Jesus, the immigrant.

Author’s note: Minneapolis is reeling from being in a state of occupation. 3,000 masked, armed ICE/CBP agents have descended on the Twin Cities and are carrying out operations to arrest anyone they think are immigrants. That means our non-white neighbors are being arrested and harassed.  The agents are masked and heavily armed. They violate several constitutional amendments (1st, 4th, 5th, 10th, 14th) on a daily basis. And the community is traumatized and organized to push back. On January 7th, Renee Good, was shot in the face by these masked agents and died from her injuries and the subsequent indifference of the agents. 

Remember, trauma has memory that we hold in our bodies. The site of the shooting is a half a mile from where George Floyd was killed five years ago. In June, House Speaker Melissa Hortman was killed in her own home by a masked gunman impersonating a police officer. In September a gunman killed two children at Mass at the Annunciation school. Trauma upon trauma upon trauma. The armed presence of these masked "officers" further traumatizes the community.  Here's something I wrote this past Monday: When we live in an occupied city, what is the church’s role?  The truth is we have many roles. We are holders and reflectors of trauma. We are bastions of solidarity with the hurting and outraged. We are the interpreters of the world through the Biblical lens, which points us to healing, hope and relentless action. We are incubators for the movement for justice. We are truth-tellers and caretakers. We are one of many antidotes to fear and isolation. Let us continue to be the church in its many facets today and in the weeks ahead.

I preached the sermon below just four days after the shooting of Renee Good.

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“Jesus the Immigrant”
Matthew 2:13-23
January 11, 2026
University Baptist Church
Minneapolis, MN

This Sunday, we continue the Epiphany story from Matthew 2:13-23. In this part of the story, we have King Herod (whom the First Nations Version calls Chief who Looks Brave).  After being thwarted by the Magi, and after realizing that the Holy Family has fled, he engages in ethnic cleansing of the Hebrew children.  And so in this context, the story of Jesus begins.

ESCAPE TO BLACK LAND

13 After the Seekers of Wisdom (Magi) had gone, a spirit-messenger from Creator warned He Gives Sons (Joseph) in a dream. “Rise up!” he said urgently. “Take the child and his mother and go quickly to Black Land (Egypt) and remain there until I tell you to leave. Looks Brave (Herod) is searching for the child to kill him!”

14 That night He Gives Sons (Joseph) took the child and his mother, and they fled for their lives to Black Land (Egypt). 15 They remained there until the death of Looks Brave (Herod). This gave full meaning to Creator’s ancient prophecy: “I will call my son out from Black Land (Egypt).”

16 When Looks Brave (Herod) realized he had been outsmarted by the Seekers of Wisdom (Magi), he was full of rage. Using the knowledge he had gained from them, he gave orders for all male children in House of Bread (Bethlehem) under two winters of age to be put to death.

17 This gave full meaning to another ancient prophecy spoken by Lifted by Creator (Jeremiah): 18 “A sound of weeping and wailing is heard in Highland (Ramah). Sheep Woman (Rachel) is shedding tears for her children. No one can bring her peace, because her children have been taken from the land of the living.”

DREAM GUIDANCE

19 After Looks Brave (Herod) died, a spirit-messenger from Creator appeared again to He Gives Sons (Joseph) in a dream while he was still in Black Land (Egypt). 20 The spirit-messenger said to him, “Get up and take the child and his mother back to the land of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel), for the ones who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

21 He Gives Sons (Joseph) got up, took the child and his mother, and began to go where he was told. 22 On the way, when he heard that Rules the People (Archelaus), the son of Chief Looks Brave (Herod), had become the new chief, he became afraid.

After being warned in another dream, he took a different path to their home through Circle of Nations (Galilee), 23 to an out-of-the-way village most people looked down on, called Seed Planter Village (Nazareth). This gave full meaning to the words of the prophets, “He will be called a Seed Planter (Nazarene).”

Many long winters had come and gone. Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was now thirty winters old—a mature man. The People of Iron (Romans) had many new rulers and governors, and the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel) had a new chief holy man for the sacred lodge.

(Sung)
You do not carry this all alone.
No you do not carry this all alone.
This is way to be for you to carry all on your own so
you do not carry this all alone.

We gather here today, in an occupied city. Our neighbors are being kidnapped. Those who resist, put themselves in harm’s way.  It’s a dangerous time. It’s hard and even dangerous to be neutral. And yet, the people of Minneapolis are coming together as we always have. As we will continue to do. Trauma and solidarity are two sides of the same coin.

I have received notes and good wishes from colleagues and family from across the country. Our ABC colleagues in Rochester, NY sent us prayers of support. I got a note from the interim Executive Ministers of the Chicago Baptist Association. Saying that they have been where we are.  And they say, we see you, we pray alongside you, you do not carry this all alone.  I heard from Leah Davis this morning from Ravenswood Baptist Church in DC, they are praying for us as ICE activity increases around their congregation.

Many of us have been to vigils. We have wept alongside our neighbors. We have offered shelter and food and balm and rage together.  And it has not broken us. In fact it has made us stronger.  You do not carry this all alone.

So as we enter this Epiphany season, we hear again the story of the holy family, hunkered down, running for their lives. With no firepower, but a force of will and community that protected them.   As Jesus becomes a target of the chief who Looks Brave, he joins hundreds, perhaps thousands fleeing for their lives. Jesus became an immigrant. And if you are looking for Jesus this season, look to the immigrant community. It would be immoral for him to stay. It was an incredible act of bravery on the part of the Holy Family to seek refuge in a foreign land.  It is said that they spend 30 years in that land, only returning when it was safe, and even then, they stayed in hiding.  They were able to stay alive and safe because faithful people risked their own lives for the sake of them. 

It’s hard not to conflate the Epiphany story from long ago with the stories we see in our streets today.
What Epiphanies do we see?
What light is exposed?
What grief do we share?
What hope do we experience?

Renee Nicole Good. Say her name. Imagine her as one of those who helped the Holy Family flee from the murderous Chief Looks Brave. When his soldiers came to town, Renee and thousands of others like her bravely stepped into the fray. Offering away out. A way of protection, with a de-escalating smile on her face, born of a soul of joy.

Two thousand years ago, the soldiers were given orders. Slaughter any Hebrew child under the age of two. Not the ones who were children of families who have been insurrectionists. But everyone.  Everyone from a certain race, from a certain demographic. It was intended to induce and produce terror. How do you stand up to terrorists? Maybe you impede traffic. Maybe you’re a hotel owner and you refuse to let the jack-booted thugs patronize your establishment. Maybe you pass laws to not interact with this lawless group.

But what if they act anyway?
What if they gather at schools, watching for parents to pull away before kidnapping them?
What if they hide behind masks and uniforms?
Don’t we remember that Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were executed in their own home by someone impersonating a police officer and wearing a mask?

What if a van with no plates pulls up into a parking lot? Out jump a half dozen heavily armed people who demand papers and passports of US citizens who don’t have white skin. If they don’t comply, they are taken into custody. But those in custody of these so-called agents do not have the same rights as a criminal arrest. Remember that Miranda-Right that you have the right to remain silent? That a lawyer will be assigned to you? That you have a right to a phone call? That you are presumed innocent? CBP, who now operates ICE doesn’t follow those rules. They can call it an arrest, but it’s an unconstitutional kidnapping without due process.

If this is happening on a daily basis, what is our responsibility as citizens? Do we blow whistles? Do we document the atrocities happening with our tax dollars? Do we do all we humanly can to protect our neighbors?  Do we create neighborhood watch networks to alert people of dangerous activities by these agents? Do we use our white privilege to go to the store for our other-skinned neighbors?  Do we use our vehicles to impede the progress of the paramilitary invaders of our city?  Of course. Say her name: Renee Nicole Good. She did what any of us would do. 

She protected immigrants, some of whom might be named Maria, José and Jesús, or Muhammed, Tamir, Rachael, Jamahl, Ilhan.  The point is that they are our neighbors. And the grown-up Jesus would tell a parable that we are to consider all who help us as our neighbors.

We celebrate the people who hid Anne Frank and so many others, vowing this would never happen again.
Is this our Anne Frank moment?  What are we willing to risk to protect our neighbors?

When the bell choir was on tour in 2022, one of our first stops was Trondheim, Norway. As I walked those streets and contemplated the different cultures and architecture, I came across a commemorative sign on a Methodist church.  It told about a secret synagogue that met in the church from 1941-42 during the German occupation of Norway. At great personal risk, they became a clandestine sanctuary for the Trondheim Jews. For safety reasons, the pastor and lay leader decided that the congregation should know as little as possible about the arrangement.

By the fall of 1942, the remaining Jews who didn’t flee were rounded up and deported to concentration camps in Germany. Only a handful returned alive. After the war, the Torah scrolls and other ritual objects hidden and preserved by the Methodists were returned to the Jewish synagogue in 1947.

We celebrate the fleeing of the Holy Family and a whole bunch of others during this epiphany week. They were able to flee because of Renee Nicole Good and others like her. If the season of Epiphany is about shining a light, then it ought not just to be about Jesus, but about the people who kept Jesus safe.

So, our choice remains. Do we hunker down and let the agents of fear intimidate us? Or do we rise up together. Do we rise with commitment, with purpose, with dignity, with power multiplied across this great state?  I know what I see. I see people taking the story of the slaughter of the innocents and choosing to be on the side of the immigrants, the refugees, the ones who are victims of occupying armies.  We stand together. We will not let your dignity be tarnished. We will find joy and purpose and inspiration in this solidarity.

Let’s let Amanda Gorman have the last word today:

"For Renee Nicole Good Killed by I.C.E. on January 7, 2026."
by Amanda Gorman

They say she is no more,
That there her absence roars,
Blood-blown like a rose.
Iced wheels flinched & froze.
Now, bare riot of candles,
Dark fury of flowers,
Pure howling of hymns.

If for us she arose,
Somewhere, in the pitched deep of our grief,
Crouches our power,
The howl where we begin,
Straining upon the edge of the crooked crater
Of the worst of what we’ve been.

Change is only possible,
& all the greater,
When the labour
& bitter anger of our neighbors
Is moved by the love
& better angels of our nature. 

What they call death & void,
We know is breath & voice;
In the end, gorgeously,
Endures our enormity. 

You could believe departed to be the dawn
When the blank night has so long stood.
But our bright-fled angels will never be fully gone,
When they forever are so fiercely Good.