Resources for Right Now
On Saturday, January 24th, after the murder of Alex Pretti, my phone lit up with coordinating efforts. As the sun went down, we met on the main corners of each neighborhood, talking quietly, feeding bonfires to keep the youngest and eldest in the crowd warm. There was some singing, but we struggled, our broken hearts losing the threads of second verses. We didn’t quite know when to leave or what to do next. I recognized then how keenly our torn-apart city (and nation) needs the best of our faith practices: ways to come together to speak into our shared brokenness and direct our selves and community for action in service to the neighbor.
Resources for Right Now is a living resource crafted amid the January 2026 escalation of violent immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this collection, we hope to equip the church’s leaders with diverse ways to speak into this moment, in sermon prompts, short illustrative stories, songs new and old, and liturgy and prayers.
In addition, we’re assembling a short vigil for immediate use in the aftermath of an abduction or murder by immigration enforcement. This vigil will draw on biblical imagery and is planned with Christian spaces in mind, but any or all of it is open for adaptation as your community may be in need.
It is out of our deep love for our city and our hope in God’s work towards justice that we offer this collection of resources entirely free of charge. If anything we offer is of benefit to you or your congregation, we invite you to make a financial contribution to the Immigration Justice fund at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. Holy Trinity and its leaders are longtime collaborators in Church Anew work, and they have committed to distributing their fund directly to those in need, especially for rent assistance and legal fees.
Stay safe.
Emmy Kegler, Blog Editor
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Sunday, February 1, 2026
The challenge on this Sunday is almost not to find the parallels between the resistance in Minnesota and the texts at hand. “Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.” “Blessed are the poor in spirit… those who mourn … the meek … the merciful … the peacemakers.” In the thousands of people mobilized across the state to do their part, whether it is delivering groceries to families sheltering in place, raising money to cover rent and mortgages for families unable to work, or the ever-expanding network of school patrol preventing agents from abducting students, we witness an insistence on justice and mercy.
Sunday, February 8, 2026
The lectionary gifts us again with clear cries to justice and liberation. Isaiah’s voice in particular serves as a stark warning as we prepare for Lent: sackcloth and ashes and fasting have little meaning when there are still those in bondage, oppression, and suffering. We are drawn out of our own self-importance to be salt and light not for ourselves, but for our neighbors in deep need.
Sunday, February 15, 2026
God is revealed through the ages not only in moments of peace and reconciliation, but in experiences of terror and fear. The cloud of fire where Moses meets God is “like a devouring fire.” Jesus’ clothes and face are so changed the disciples barely know him. When we are afraid, when our senses are overwhelmed (including in clouds of smoke or flashing lights), we may want to shrink back. God sets the invitation for us to enter into that fear in order to better know who God is and thus who we are called to be.
Ash Wednesday, February 18, 2026
A hallmark of the Minnesota resistance movement – as with many movements that came before it – is discretion. Though the whistles and protests may stand out, a substantial part of the labor is underground in mutual aid, rapid response, and neighborhood watches. Public announcements would corrupt the purpose of the action. Not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing might seem like disorganization, but that privacy is actually essential to the work of protecting those sought for detainment and deportation.
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These vignettes are collected as small stories that may introduce or otherwise enhance a sermon.
Beyond Business As Usual: Post Modern Times
Modern Times is your classic hippie cafe, staffed by folks in hoodies slinging greasy potato hashes and gluten-free muffins. Like most restaurants, their financials have been on a knife’s edge since COVID, and “Operation Metro Surge” in Minneapolis had made their December and January even more sparse.
Modern Times is also only a few blocks from the site where Renee Good was killed.
This January, owner of fifteen years Dylan Alverson announced that after conversation with staff, Modern Times would now become Post Modern Times. Instead of a restaurant with paying customers and paid staff, they would be serving food for free, accepting only donations, and volunteering any time worked.
The message was simple: at potentially great personal cost, they were going to stop producing anything that could be taxed, refusing to contribute to the federal funds that pay for the presence of immigration agents in their city.
Alverson has openly stated that it may be the end of the cafe. He seems unshaken in his resolve: “I am inspired by the ways our community has grown together, our hearts breaking open, to give and receive care in all the ways we can.”
Sources: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/28/modern-times-diner-moves-to-donation-based-model-during-ice-operations, instagram.com/moderntimescafempls
Changing Your Mind: Reverend Rob Schenck
Among fifty thousand marchers on Friday, January 23rd who took to Minneapolis streets in negative twenty degree temperatures were hundreds of clergy. One of those pastors was Reverend Rob Schenck. You may recognize him from his thirty-five years advocating the cause of the religious right. He sought to eliminate reproductive freedom and LGBTQ+ protections both through federal policies like the Defense of Marriage Act and in befriending and influencing lower-level judges who might eventually become Supreme Court justices.
After decades of success, Reverend Schenck suddenly began to have a change of heart. In studying the practices of faith before and during Nazi Germany, he began to see the same kinds of characteristics he saw in American Christianity and its desire to control the country’s politics and policies. He has since left his political organizations and recanted a majority of his public stances, at personal cost to himself; he has recounted driving Ubers to make money. He is working through writing and public advocacy to repair the harm he has done.
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Sunday, February 1, 2026
Prayer of the Day: Holy God, our hearts are heavy and our hands our weary. We hear cries for justice from every corner of your earth, and we witness the suffering of our neighbors under the heel of the wicked. Comfort us when we weep, feed us when we hunger, and bless us with all that we need, that we might then be a blessing to your broken world. Amen.
Prayer Petition: Crucified Christ, you became one with us not in our power and strength but in our humility and our sorrows. Sanctify us to seek you not among the mighty but among the meek, so that we will pursue your justice and kindness in all our deeds. Lord, in your mercy…
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Prayer of the Day: Jesus Christ, you are the light of our world. As days lengthen, winter turns to spring, and warmth returns to our world, we long for that same unfreezing of our hearts and minds. Open us to transformation, that we might reflect you and be a light to a hurting world. Amen.
Prayer Petition: God of righteousness, you speak through your prophets with a call that echoes across the ages: reject oppression, cease your wickedness, loose the bonds of injustice. Yet today we see your children torn from their homes and left hungry, homeless, and uncared for. Stir up in us that same prophetic spirit that we might with steady hearts care for those who have been trampled underfoot. Lord, in your mercy…
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Prayer of the Day: Transfigured Christ, before your disciples you were transformed from humility to glory, not to terrify them but to reveal your belovedness. Grant that we too might fulfill God’s call to listen to you and follow you into the world in service, loving our neighbor as ourself. Amen.
Prayer Petition: Holy God, mighty King, lover of justice: in fire and cloud you granted us the gift of the law. You spoke to Moses and the prophets not to bind us in self-righteousness but to free all your children, calling us to an ever-widening community where all are cared for and fed. When we are tempted to use your law to justify ourselves, turn us instead towards our neighbor in need. Lord, in your mercy…
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Music to Learn & Teach
SATB choral anthem, “Christ, Surround Them,” arranged by Becky Sun.
Arranger’s notes: “Christ, Surround Them” is based on the lyrics of “O Christ, Surround Me”, a lorica — prayer of protection from the Irish monastic tradition — by progressive music maker Richard Bruxvoort Colligan. I wrote this as my city, Minneapolis, was being traumatized by the cruel, unconstitutional acts of anti-immigration federal force.
“Your Peace Will Make Us One,” by Audrey Assad, to the Battle Hymn of the Republic
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
You are speaking truth to power, You are laying down our swords
Replanting every vineyard 'til a brand new wine is poured
Your peace will make us one
[Chorus]
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Your peace will make us one
I've seen You in our home fires burning with a quiet light
You are mothering and feeding in the wee hours of the night
Your gentle love is patient, You will never fade or tire
Your peace will make us one [Chorus]
In the beauty of the lilies, You were born across the sea
With a glory in Your bosom that is still transfiguring
Dismantling our empires 'til each one of us is free
Your peace will make us one [Chorus]
Songs for Public Gatherings
In public groups – protests, vigils, spontaneous gatherings – there can be a sense of needing to “do something” without knowing what that “something” might be. Faith leaders can offer a unique gift here, even without the space being explicitly religious: we are a people used to singing together. Some songs that may fit the moment:
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Thanksgiving for Baptism
By Rev. Andrea Roske-Metcalfe
Leader: The crashing waters of creation connect us to all that God has ever made, across time and space. Water sustains us as we move through our lives, water reminds us how fragile we are, and water ties us to the promises of the sacrament of baptism.
Each time we baptize in our tradition, I ask you:
Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God?
And you respond,
All: We renounce them!
Leader: And I ask you:
Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God?
And you respond,
All: We renounce them!
Leader: And I ask you:
Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God?
And you respond,
All: We renounce them!
Leader: But these are fancy, churchy phrases, and what I really mean to say is:
Do you renounce the forces of evil you cannot even see, but whose effects are made manifest in our own lives, in the lives of our friends and neighbors, and in the lives of people will we never even meet – forces that work to tear down the kin-dom of God?
All: We renounce them!
Leader: Do you renounce the powers and principalities that enact evil in our streets and in the halls of power, that defy international peace-keeping efforts, that trample on any understanding of universal human rights?
All: We renounce them!
Leader: Do you renounce the reluctance in your own hearts to draw near to God, to draw near to the suffering of your neighbors, and to repent, all of which prevent you from moving forward with a more direct focus toward justice and joy?
All: We renounce them!
Leader: We call this season of the church year “Ordinary Time,” and yet there is nothing ordinary about the living of these days. And so we give thanks for the gift of baptism, and for the reminder of the promises we make in the midst of that sacrament:
to proclaim Christ through word and deed,
care for others and the world God made,
and work for justice and peace.
Do you promise, then, to honor these promises made in the sacrament of baptism?
All: We do, and we ask God to help and guide us.
Leader: May it be so!
All: Amen.
