People Are Not “Garbage”

Pastor Matthew’s comments to the New Hope Church family, on Sunday, December 7, 2025, affirming the dignity of Minneapolis’ Somalian community:

I wish to take a moment to offer a prophetic, pastoral witness.

Hear the Word of God.

From Genesis 1. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” Then the writer of Genesis continues, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Later, from the pen of King David, reflecting on God’s design, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

And then, according to the Gospel accounts, from the lips of our Lord Jesus, responding in a crowd to a religion leader’s question about God’s greatest command, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is the Word of God.

Therefore, in light of what the Bible declares, in light of these words from God:

no matter the ethnicity,

no matter the culture,

no matter the language,

no matter the religion,

no matter the country of origin,

no matter the complexity of the story:

image bearers, humans, men, women, and children—people . . .

are . . . not . . . “garbage”.