01/26/2026
Pastoral Response to the Icy Conflict in Minneapolis
Galatians 6:1-2
6 My brothers and sisters, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Dear Beloved Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I write to you in the midst of families in fear and mourning, a city under siege, and a country grossly divided. I come to you in blissful hope of a love so pure and a gospel so compelling that we can only find one way, and that way is together.
My friends, it is not difficult to detect transgressions amongst each other. Social media makes those visible and clear. Arguments are made, opinions are spewed, and judgments are cast. Right or wrong, valid or invalid, legal or illegal, the verdict is declared. Every transgression to be justified by one side or the other.
The Apostle Paul challenges the one who has received the Spirit to restore the transgressor, most notably, in a spirit of gentleness. In this time of social, civil, and emotional unrest, most assuredly if one was asked who the transgressor is, their finger would point to the other. After all, in this public display of power and resistance, are not both sides victims? If for no other reason than proximity, circumstance, or choice? It’s easy to criminalize a victim, justify dominance, or validate disruption of the enforcers for the perceived betterment of the whole. Hence the passionate convictions from both sides.
Unable to identify the transgressor with certainty, at least from the perspective of consensus with the whole of both sides, should we then ask who among us are the ones who have received the Spirit? Would they be the identifying marker of where restoration begins? Which side would the Spirit choose to indwell to stir one of God’s beloved into action of gentleness? This is where the gospel gets tricky.
When there are two sides, there is not only one side that God loves and not only one side that the Spirit dwells. The Apostle Paul, when addressing the church in Galatia, was not addressing transgressors as those outside the community and the Spirit filled as the righteous within. Paul was writing to a faith community where the Spirit dwells within the transgressor; the transgressors were the same people the Spirit chose to indwell and thus called to the work of restoration in the spirit of gentleness. Therefore inviting us into the holy work of carrying each other's burdens, even when that looks like firm resistance and mustering compassion for the other side.
Peaceful community does not come with the absence of transgressors, transgressions, opinions, or even sides. It begins with a God that loves “us so much that we also ought to love one another…[for] if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” (1 John 4:11-13)
Where there is hurt and mourning, how might you carry another’s burden to a place of comfort and healing? Where there are timbers of brokenness, how might you shoulder them to the shore of hope and build a bridge to unity? How might our prayers be a call of gentle activism for peace, unity, and love?
Finally, brothers and sisters, bound together by the Cross of Christ and in the spirit of gentleness for the hope of peaceful community, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ bless you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In Christ’s love,
Pastor Peter
Below are links to songs relevant for this moment in time.
https://youtu.be/3zARVp3420I?si=NxIKvUb5bNolgfRH
https://youtu.be/mvc_cLfQL_M?si=xn6T_32Y2DHfDN86
Hey guys! I LOVE this song...that's all.Like and comment below! 😊p.s I don't own anything, all rights go to channel ⬇👏https://www.youtube...
