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So Wigginton, I am the vice president for Education beyond the walls here at Austin Seminary and I hold an appointment to the faculty as research professor of Methodist studies and you may have guessed that I am a

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member of the United Methodist Church, that's why that works out so well. And I am delighted this morning to uh introduce our first lecture by the 2020 Westervelt lecturer because he is my bishop, he is

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the bishop of the Rio texas conference of the United Methodist Church robert sneezy. Now I know when I say bishop, presbyterian ears are just hurting at the sound of that word. It's like somebody said or

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sounded a very sour note and I can hear those presbyterian voices. Bishop, no, thank you bishop , we'd prefer democracy please. And I am so grateful for the diversity of ways that people live out

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God's church. And I want to tell you something about this thing of being a bishop. We uh Methodists are heirs of the wesleyan tradition which came out of the anglican church and bishops were part of the

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fiber of that church. And when this Methodist Church was founded in America in 1784, John Wesley ordained the first bishop and there's a lot to be said about that because he didn't really have the power to

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do that, but nevertheless he did. And since that time we have had bishops who serve our church as servant leaders, as supervisors and as overseers. Now babies are not born as bishops. This is

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something that they grow into their born just like every other baby, but they're formed in, in a way to receive a special calling. They grow up in regular places. Bishop Snazzy grew up in texas

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and he had the good sense to come to the university of texas for his college education and here we begin to see his exceptionalism because he was inducted into phi beta kappa along with Keaton King who was our

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preacher last night and then he did what all those who would become bishops do. And he got a theological education. His was at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and he was ordained an elder

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in the United Methodist Church. He served in a variety of places because we methodist itinerary rate, we'll hand out a glossary later, which you can understand what that means, but we move around as we

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are sent by our bishops and he sort of churches in great Britain in Harlingen and for 15 years as the senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Mcallen . And it was from there that he was called

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and nominated and elected to serve as a bishop for the church. He was consecrated as a bishop for life and was sent to serve as bishop in Missouri , Where he did serve for 12 years. A

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very faithful and fruitful leadership. Then, much to our great delight and gratitude. He was sent back to the Rio texas conference conference, which spans from Round Rock to Brownsville and all points in between.

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I have heard bishop Sneezy say that part of his ministry is writing and in fact he has published several books and I want to share those titles with you . These are the best selling books about Ministry.

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five practices of fruitful congregations, five practices of fruitful living practicing extravagant generosity, seven Levers mission, all strategies for conferences. Just say yes, unleashing people for ministry And five practices of fruitful congregations. The

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2nd edition. Now, I would say from knowing him that not only is he called to the ministry of Writing, but he is gifted for it, for writing and for storytelling and you will soon see

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this for yourself. So please join me in welcoming bishop robert, Sneezy. Okay, Gracias melissa three merriment care. Adala being we needto does aqui presente and being an overflow room. Grasses pour some interest

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in ultima they lost from terrorists. Gracias sell dr ward la por la invitation. He pursues tension. Is the hospital it dad gracias a dios por cada uno. The status report all the location parallel mission

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. The cristo departamento para mi assumed pretty later they started key uh aunties, new status. So welcome everyone. It's a privilege to be here. And I thank you for the invitation doctor Wardlaw and for

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your hospitality. And I give God thanks for every one of you And I look forward to our time together and also greetings to those who are walked, watching from the overflow overflow room. Uh look forward

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to this. And I also give God thanks for the Flatow family and for therefore side and creating a platform to share ideas for many generations through the sponsorship of this lecture series, the wester vault lecture series

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. So I've been working on a collection of stories for the last few years entitled Border Crossing. And this is a little different genre than kind of the leadership materials that Melissa was referring to. And some

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of the other writing I've done about organizations are about devotional work. And and so uh why Border crossing ? Well? Because I've been thinking about borders for a long time and the utter necessity of crossing borders

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. If we're going to follow christ, if we're going to engage people in our community who are different from ourselves or step across thresholds of uh thought to allow ourselves to be shaped by the holy spirit.

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So to get us going on this topic of borders , I want to just show a few pictures. That actually is the hospital where I was born In Eagle pass Texas along the South Texas border with Mexico

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. It's long been abandoned and soldiers cactus growing on the roof. And it's uh but the interesting thing about that hospital is it's built about 400 yards from the international border with Mexico. And uh, and

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in fact, if you want to interrogate kind of the ethnic history of that area, what you discover is that that hospital was built on the old Fort Duncan, which was one of a series of forts

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that were built in the mid 19th century to protect uh kind of white settlers from, from invasions from Mexico and from uh indian attack as it would be said in the day. And uh, and and

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and then, I mean to further complicate things or remember the complexity of it. Fort Duncan was actually peopled by soldiers who were Seminole indian scouts who were african americans who were freed slaves or escaped slaves who

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are eventually recruited by the army to serve in these remote areas. That's the hospital from the front. And the only reason I show this picture is if this, if we can see in more detail,

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there's some towers back behind the hospital there that are actually in Mexico and the international bridges just off to the right by several 100 yards as well. And so that the border is kind of in my blood

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has been from the beginning. Now when I was born there, what was in that 400 yards between the hospital and the river was nomadic, Kickapoo Indians who had settled there for some type of uh parts

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of the year and then go into Mexico because they had no kind of formal nationality and they could move freely across the border. And so they spend some time in Mexico and some time in the United States

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. But in the back of that hospital now you have this, this fence that is probably 20, ft tall. And uh, and on the other side of it you would say, well that would

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be Mexico on the other side of it in that 400 yards and extended and part of the larger piece is a golf course that's part of the country club . So growing up, this is what the river

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was like for me. That's, that's not like when I was a kid, but that's, but it was a place of recreation. It was a canoeing and kayaking and fishing and uh, and it

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still is that I'm a birder. And so I go up and down the river all the time. And just, uh, because the fence is, the wall is just in certain places and a lot

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of places you just walk right up to the, to the river. Uh, now when you get there, usually it's about four minutes before the border patrol arrived to see what you're doing there because you've

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tripped some sensor in the area. So this is , this is what the Rio grande means to me in so many ways, it's just a river. I drove up to the river on the day those

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pictures were taken and uh, this guy was pulling this fish out of the water just as I drove up. It's an£8.9 ounce bass. This is the real grandi in Big Bend National Park and there's

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little county dots in the middle of that picture. Who are my canoeing buddies? Because we're canoeing. The Rio grande. Now on the left is Mexico , which means I'm taking the picture from Mexico,

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but you kind of don't know which side you're on there and I'm not quite sure where the wall goes in this picture. That's that. But that's some like several 100 ft high cliff on the mexican side

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. This is the international border between if you want to. That's probably not the right designation for it between Israel and the Palestinian territories. I took this picture and the fellow in the picture who's talking to

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us is the colonel who was commissioned to design and build this uh, this wall. This is the border between Naco Arizona and Mexico. Mexico. And they're playing volleyball over the fence. And what I

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like about this picture is you see what really unifies us forever. It's under that tent further back. Yeah. This is the border between Norway and Sweden , the Netherlands and Belgian. There's two pictures of

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it and it's just little hash marks on the on the floor or on the road. This is the border between Haiti and the Dominican republic. And uh we don't think of the Dominican republic as being a

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wealthy, resource rich country. But look at the difference between Haiti, excuse me, Dominican republic on the right and Haiti on the left in terms of exhaustion of resources and overgrazing. This is between the

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United States and Mexico at san Diego. The U . S. Is on the left. These rivers marked the international borders between Argentina brazil and Paraguay Sweden and Norway. Little Lithuania and belarus, the U

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. S. And Canada. It's kind of just a fire line cut. Okay, that orange line there. Uh kind of the center of the picture is the border between India and Palestine. Okay.

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And this is what it looks like India and Pakistan . I'm sorry you caught me. Okay. And this is what that border between India and Pakistan looks close up. And this picture takes a little bit

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of kind of getting your mind around. But all this bright light down to the lower right is south Korea. And then the bright light further up is china. And in between that darkness is north Korea

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. And it just kind of shows the difference in economic development. So so anyway, when we when we cross the border, we discover people that we otherwise would count as strangers. We become someone different

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ourselves. We stepping across the border changes how we see ourselves, how we perceive others, how others view us border crossing helps us to live in more than one World border crossing has two meanings. When

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you think about it first, it's a point of departure from one place in the entry point to another . It's a threshold, a place of transition. Border crossing, just a few miles away, we

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use it that way, things will be different when we cross the border. Even if we're uncertain about what to expect. A border crossing can be physical , such as those checkpoints between countries or a border

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crossing can be intangible, such as the point we cross within ourselves to decide to do something differently. Border crossing also refers to an experience how was your trip was fine Except for the border crossing. In

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this sense, border crossing is involves movement in growth and transition and change and stepping from one way of understanding to another. And I'd argue that our lives are comprised comprised of a series of succession of border

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crossings and the more adept we become of putting ourselves in situations that change our minds. The more we experience growth, we must cross borders if we're going to have a better world because we're so polarized this

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and distrustful of one another. Border crossings help us coexist despite language and cultural divides. The border crossing stories explore the space between one culture and another and the inner hesitancy and fears that make border crossing so

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challenging. For me, Border crossing has been done sporadically and imperfectly at times. I'm ashamed of my own timidity and other times I'm humbled at who I meet and what I learnt, Border crossing changes me

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who I am, how I think what I'm becoming . So the theme is simple. We should be willing to place ourselves in situations that will cause us to change our minds, or more importantly, our

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hearts when we cross the border between nations or in our communities from one zip code to another or within ourselves. Old certainties are replaced with new ways of seeing the world, christ enters people's lives and dissolves

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the existing attitudes, perceptions and assumptions whatever they may be, Jesus asked his disciples to leave their nets , walk away from their mats and journey away from their homes to follow him. He invites his followers

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to become to make becoming uncomfortable a spiritual discipline. And Jesus was a border crosser. He dined with tax collectors and centres breaching Pharisees restrictions. He told stories of good Samaritans, drawing people across the borders

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indelibly etched in their minds. He spoke with a foreign woman at the well overstepping boundaries of propriety. He crossed borders literally and figuratively to reach the poor at the margins. Zaki is in the tree and

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Nicodemus in the night. Border crossing should be as natural as breathing you would think for christians because jesus so instinctively knew that following God meant crossing borders. We are disciples because we've said yes to jesus,

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to following him. Even across borders, we serve as our speaker this morning, shared with us a Border crossing God. So I'm going to read a story. It took place early in my ministry.

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This is from About 30 years ago. It's entitled the baptism. The jingling of the bell that hung from the front door, alerted me that someone had entered the front office. The visitors voice was too

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soft for me to understand, but there was no mistaking the secretary's loud response. I'm sorry I don't speak spanish. I rose from my desk chair and move through the doorway of my office into the reception

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area. A petite young woman in casual jeans and wearing a colorful blouse. Was turning to leave in spanish. I asked her how we might be of help, Senorita? Where are you, darling?

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And I'll go. She paused as if giving us a second chance. Unknown visitors were common to us . Most spoke only spanish. Many of them were women seeking counsel, are asking for prayer or needing

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money for diapers. Some were fleeing a boyfriend. After a night of abusive rage. Many found themselves in crisis, with no pathways forward and no numbers to call seeking help from strangers who spoke a language

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they had not learned. This visitor was different from most, No older than 19. By my estimation , she seems shy, but naturally confident. She had not anticipated that stepping into a church in downtown

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Mcallen texas, a few miles from the border with Mexico would require navigating the language divide or engaging with Anglo's sitting behind desks and offices. This is likely a scenario she preferred to avoid. She smiled at

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my accented spanish, but still seemed uncertain about whether to stay. I would like to speak to a priest please, she said. I introduced myself as the pastor and telling her that this was a methodist

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church with pastors instead of priests. I apologize for my imperfect spanish and with the motion of the hand gesture that she was welcome to come in. She stepped into my office. She sat with her handbag

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in her lap. Her straight black hair fell to her shoulders unrestrained. She seemed tentative and uneasiness. That was more than timidity, a discomfort perhaps because of the differences in language culture, gender. Her

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eyes search the room, starting from my diplomas on the walls to photos on the top of my cabinets , two papers on my desk, as if trying to discern whether this was a trustworthy place. Her

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simple clothing and jewelry were fashionable, but not expensive , her mascara carefully applied, but not extravagant, giving her a pleasant and professional appearance, not unlike hundreds of young women who worked as sales clerks,

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cashiers and food servers within a half mile of the church. I left the door to my office half open, and we exchanged names. Hers was Leticia . Do you baptize babies? Leticia ask in spanish

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. Never had a stranger stepped in off the street to ask this, and my look betrayed my surprise . She edged forward in her seat and rewarded her request. I want my baby baptized. Is that

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something you can do? Her? Leaning forward, lent and intensity to her words. Since Leticia had asked for a priest, I felt compelled to clarify again that this was not a catholic church and I

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was not a catholic priest. I was pastor of a methodist church. She asked me to explain the difference. I struggled with how to distill centuries of historical and theological distinctions into a few sentences and further

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how to translate into a spanish that was comprehensible. She seemed distracted during my theological and linguistic acrobatics or annoyed as if my concerns were irrelevant self indulgences that delayed us from getting to the point distinctions between Catholics

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and Methodists did not count much for Leticia. Tell me about your baby. I said to get us back on track. She told me about her six week old daughter Esperanza. I asked the usual questions

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what prompted her to want esperanza baptized. Did she belong to a community of faith at church? Her answers were watery thin, but no more so I'm ashamed to say than the responses I received for many

00:21:45.540 - 00:21:59.520

of my own members, which frequently ran along the lines of, because the grandparents are going to be in town next week. I asked her why she wanted esperanza baptized in this church. She told me

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how she had taken the bus from Weslaco, another border community 20 miles down the road to go shopping in McAllen. When she saw the church, she felt she needed to ask a priest to baptize her

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baby. Her voice broke and her eyes watered as she spoke about her longing to have esperanza baptized. Besides, she added, this church is beautiful. It seems right. Again. I wondered if she

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was clear about this not being a catholic church and questioned whether my language skills had sufficiently covered the point , but I didn't want to go down that convoluted path Again. Our church was a historic spanish romanesque

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structure built in early texas, mission motifs including red spanish tile roofs and stonework arches replicated in doorways and along covered walkways. Ancient ivy crawled up our brickwork , giving us a cloistered appearance. Countless travelers,

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transients and visitors stepped into our sanctuary, assuming that they were entering a catholic church as best as we could across the language divide. I answered her questions and she responded to my inquiries about her faith,

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her reasons for wanting esperanza baptized and her understanding of the sacrament. So will you baptize my baby not so fast and not so simple. Most baptisms were performed for infants born into families of the congregation and

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after council with the parents, baptism is generally not a private ceremony, but a public celebration. It involves commitments from the parents and it binds members of the church to a host of ongoing responsibilities, to

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help the child grow in grace and in the knowledge and love of God, baptisms for walk ins is not the norm. On the other hand, I had made plenty of exceptions. The infant in the

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hospital whom I baptized moments before she died, the inmate in the county jail who had never been to our church. The woman who lived in an abandoned boxcar in Mexico who asked to be baptized while we

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were delivering food decades before. During that tender time when they were exploring whether to join a methodist church in texas ah from a Lutheran background, my own parents phoned an unknown pastor in Nebraska. They had

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never visited his church, but they ask if he would baptize my baby sister's so that nearby relatives could be present. The pastor graciously agreed what would have happened if the pastor had said no would my parents

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have turned away from the methodist church. I prefer to air on the side of grace. I've turned down requests to perform weddings because I believe the marriage was ill advised with funerals. My policy was to

00:24:49.480 - 00:25:04.190

accommodate whenever possible unless I encountered a bizarre request from someone who wanted to be buried with his ford mustang or to have her ashes spread across the floor of a casino. I say yes to baptisms because the

00:25:04.200 - 00:25:18.670

efficacy of the sacrament does not rest with the level of understanding or the purity of motivation of the parents or with the ability or with their ability to articulate the meaning of the event. I counsel parents as

00:25:18.670 - 00:25:33.770

best I can, but I trust that God will be active even if the parents don't fully understand and the baby and whether or not the baby is completely passive or totally asleep or screaming like a banshee,

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God's grace is present. Even if the parents greatest concern is whether the photographs will do justice to the needle work in the baptismal ground, who else will you invite to the baptism? I ask grandparents relatives

00:25:49.240 - 00:26:03.970

. She said it would be her and her baby and the priest. Of course I thought no family gatherings of cousins and aunts and uncles. The simplicity contrasted with the practice among many Hispanics, of throwing

00:26:03.970 - 00:26:21.860

elaborate celebrations for baptisms complete with ancestral baptismal grant gowns , embossed invitations not unlike those for weddings and requested . Those are Mementos for relatives. The earnestness of Leticia is request nudged me toward performing the baptism.

00:26:22.120 - 00:26:37.130

Even though I wondered what family circumstance made her forego inviting relatives or even the baby's father. I was ready to walk through the questions I would ask her at the service and set a time, perhaps with

00:26:37.130 - 00:26:51.350

a few church staff members present. Then I would baptize esperanza when you baptize a baby. Do you give a certificate? She asked, coma? I said instinctively, Excuse me. What did you say

00:26:52.140 - 00:27:04.580

? I needed her to repeat that question. She proceeded to describe a baptismal certificate, a document that had the baby's name, date and place of birth , along with the parents names and the date and

00:27:04.580 - 00:27:19.380

place of the baptism Which she received one if I baptized her daughter, She knew what she was asking for alarms began to blair. When I grasped what she was asking, something within me began to wither

00:27:21.340 - 00:27:36.270

. She entered my office wondering whether she could trust me, and now I found myself questioning whether I could trust her along the border. A few things are more important as are as important as papeles,

00:27:36.280 - 00:27:48.430

papers, documentos, legal documents. Do you have your papers? Has he applied for his papers? When will she finally get her papers? A few things are more frightening than to be caught? Simple

00:27:48.430 - 00:28:02.080

apples without papers. And even though tens of thousands of people live and work without having them in order in the Rio grande Valley. But police refers to documents that give legitimacy to one citizenship or the one's

00:28:02.080 - 00:28:15.840

ability to work or to travel or to merely be present in the country. Papers are green cards, passports, entry visas, birth certificates, work permits , social security cards, travel documents, embassy letters

00:28:15.840 - 00:28:33.920

, consulate receipts, tax records, pay stubs, utility bills, vehicle registrations, military discharges and driver's licenses. Papers come with signatures of authorities, official stamps in bost seals, government watermarks, laminated cards

00:28:33.540 - 00:28:51.690

or photos of faces. No border is complete without protocols related to papers, papers, grant rights, privileges, status, standing security future. Or they deny these without papers. People live in fear.

00:28:51.700 - 00:29:07.650

They go underground, become vulnerable to threat and to abuse with papers doors open. The future is unlimited . Immigration issues are the waters through which people swim daily along the border. Immigration is not abstract principles

00:29:07.650 - 00:29:21.320

or distant politics. Whether it's about where you work , who you work for, who works for you , whether your Children attend school or your grandmother goes to the hospital. Immigration status determines if you find

00:29:21.320 - 00:29:34.300

employment, live in decent housing, drive a car or feel secure reporting a crime. Doctors, lawyers , accountants, day laborers, maids, farmworkers, cooks, cashiers, all of them rely upon papers

00:29:34.320 - 00:29:52.290

to work and live in the United States. Papers matter where babies are born makes a difference for the rest of their lives. Yes, we give a baptismal certificate to the parents when we baptize babies,

00:29:52.300 - 00:30:07.180

I answered, but I was thinking was the baptism a ruse a way of getting me to sign a certificate that says her esperanza was born in the United States. A record of baptism that indicates a person

00:30:07.180 - 00:30:18.850

was born in the U. S. Is one way of proving citizenship. In the absence of a birth certificate, baptismal certificates from churches are not as good as birth certificates from hospitals. But for people

00:30:18.850 - 00:30:34.110

with few threads of connection they are better than nothing . I imagined a neighbor suggesting to Leticia that she should ask a priest to baptize esperanza so that she gets the certificate that says she was born in texas

00:30:36.940 - 00:30:52.770

. Where was your daughter born? I ask. Before I could think through whether I wanted to hear her answer. She was born in Weslaco, she answered at home. Her eyes darted away from mine

00:30:52.140 - 00:31:08.560

. Her breathing quickened, Her confidence was gone lot Asia's anxiety was now palpable. We both felt uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking. When do you want to have your baby baptized? I ask

00:31:10.440 - 00:31:22.950

? And she told me she could bring esperanza the next day. The moment of decision had come. Would I baptize esperanza or not? But I wanted to mold this over pray this through talk with someone

00:31:22.950 - 00:31:37.030

about what to do. I was young in ministry . I wanted more information. I needed time. I felt unprepared and barely competent for understanding the dynamics of the conversation. My mind reeled with possibilities.

00:31:37.040 - 00:31:51.520

What was at stake for me, for my reputation for the church? If she drew me into an attempt to legitimize citizenship? What began as a pastoral regret request now seem fraught with moral implications and legal

00:31:51.520 - 00:32:08.760

consequences. Every pastoral intuition told me to baptize esperanza , but another part of my brain pushed back the suspicious, fearful, cautious side. I needed a pause to gather to re gather. I wanted help

00:32:10.540 - 00:32:22.260

. I want to think about your request for a few minutes, I said awkwardly, the words sounding disingenuous even to me. I ask if she would please wait in the reception area for a few minutes

00:32:22.840 - 00:32:39.020

. Never thinking how she might perceive this. I didn't know what else to do. She sensed that my confidence had lapsed. Some dynamic between us changed , which the differences in language and culture made it

00:32:39.030 - 00:32:54.950

difficult to understand or articulate. Something was at risk now for both of us that had not been there before. She shook her head slightly as if unconsciously needing to communicate her anxiety about what might follow.

00:32:55.340 - 00:33:12.140

And she stood to leave for the waiting room. The bright, lively eyes that had communicated purpose. We're now overshadowed with a sad, contemplative air and a vulnerability. As soon as Leticia stepped out,

00:33:12.140 - 00:33:22.060

I closed the door and reached for the phone. I called a lawyer, a friend and confidant member of the church who offered me council on numerous occasions when he picked up. I replayed the conversation,

00:33:22.440 - 00:33:36.630

questions poured forth. Should I ask to see a birth certificate before putting the baby's place of birth on the baptismal certificate? Should I require proof of noticias legal residency? Would it make a difference if the

00:33:36.630 - 00:33:46.300

father was a citizen? If she's here illegally? Am I breaking the law, aiding and abetting some sort of fraud? I didn't even know what a betting meant, but I had heard it on television

00:33:46.300 - 00:34:04.240

so many times that it just flowed smoothly off my tongue. After my run of questions, there was silence. My friend's side robert. You are not a Border Patrol agent, you are not an immigration

00:34:04.240 - 00:34:19.600

official, you're not her employer. You are a United Methodist pastor period. Have you ever required other parents to show the birth certificates of their Children before you baptize them? Of course not. Talk to

00:34:19.600 - 00:34:34.170

her about the baptism. Ask the questions. You usually ask. Parents then decide whether to baptize esperanza . My face burned with embarrassment. Well, he said, was so obvious. Why hadn't I seen

00:34:34.170 - 00:34:45.740

it after we hung up. I stared at the handset, stunned by the utter simplicity of his advice . I was so relieved about the way this was now unfolding that I smiled, jumped up from my

00:34:45.740 - 00:35:02.150

chair to invite Leticia into my office to confirm the details of esperanza's baptism. Leticia was gone. The reception area was empty. She sat down for no more than a minute and then left without saying a

00:35:02.150 - 00:35:16.890

word. The secretary reported whatever anxieties my question stirred up were no doubt amplified by inviting her to step out while I close my office door. She likely feared I was calling authorities to report her for something

00:35:17.640 - 00:35:32.470

. I rushed to the street and looked down the sidewalk knowing it was too late, I would never see her again like a magnet set beside a compass papers. And politics pulled me off course, distorted

00:35:32.470 - 00:35:51.860

by calling, confused. My sense of direction. I mishandled the whole situation. I felt alone and regretful fear kept me from crossing a border. A lesser version of myself had one. Leticia remains in

00:35:51.860 - 00:36:10.610

my mind until today. She seems present at each baptism. I perform all the details that had come of that incident come clearly to mind and I constantly revisited. She shapes every conversation I have with parents

00:36:10.610 - 00:36:28.350

about the sacrament. I hope esperanza had her, had her baby baptized. I hope she had esperanza baptized by someone less paralyzed by peripheral issues than me . Those borders. We regret that we did not

00:36:28.350 - 00:36:43.530

cross, remain with us forever. The most significant baptism in my ministry Was one I never performed. Mhm. So what was Leticia looking for when she walked through our door? Whether she was focused on

00:36:43.530 - 00:36:57.220

the sacrament or grasping for a thread of hope that perhaps a priest signature might crack open a door towards towards citizenship. What she earned for was the well being of her baby. What would you do for

00:36:57.220 - 00:37:10.750

the good of your Children, joseph and mary took their baby, jesus to a foreign land to avoid an emperor's capricious and deadly edict? Crossing borders along the way, Would you and I do the same

00:37:12.430 - 00:37:28.520

. Would we fudge for documents? These are borderline questions explicitly or unconsciously. Baptism expresses hope for future . Well being. Baptism highlights the gift like quality of grace, a love that is not earned or

00:37:28.520 - 00:37:45.550

achieved nothing. You have makes any difference. Not even a birth certificate. My father, my father altered the date of birth. On his baptismal certificate to enlist in the Marine Corps under age to escape

00:37:45.560 - 00:38:00.420

a difficult home situation. When he became a federal law enforcement officer, he corrected the birthdate. Now we tell that story to next generations with pride for his audacity and courage, for his service and for

00:38:00.420 - 00:38:16.930

the decision that changed his life and future and ours forever. After looking for Leticia, I returned to my office and closed the door, contemplating the many and varied worlds that coexist along the border. I

00:38:16.930 - 00:38:32.000

had a car in a garage to park it in insurance for health and life, a sufficient income and nice home, Social security, access to doctors and liars and education is reflected in the diplomas on my

00:38:32.000 - 00:38:45.490

walls. A family is seen in the photos on my cabinet, a job, as evidenced by the papers on my desk, how different Leticia swirled was from mine. The borders that separated us so numerous

00:38:45.490 - 00:39:01.990

that it makes my head swim. We live unaware of how others experience the world when they are not in our life. We have no interaction until cultures clash. An immigrant mom steps into a middle class

00:39:01.990 - 00:39:20.300

church. A white officer encounters a black teenager. Suddenly the vast chasms and experience and perception are thrust into view and we glimpse the genuine, raw, vulnerable side of our life together. How did paul

00:39:20.300 - 00:39:38.500

and Peter baptized thousands so carelessly or so graciously without attention to who is qualified? Did they check people's legal status? I hate being used by those circumventing the law or by the government wanting me to draw

00:39:38.500 - 00:39:58.840

distinctions that in God's kingdom simply do not exist. Baptism is not a political event. Grace is seen frontally fetuses without borders. Baptism derives from the greek word autism owes meaning to wash or immerse. Baptism

00:39:58.840 - 00:40:16.040

signifies the sacramental washing by which the soul is cleansed as the body feels the water. The sacrament sacrament signifies regeneration, illumination. New birth, baptism also has a metaphorical use. It describes an initiation into

00:40:16.040 - 00:40:35.630

a particular role. Typose one perceived as difficult an ordeal that tests courage or strength for the first time is a baptism. The experience with Leticia constituted my initiation into the ambiguities of ministry along the border.

00:40:36.310 - 00:41:15.240

The baptism that did take place that day was my own. I wonder if we could just hold quiet for a minute and then I'll have a few thoughts to share. I'd like us to think about what

00:41:15.240 - 00:41:30.510

we just did together, the writing of this story and others like it, and the reading of them allowed has been part of a recent journey of learning and exploration for me in my ministry. I was

00:41:30.510 - 00:41:44.790

a bishop in Missouri five years ago when Michael Brown , a black teenager, was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson Missouri, two blocks from one of our United Methodist churches. And so leading congregations

00:41:44.790 - 00:41:58.450

in Missouri had to figure out how to respond. And in a predominantly anglo churches, a predominantly anglo state. Uh, you know, if you say , well, it's on Tuesday, let's have a

00:41:58.450 - 00:42:15.900

meeting at the church to talk about racism and white privilege who shows up. And so I had to dig deeper to figure out how to have a harder conversations, more muscular conversations about controversial or sensitive issues

00:42:15.910 - 00:42:29.030

, issues that many people want to push away rather than lean into. I needed another way to approach these intense topics that shape our life together and, and I'm a bishop and you know, if you

00:42:29.030 - 00:42:44.220

play chess bishops move it diagonally. So it's like , yeah, and so I had to think of a way of doing this. It was there was also a part of me and my voice, I

00:42:44.770 - 00:42:53.180

during that same period of time I was spending some time in south texas along the border with a, with a friend who had never been to the Rio grande Valley, never been to the mexican border.

00:42:53.600 - 00:43:07.440

And uh, and just in our visiting around over lunch and stuff, uh we start talking about stories and ministry and I was telling about different things that we're part of my ministry and part of my growing

00:43:07.440 - 00:43:21.430

up along the border and most of those things were things he had never realized, I had never comprehended , for instance, that that if you enter the Rio grande Valley, you cannot go to any other

00:43:21.430 - 00:43:37.350

part of the United States without declaring your citizenship. Um, and through checkpoints are at the airport or something. And, and so I realized that that as I was talking to him about these incidents in

00:43:37.350 - 00:43:49.870

my life, that there was some that I've never fully processed, that had a significant impact on me , some for the better, some for the worse . And uh, and I started thinking I word

00:43:49.870 - 00:44:00.910

it this way, but I don't want to over trivialize it. It's what if I interrogated my own personal history as it relates to race, ethnicity, the intermingling of clash of cultures, especially along the

00:44:00.910 - 00:44:13.210

border. So I started the Border crossing Project and I want to offer some of what I've learned in the process. I have a number of these stories and I read them in seminaries, campus ministries,

00:44:13.210 - 00:44:29.090

churches, gatherings of clergy, clergy convocations and the like. And I've discovered in this process the power of narrative to draw people into deeper places than mere information will ever take them. And I offer this

00:44:29.090 - 00:44:40.580

with some humility in trepidation. I'm not I'm discovering this as I go along. So one of the things that kind of get started about what I've learned in this is I've had someone ask, how does

00:44:40.580 - 00:44:54.650

the response to one of these readings after I read it compare to what happens after I finish a lecturer , lecturer talk about five practices of fruitful congregations or any of the other leadership kind of material that I'm

00:44:54.690 - 00:45:09.070

better known for. So most of my writing is in that other genre. But after I make a presentation that is a talk or teaching, setting, hands go up with questions. And often people are

00:45:09.070 - 00:45:28.310

asking those questions while looking down at notes that they've taken while I've been speaking. When I read a border crossing story, No one takes notes and afterwards No one is ready to ask a question. So

00:45:28.310 - 00:45:43.200

there's usually quiet. I know I invited it this time, but in most settings it just hangs there and uh no one knows what to say or do . And there's this kind of deep silence as people

00:45:43.200 - 00:45:52.900

are thinking, absorbing, kind of getting their heads around what they've just heard. And I realized that as I'm stepping out of this expert space that I'm more comfortable in, let me teach you a thing

00:45:52.900 - 00:46:12.170

or two to this, to this other space. And the non expert space is powerful in ways that I didn't realize I'm not an expert. When I tell one of the border crossing stories at most,

00:46:12.170 - 00:46:28.730

I'm an expert witness to what is happening around me and what's going on inside me. Why are the quiet? I would say that the reason for the stillness, as I'm reading the story and when it

00:46:28.730 - 00:46:39.750

concludes has to do with this way in which we kind of step into this liminal space were drawn into it and then at the end, we're not quite ready to step back out of it. I know

00:46:39.750 - 00:46:52.090

liminal that's a kind of the buzz word these days . People use it all in 100 different ways. But what I'm talking about is uh when I say that the silence afterward is a sign of people wanting

00:46:52.090 - 00:47:05.730

to stay in that liminal space a little longer. It's a reflective space. It's somewhere between being in the story and being in the present. A sacred space, somewhere in the in between of the experience

00:47:05.730 - 00:47:23.470

of the person in the story and the experience of the listener and this. And so it's pregnant with possibilities. And so this using this kind of narrative narrative mode is the liminal space that it creates is

00:47:23.470 - 00:47:37.700

a forming space. Its purpose is like one of your sermons and like all of worship and preaching, it's to draw people into the presence of God and allow God to do God's work with what is put

00:47:37.700 - 00:47:58.540

before us. That's the power of narrative, even how story might be also sacramento opening of the word . I have a friend who's a musician and church musician, and he often reminded me the two basic

00:47:58.540 - 00:48:15.100

functions of music and worship. First is to teach and remind us of scripture theology and faith. Second , the function of music and worship is to create community in the present moment. It takes us to

00:48:15.100 - 00:48:30.290

another part of our brain. It it enters mind and soul through a different door. It's not information , it's it's not cerebral. Uh the same friend said he's read some of the stories, but he's

00:48:30.290 - 00:48:45.730

also heard me read them aloud and he said when I read it, I'm kind of touched by the story. But hearing it, I'm drawn into community and conversation. So after finishing story, often this

00:48:45.730 - 00:49:00.440

is done with people like around tables or something. Um there is this need not to speak that I'm still kind of learning about. And then that's followed by a need to talk to someone. And usually

00:49:00.440 - 00:49:15.090

the phrases that people begin with is this brought to mind the time. That and they reflect on some experience of their own would be quite difference between, quite different from what happened between me and Letizia.

00:49:15.870 - 00:49:30.520

But nevertheless it draws them into that. And it also I found that working with pastors on this, it's or with white people, I'll say that what I'm trying to do is take people inside a pastor's

00:49:30.520 - 00:49:52.840

mind about how pastor or at least how this pasture processed things and experiences fear and hesitancy and ambiguity and so many elements of our role. Um, so this is a forming space in that it affects community

00:49:52.840 - 00:50:06.030

and not just individual hearing it, but it's also a converting space. And I say this with surprise . And again, I'm not uh just don't misread my motivations for doing this. But I, one

00:50:06.030 - 00:50:20.970

of the areas, I've been reading these stories in his seminaries and uh and I finished the reading of this same story in a seminary chapel and sometime later a seminary professor came up to me and there was

00:50:20.970 - 00:50:35.360

kind of a weightiness to the conversation and and he kind of whispered this, he says there's a kind of, there's a conversion that took place with me as you were as you told your story and I

00:50:35.360 - 00:50:52.850

need to just tell you about it. This professor had been facing kind of a moral and professional decision and felt convicted and called to do something in his ministry that contradicted institutional restrictions of his denomination. And

00:50:52.850 - 00:51:12.350

he said, as your story finished, I knew exactly what I had to do. Okay. Following jesus requires Resistance. Sometimes two policies. Now the line that struck him and the decision that he made

00:51:12.350 - 00:51:22.080

to go ahead with what he felt convicted to do the line that struck him in the story there a couple of them is that one where the lawyer says robert, you're not a border patrol agent. You're

00:51:22.460 - 00:51:39.480

you are a united Methodist pastor. And then the second one is, I hate being used by people trying to circumvent the law or by government policies that draw distinctions that that in God's view do not exist

00:51:40.360 - 00:51:53.130

now. If I just said those two sentences, maybe I would have gotten a nod of agreement from him. But hearing those sentences after being drawn into the story about the young woman and her baby,

00:51:53.130 - 00:52:13.690

the internal struggles inside the pastor between between pastoral intuition and fear and the regret afterwards. Those those are what helped open here to a moment of decision that he wasn't even like consciously aware of walking into the

00:52:13.690 - 00:52:24.400

worship service, that one was done in a context of worship with the baptism as a sermon. Um , so I feel like I've discovered or I'm discovering a new tool sometimes, I feel like I'm the

00:52:24.400 - 00:52:39.930

last to get the message. You know, the fundamental power of storytelling and how story may now be the best and in some cases the only language for evangelism and sharing the good news with the communities in

00:52:39.930 - 00:52:58.960

which we live today. This is not this is a different style from most of the preaching teaching that we've learned. It's not expository, it's not didactic , it's not it's it's not um the pastor doing

00:52:58.960 - 00:53:08.260

all the work where let me read you this bible text, let me explain it. And then let me tell you a story to connect it to your life. That's kind of the pastor doing all the

00:53:08.260 - 00:53:23.490

work. What this does is just tell a story and the person listening has to do the work of drawing what does this mean? There is no in this, in this mode, there's no ending that

00:53:23.490 - 00:53:36.340

says, let us now go out in the world and do this. The four things I want you to do in this next week, it isn't telling anyone what to do. It's just drawing them in

00:53:36.350 - 00:53:55.080

to a little bit greater awareness about their own life , through listening to one small segment about what happened in my life. So, um I wow, we need stories of belonging that moves toward each other

00:53:55.080 - 00:54:12.900

rather than away from one another. We need stories that deepen our capacity to disagree. We need stories that name the differences without in a way that draws people into greater curiosity about those differences, rather than

00:54:12.900 - 00:54:28.360

reaction to those differences. We need to demonstrate ways of talking to one another that deepen curiosity that help us glimpse the world even for a moment from another's perspective, or even more occasionally to see the world

00:54:28.360 - 00:54:45.310

through God's eyes. David White Rights has written a poem where the guiding metaphors his journey through a forest and there's this one line that says, you come to a place, you come to a place whose

00:54:45.310 - 00:55:01.570

only task is to trouble you and what has given rise to these stories are usually those places that I've discovered in my own life, many of them back many years ago, some of them happening, you

00:55:01.570 - 00:55:17.160

know, in the present, we come to a place whose only task is to trouble us and then to kind of process what that means. God works in those places. So that's what I'm learning at

00:55:17.170 - 00:55:32.690

this age and stage of ministry. Um, tomorrow I'm going to read another story and then go a little a little deeper into into the, into the writing of these stories and just how that works and

00:55:32.700 - 00:55:47.760

uh, appreciate your patience and your listening. I think I've come to the point where we're supposed to break, so I don't know. I'm looking for singles. Yeah, he's saying no time for questions

00:55:49.340 - 00:55:57.460

, but I'll be on the panel, uh, this afternoon and tomorrow. Maybe I'll manage time a little bit differently and there'll be some time for questions