MINNEAPOLIS (RNS) — About midway through her sermon at Calvary Lutheran Church on Sunday (Jan. 11), the Rev. Babette Chatman pivoted to a discussion of empire.
The Israelites resisted the Egyptians, she said, which Chatman labeled as a kind of empire. The Roman empire killed Jesus. And now, she argued, the United States is a form of empire, too, and Christians should respond with a “prophetic word” that challenges those in power — including, she said, the thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers patrolling the streets of Minneapolis as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort.
“I think the church is invited into imagining what kind of world we want,” said Chatman, who was serving as a guest preacher for the day. “We want a world where we don’t have to worry about people in brown uniforms with guns and gas spray and masks coming in our yard. We want a world where we don’t have to worry about not having our rights.”
She added: “We want a world where people don’t get killed for saying, ‘It’s okay, sweetie. I ain’t mad at you.’”
The line was a reference to the last known words of Renee G …