When the Light Shows Up Where We Don’t Want It To

Written By Guest User


In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus does not begin his ministry in a safe or powerful place. He starts in Galilee — a region watched closely by empire, shaped by fear and force. Scripture calls it a place of shadow. Matthew reaches back to Isaiah and says:

“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.”

This is not a poetic idea meant to comfort us.
It is a statement about where God chooses to show up.

That matters right now.

In recent weeks in Minnesota, Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations have caused deep harm and trauma. Federal agents shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a mother, during an ICE operation. Children have been detained during enforcement actions, including toddlers taken into custody and young children used to draw adults out of their homes.

This is not abstract. These are families. These are bodies. These are lives disrupted and ended by state power.

We need to be clear: calling this “law enforcement” does not make it just.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has named this clearly. Through the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness, the denomination has raised alarm about the growing militarization of ICE and the harm these tactics cause to children, families, and entire communities.

In January 2026, PC(USA) advocacy director Rev. Jimmie Hawkins spoke directly to this moment, naming unjust immigration enforcement alongside global violence and calling the church to remain engaged, faithful, and active in the struggle for justice:
https://www.pcusa.org/news-storytelling/news/2026/1/23/leader-offers-encouragement-midst-turbulent-times

The church has also issued a public Action Alert titled “Lawless Law Enforcement and the Militarization of ICE,” urging Presbyterians to speak out and demand accountability when federal enforcement violates human dignity:
https://www.votervoice.net/PCUSA/Campaigns/133070/Respond

The PC(USA) has long affirmed that immigrants are not threats to be managed, but neighbors to be loved. Through General Assembly actions, public witness campaigns, and ministry at the United Nations, the denomination has consistently framed immigration justice as a matter of Christian faith — not partisan preference.

That matters because Jesus’ call to repent is not about feeling bad. It means turn around. It means see differently. It means refusing to accept harm simply because it comes from people in uniform or systems labeled “legal.”

Jesus does not preach repentance from a safe distance. He stands in the shadow. He begins where power already feels dangerous.

And when Jesus calls disciples, he doesn’t offer certainty or safety. He says, Follow me. Not “understand everything.” Not “fix the system.” Just follow — step by step — into the light.

As Rev. Hawkins reminds the church, protest is not separate from faith. Advocacy is not a distraction from the gospel. It is one of the ways faith speaks when injustice becomes normalized.

So what does that mean for us?

It means we refuse to treat these deaths as ordinary.
It means we refuse to let children be used as leverage without protest.
It means we take seriously our church’s own witness and ask what it requires of us now.

Light, in Matthew’s Gospel, does not wait for permission. It does not arrive once things calm down. It breaks into places of real harm and demands that we see clearly.

Light that doesn’t interrupt darkness isn’t light at all.

The people who sat in darkness did not become heroes overnight.
They saw a light.
And they followed.

That is still how it begins.

What You Can Do

You do not have to do everything.
Choose one faithful step.

Faithfulness does not require certainty.
It requires attention, honesty, and the courage to follow the light where it leads.

Guest User
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In and Out of Season: A Sermon on 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5