Latest Comments on the Minneapolis Surge
Pastor Matthew’s comments, on January 25, 2026, at New Hope Church, following Alex Pretti’s death in Minneapolis.
There is a temptation to ask why when we have these moments in the city or other salient moments around our country or around the world might the pastor come and have to say something. The reality is because we want to be a community that has the heart of Christ and doesn't become calloused to all the things. In addition to that I couldn't live with myself if I didn’t move past being a teacher of the Word to being a shepherd of our community.
Just so you know it is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. We acknowledge this every year. It is a global phenomenon and certainly is a big part of our faith here in the United States, and it finds its premise in the protection of the babies that are in the womb. That matters and we will always be steadfast in affirming the life of a little girl or little boy in a mama's womb. Always. We will not waver on that.
It’s not missed by me that it is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. At a time when there's so much going on in our community that relates to life we realize we can't just talk about the babies in the womb. We want to have an ethic as a community, as a church, that is pro-life from womb to tomb. All the way.
It is important as people who are pro-life to affirm the reality that our government authorities ought to step into situations where there are criminal elements who are bent on the destruction of life. That matters and we need to recognize that painful reality and the hard work of our authorities. At the same time, it also matters that there would be those who because of an ethic toward humanity and life would stand up and call out those moments when there's overreach and when things are beyond reasonable or out of control.
Both are interested, at least on paper and as a matter of nobility, in life—protecting a community from those who would hurt it regardless of how one sees the story. That is a lot of what motivates right now.
Here in our own broader community, we've had two deaths in three weeks. What is happening for too many of us is we get the videos and we look at the videos frame by frame, in slow motion, desperately working to find what our side’s view of it is and how our side might be represented. But what is on video, frame by frame, slow motion, isn't Netflix. This isn't some shoot-em-up movie that we're watching. This isn't a video game that we play in our basements. This is raw humanity. Fearful people on all sides, the cost of which, yet again, is a human life or lives, and a fear that I have as your pastor and as a participant in this community with you is that as we look frame by frame, in slow motion, at such things, so focused on what would tell the story we want to tell to support the cause we think matters, is we lose sight of the real humanity of the person that dies and when that happens then we also begin to diminish our own humanity, becoming numb to things that God weeps over.
Friends, let us not be those people.
I ask myself how to respond, and one of the things that strikes me is this simple, timeless prayer Christians have been praying for 2000 years: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”
So, I want to do this together with you for a few moments, not long even, but just a couple moments. I want to ask you right now to do what Christians have been doing for 2000 years, and that is pleading with God together. Last Sunday morning we had a whole sermon on building together, and I want to invite us to pray together right now that God, and I want to be very specific here because we will pray for something else shortly, but right now I want us, however you want to do that, on your own or groups or couples—I want you to pray for God's mercy to pour out on our city, on our community, on our neighbors, on those in law enforcement, those who are part of our immigrant community, on all of our families, on our political leaders, on this city and on this region. Would you pray right now, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy,” and I will get you back in a minute because I have more to say. Let's go. Let's pray together right now.
[Congregation prays collectively]
Sisters and brothers, I'm angry. And we all should be.
We have an incredible law enforcement community. They work really hard. They have a work that is beyond difficult, that most of us will never ever fully grasp. We need to pray for them. We need to encourage them. We need to respect them. We need to be good participants with them in our community.
In our current environment there are too many stories where the efforts regarding immigration enforcement have gone beyond reasonable and that needs to stop.
It is appropriate that we have safe borders, secure borders. It is appropriate that we come and go into this country lawfully. It is appropriate that when there are unlawful actions that such be addressed. These things are appropriate.
And yet there are too many stories in our context where things have gone beyond what is reasonable. There are U.S. citizens, United States citizens, along with immigrants here legally, that are regularly being stopped and treated with little respect or due process. And the sad reality is the preponderance of these individuals are people of color, which plays into historical narratives that are evil.
These things are not merely extremist viewpoints from random websites. We know this.
Just months ago, here at our church, we hosted our Faith & Blue event. We have wonderful partnerships with the different police departments. I sat on a stage with about half a dozen police chiefs and our sheriff, and we fielded questions about the interplay of community responsibility and Christian faith. These are wonderful partnerships; some good friendships, and with some of these very leaders I pray regularly, as late as yesterday.
And some of these leaders, as you well know, stood on a platform earlier this week, these law enforcement leaders, and acknowledged what I said a moment ago—that United States citizens are being detained, harassed, disrespected, almost all of them people of color, including off duty police officers. And the comment made by one of the police chiefs was, “If that is happening to our police officers, what is the experience of the average citizen?”
Constitutional rights—the first, the second, and the fourth amendments in particular; there are too many stories of these things being disregarded.
Our political leaders, from the very top of our nation right into the walls of our city councils, are talking over each other, shouting at each other, and otherwise reinforcing postures keeping them from working together. And that needs to stop.
We need to expect better. Call your local officials, your state officials, and your federal officials, and tell them you expect better.
Support law enforcement. It is a hard job. Pray for them.
Do not be silent when things are unjust, out of hand, and unlawful. We need to raise our hands and speak truth. We need to do so peaceably and in a way that does not add or foment, add to or foment, harm or destruction.
We need to be people of peace like our dear Savior, but also people of truth, like our dear Savior, and people who are just, like our dear Savior, and people who love our neighbors, like our dear Savior.
We need to support the vulnerable among us. Materially, with friendship, in prayer—an advocate for humane treatment at every turn.
We have within our own church family a sizeable immigrant community and it is no secret a number of them are scared. A number of our U.S. citizens and legal residents that are part of our immigrant community must carry their passports and papers everywhere they go because of their skin color and their accents and they know it and we all do, too.
This is not right.
We need to support our immigrant community and others who are vulnerable among us.
In Isaiah 58 the prophet says:
For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the Lord,
and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
The prophet Amos declares, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”
Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew, says, “you have heard it said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your father who is in heaven.”
These things are the heart of God, and these things ought to be the heart of our community. Certainly, I am thankful they are the heart of our church.
I know a lot of us are tired and we're grieving. We're hurting. We're angry. We don't know what to do.
Psalm 73 gives us words, and I will leave them with you and ask you to pray again as a group. It’s a “But God” moment.
This is how I feel. This is how many in our community feel. This is how many of you feel. “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
“But God.” And so, for these next moments as we step into our time of worship, again with those around you, let's enter into a “But God” prayer. “But God, you can do this. But God, you can help me. But God, my flesh is weak. But God, my heart is tired. But God, my grief is real. But God, you are good. But God, you do not fail.”
Let's talk to him right now please, dear friends.
[Congregation prays collectively]
