Editor’s Note: Rev. Susie Hayward delivered the following remarks at Baylor University’s “All Are Neighbors” event on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.
Rev. Susie Hayward
Beloved, you are a beautiful sight to behold.
It is a blessing to be with you and to ground ourselves in our love for each other and for the God of us all, who made us diverse as a reflection of God. That is what I believe—that in learning and celebrating our differences, we can understand better a God who is bigger than any one race or culture or nation or religious tradition, a God who does not belong to any one of us, but to whom we all belong.
I see that illimitable God manifesting in the diverse voices and experiences and traditions that are represented in this program tonight, and I thank God for that.
I came to be with you from my hometown of Minneapolis to testify about what I learned from my neighbors about the gospel these past five months. And let me be clear that I learned from not only my Christian and my Catholic neighbors, but from my Somali Muslim, my Hmong Buddhist, my Jewish and devoutly atheist and spiritual-but-not-religious and Black and brown and Indigenous and queer neighbors.
And what they taught me is what it means to live what Jesus taught is the greatest command of all: to love God and to love neighbor. What some are calling neighborism, and that is an -ism that I can get behind.
Federal assault in Minneapolis, known as Operation Metro Surge, called us Christians in Minnesota to confront what that command really demands of us—the kind of discipleship that Jesus is calling us to.
It sounds simple and nice. You can cross-stitch that on a pillow. Am I right?
But friends, let me tell you that when the stakes are high, when the beautiful, diverse neighborhood you live in is overrun by heavily armed mass agents causing harm by separating families, detaining and disappearing neighbors in violation of their constitutional rights and their essential dignity, when they are tear-gassing school children and clergy, when your neighbors are hiding in their homes for months and others are being snatched from bus stops based solely on the color of their skin, loving your neighbors sounds simple, but it is not easy.
It takes courage. It means stepping out of your comfort zone and being willing to show up in costly solidarity with the most vulnerable, with those who are being dehumanized and targeted by those with power.
Folks sometimes ask me how we did it in Minneapolis, how we organized so powerfully to protect each other, what empowered us to go out day after day in the brutal cold—and it was cold—to show up to protect each other armed with nothing but our whistles and our camera phones and our meals for neighbors in hiding.
And I’m gonna tell you the secret: it was love. That’s it.
We were and we are deeply in love with each other in Minnesota—with the Dakota and the Anishinaabe people, Indigenous to our gorgeous Northland, who keep the drum beating and lead us in protecting our precious waterways; with the Scandinavian and German Lutherans who immigrated with their lefse and their lutefisk—beware the lutefisk—and who brought with them the ethic of neighborliness that created the infrastructure to welcome and support so many refugee populations who came to Minnesota seeking safety; the African Americans who helped shape our incredible Minneapolis sound, without whom we would not have Prince singing resistance; the Somali and Tibetan and Hmong who came in recent decades and blessed us with their cultural and religious traditions, their amazing food, all of which has become woven into our city and into our state; and in more recent years, the Ecuadorians and the Guatemalans.
Over time, the identity of what it is to be Minnesotan expanded to include it all and to hold it all with pride, because we know that it reflects our great, illimitable, diverse God, and that diversity helps us understand that God even better.
And that love for one another that we have is what motivated us and empowered us, and in the end, it’s what drove us to affirm the good news that the forces of hate and violence are mighty, but they are not almighty, and love will always win.
So that’s it. Now you know the secret ingredient.
And more good news: y’all are already living it out. I am here as a witness to that.
Blessings on your commitment and love of neighbors, which means loving everyone. Blessings on your practice of neighborliness, and may it transform you and all of us.
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Rev. Susie Hayward is Minister of Justice and Formation at Creekside UCC in South Minneapolis.