of Lexington, his fellow riders would continue carrying forward the message that freedom is worth fighting for, and the fight had arrived. Faith that this man, had in merchants and farmers would give every last breath in defense of their liberty to secure a better future for the people they loved.”
Wu concluded, “Faith that an idea is enough to hold off an empire, that the seed of freedom, once sprouted, will not be uprooted.”
Building upon 18th-century bravery and faith, the mayor then turned her gaze to the present-day circumstances in America: “Two-hundred and fifty years later, I am grateful that Boston remains a city defined by courage and faith, that we are people who know right from wrong, who act with conviction, because we know what we do matters tonight. I am grateful for our continued belief in each other and our refusal to fail. May we always be a beacon of hope for the world and our nation, and may our faith guide us forward. Freedom is worth fighting for, and the fight has arrived.”
As Wu concluded her remarks, the crowd rose in thunderous applause, affirming the urgency that everyone felt deep in their bones.
The Honorable William F. Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth, then took to the stage, reading a letter from Paul Revere to Jerry Belknap in 1798. In response to the letter, Galvin responded, “The lanterns now serve a different purpose, not simply different, but not terribly different, not simply a memory of what happened and how it came about. But a challenge to all of us: now is our turn – democracy must be defended.”
Richardson climbed the elevated pulpit, recalling the fateful night that began in Boston’s North End and ended with the establishment of a new democratic republic, known as the United States of America.
She retold the story in detail, as the Sons of Liberty stood up to the tyranny of the Empire—an Empire telling citizens to trust them for they had everyone’s best interest at heart. They spoke out against a king more interested in fueling the Empire than filling the stomachs of citizens. They rode out denouncing tyranny, but with the same breath declaring freedom.
When the British troops arrived in Lexington and Concord, they found Minutemen waiting for them. Tyranny would not advance without a fight.
According to Richardson, in Lexington on April 19, 1775:
“In the darkness just before dawn, the (British) soldiers found several dozen Minutemen waiting for them.
And then, just as the sun was coming up, a gun went off, and the soldiers opened fire. When the locals realized the soldiers were firing not just powder, but also lead Musket Balls, most ran. Eight locals were killed and another dozen were wounded. By that evening, more than 300 British soldiers and colonists lay dead or wounded. By the next morning, more than 15,000 militiamen surrounded the city of Boston. The Revolutionary War had begun. Just over a year later, the fight that had started over the question of whether the king could be checked by the people would give the colonists an entirely new radical answer to that question.
On July 4, 1776, they declared the people had the right to be treated equally before the law, and they had the right to govern themselves.They (Newman and Pulling) agreed to cross through town and to light two lanterns in a church steeple. It sounds like such a very little thing to do, and yet, by doing it, they risked imprisonment or even death. It was such a little thing, but it was everything.”
Richardson concluded with this reverberating statement about the spark of two lanterns that led to a revolution:
“As with so many of the little steps that lead to profound change, (the moment) was largely forgotten until Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used their story to inspire a later generation to work to stop tyranny in his own time. What Newman and Pulling did was simply to honor their friendships and their principles and to do the next right thing, even if it risked their lives, even if no one ever knew.
And that is all anyone can do as we work to preserve the concept of human self-determination in that heroic struggle. Most of us will be lost to history, but we will nonetheless move the story forward, even if just a little bit. And once in a great while, someone will light a lantern or even two, and they will shine forth for democratic principles that are under siege and set the world ablaze.”
Still basking in the sacredness of last Friday night, I could not help but be reminded that when tyranny walks the streets, those paying attention will look to the church for the warning lamps to be lit. Some churches fill their belfries with the cold, dark theology of tyranny and privilege while those yearning for inclusion, freedom and justice climb their towers to light their lamps and ride the roads, warning their fellow citizens of the dangers lurking in the waters.
The urgency in the voices I encounter these days—Heather Cox Richardson, Robert P. Jones, Jemar Tisby, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Starlette Thomas, Miguel De La Torre, and so many others—sounds like the riders of 1775. Tyranny is knocking on our doors, seeking to imprison and destroy.
What will you do, Sons and Daughters of Liberty? Will you fight or will you give in to tyranny?
With clear eyes and a sound mind, I hold the sacred Scriptures in one hand and the U.S. Constitution in the other—and with Jesus in my heart, I choose to fight.
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