HOB Day Three

Yesterday was a day for summing up and traveling.  We gathered at the local Episcopal Church in Douglas, AZ and tried to gather our many impressions. However, my recognition of the complexity of the whole issue of immigration as well as the flood of emotions from the previous day made any coherent summery impossible.

What came to me is this.  Nations have borders for good reasons.  There is a particularity that is necessary to human life and to the life of nation states.   Before you can be "Everyman" or "Everywoman," you have be this man or this woman.

Our calling as followers of Jesus Christ is to claim our radical particularly and then push through until we get to the Body of Christ where our distinctions make no difference.  For Jesus Christ there are only God's children.  Our citizenship is with him.

My experience is that I primarily have a sense of that mystery through my heart not my head.  It's just the way I am wired.  Hearing the stories of the men so far from their countries of birth and so far from their children who are on the other side of the border opened my heart.  What we are doing with immigration now doesn't work and isn't right.  There must be a better way.

I also thought of Mary Magdalene in the garden on the third day.  She is certain that someone has stolen her Lord and she can't get to him.  She runs around in circles frantic to find him.  And because she thinks someone has stolen from her, everyone looks like a thief.  She sees a gardener---and asks in an accusing voice---Do you know where they have taken my Lord?  When he speaks her name, she sees Jesus.



Bisbee, AZ

 So long as we are afraid of each other with a border between, we will both see each other as threats and thieves.  We are called to look again; to hear one another's names; and to see the face of Christ. This is the Church's calling and one of the gifts we have to give to this conversation.  Each of us was given a cross with the name of someone who died in the desert; ours is Maria de la Luz Ramirez Orozco, died 8/2/10.  I pray her cross will prevent me for forgetting this dilemma when the blur of work begins again after my return.

We are in Phoenix (yes, it's hot!). Last night I went for a walk and at 8:00 it was 85.  Our meeting begins with Bible Study and a discussion of evangelism.  Tonight we have a dinner with the Coalition of Episcopal Latinos.

Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in mine.
+Porter


St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Tombstone, AZ
Founded 1881