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We are a church that can do hard things.

That’s the message I shared with our staff and volunteers in January when we were asked to open our building as an emergency shelter for our unhoused neighbors during a time of crisis. We can do hard things. We have done hard things before. We will do hard things again. Hard does not mean impossible.

As followers of Christ, we are called to be people who step into what is difficult for the sake of love.

A few days after sharing that message, I was asked to speak about the growing presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in our communities, particularly the role our local law enforcement agreed to play in detaining immigrants. I shared that rounding up immigrants does not make our community safer; it makes our community quieter. Fear may silence people, but it does not build trust, justice, or community.

The marginalization of our unhoused neighbors and the detention of our immigrant neighbors are symptoms of a deeper problem in our nation: we have lost a shared sense of community. Too often, we fail to recognize the inherent sacred worth of whole groups of people because of social class, mental illness, addiction, immigration status, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, or any number of other differences. History shows that we have never lacked reasons to push people aside.

The hard work of the church is to resist that marginalization in whatever form it presents itself. This is work we have done before, and it is work we will continue to do. We will do it when we have allies. We will do it when we stand alone. We will do it because it is our calling.

It is in our spiritual DNA to see the humanity in those others overlook, ignore, or condemn. That is central to what it means to be the Church, to be United Methodists, and it is at the heart of our mission.

I am deeply grateful for the people of FUMC who have stepped into this hard work. My prayer is that we will always be the kind of community that says “yes” when faith calls us to do what is difficult, for the sake of love, justice, our neighbors, and our common call to community.