It has taken me a few days to put into words what I am feeling at this moment. Knowing myself as I do, I needed to wait a few days for my emotions to settle a bit, but I have found that settling my emotions at this time is impossible. Government-sponsored violence seems to be the new norm, whether it is bombing Iran, invading Venezuela, or the killing of Renee Nicole Good on the streets in Minneapolis. I will not and I cannot allow this violence to become the new normal. So, it is at times like these that I turn to faith.
My faith proclaims that God does not remain distant from human suffering. In the Incarnation, God takes on human flesh in Jesus Christ, declaring every human life sacred, worthy of dignity, and deserving of protection. Bodies matter. Lives matter. What God assumes, God honors.
That truth compels us to speak plainly today as we continue to grieve the heinous shooting in Minneapolis and the death of Renee Nicole Good. When violence is carried out, especially by agents of authority, it demands more than prayers alone. It demands truth, accountability, and a sober reckoning with how power is exercised in our common life.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said it clearly: “This is our moment to face a whole lot of hate with a whole lot of love.” For people shaped by the Incarnation, love is not silence, avoidance, or denial. Love insists that every life be treated with dignity. Love demands transparency, restraint, and justice. Love refuses to allow fear or hatred to determine whose lives are protected and whose are placed at risk. Love takes to the streets and demands!
The Incarnation stands in judgment over systems and practices that normalize violence or excuse it as inevitable. God-with-us does not hover above human pain; God stands with the wounded, the grieving, and those who cry out for and demand change. In Jesus Christ, God knows what it is to be overpowered by the machinery of human fear and control and exposes it for what it is.
At the same time, the Incarnation calls us toward hope and responsibility. We are not condemned to repeat this cycle. We are called to build a community where accountability is real, where human dignity is non-negotiable, and where the use of force is never detached from moral restraint. We are called to form God’s kingdom here on earth.
As a people of faith, we grieve, we pray, we speak, and we act. We commit ourselves to facing hatred with love that seeks justice, truth, and peace, not as abstractions, but as concrete, lived realities. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” That truth demands more of us now.
