Joining Our Common Lot
A Sermon in the aftermath of Renee Good and ICE
Note: The following is the text from my sermon preached on January 11, 2026. For those who don’t know, I’m the pastor of First Christian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. This state is ground zero for a so-called Immigration crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that resulted in the death of Renee Good. I struggle at times, preaching about the latest happenings in the news because I strongly believe we are preachers of the gospel, not CNN. But echoing Marvin Gaye, sometimes you do need to preach about “What’s Going On,” especially when it happens at your doorstep. This sermon was preached on the texts for Baptism of Jesus Sunday: Acts 10:34-43 and Matthew 3:13-17. There is a link below if you want to listen to the sermon.
I was going to start this sermon with a funny story about my baptism nearly 50 years ago, but now isn’t the time for jokes. It’s not really the time for stories. I was trained as a journalist, but I am not particularly interested in preaching on the latest issue. Preaching is not reporting or opinion, and I’m not interested in being some version of CNN with clergy collars. However, there are times when you need to discuss events. Not to talk about what happened this week regarding the killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer would be wrong. So let’s talk about it in light of the gospel.
New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote last year that he once had a certain idea of America. He believed America was a deeply flawed nation, but a force for good in the world. He doesn’t feel that way anymore. I totally understand. I’ve long believed our nation was a good nation. Now, I’m not naive. I’m African American. I know my history. My dad grew up in Jim Crow Louisiana. But I believed this was a good nation. Martin Luther King Jr. called not just on the Bible, but on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I’m having trouble believing that this week. I’ve become disheartened by what our federal government has become. I’m frustrated that we can no longer trust the federal government—our government. It feels like Minnesota is under siege by the government we support with our taxes.
No doubt many of you feel angry, frustrated, and grief-stricken. We feel like there is no hope. But there is hope. In this season of Epiphany, as we remember the manifestation of Christ into our dark world, we remember the baptism of Jesus. In this text in Matthew, we see Jesus coming to his cousin, John, asking to be baptized. John was ready to protest, telling Jesus that perhaps John needed to be baptized by Jesus. He knew Jesus knew no sin. His baptism was one of repentance for sin, and it made no sense for someone who cannot sin to get in the water to be baptized. But Jesus insisted. He tells his cousin he is doing this to fulfill all righteousness. What did that mean?
Jesus was getting baptized. The Greek word for baptism means “to immerse.” This event is also considered the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, which culminates in the cross. When Jesus is immersed in the water, he isn’t repenting of sin. Instead, Jesus immerses himself into humanity. He immerses himself into everything about us, including our sin. Jesus isn’t sitting on the sidelines, but is joining in. The Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ says, “In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Lord, he has come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the world to himself.” Jesus joins our common lot. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians that “Christ didn’t have any sin. But God made him become sin for us, so we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.”
When Jesus joined our common lot, it means that Jesus is Emmanuel—that God is with us. We don’t have a God who sits far away and is unconcerned. Jesus has joined with us, and God is with us in our frustration, anger, and fear. Whatever you are feeling right now about this week’s events or other events, know that God cares for you. God is with you. God is with us.
Knowing that Jesus is with us does something to us. It leads us to places we might not expect. In Acts, Peter was initially hesitant to talk to Cornelius, a Roman soldier. After all, Cornelius wasn’t Jewish. But then Peter fell into a trance and had an encounter in which God told him that nothing God created was unclean. Peter then went to the household of Cornelius with the good news. He tells the story of Jesus, and the result is that the Spirit fell on Cornelius and his household, and they were baptized. When we are baptized—immersed—we are baptized into the life of God. We start to understand what moves God, the God who in Christ broke past the boundaries that we set up. God came to put our sins to death, which died with Christ on the cross. We then enter into the life of God, or as the ELCA says about baptism, we make a covenant with God:
“to live among God’s faithful people,
to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s Supper,
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,
and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.”
Because Christ entered our common lot, died, and rose again, we as baptized Christians enter into the life of God—proclaiming the good news, serving our sisters and brothers, and striving for justice and peace.
My colleague Drew McIntyre is a Methodist pastor in North Carolina. He wrote an article last year about how the resurrection is a symbol of hope. He uses a quote from the missiologist Leslie Newbigin. When asked if he was an optimist or a pessimist, he said, “I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.”
That is our hope and our cry right now. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, which means that those who practice evil are already defeated. They just don’t know it yet.
As you deal with the aftermath of what happened to a young mother of three, as we deal with the fact that ICE is terrorizing our neighbors and our schools, nabbing people in store parking lots, and it feels like there is no hope, remember this: Jesus took the plunge into our lives. Jesus rose from the dead. That is our song of hope. The powers that oppress are like a lion seeking to devour, but those powers of death are defeated. We will overcome. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Yes, thank you. I needed this sermon.
Thanks Dennis for preaching it and sharing with us.