Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places, Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! There were five good reasons I didn’t go to Princeton. Joel Skinner was the sixth. Princeton was recruiting me as a catcher and the baseball program flew me out one weekend my senior year. On the last morning of my visit, I had breakfast with the head coach who told me he was also recruiting a catcher from California named Joel Skinner whose dad played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and later coached there.

Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places, Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! America has a color problem. So do I.  I was told I was “color blind” in kindergarten.  One day we were given a white paper with the outline of three squirrels and told to color them in.  Squirrels?!  I love squirrels!  They were everywhere in Wooster, and all different colors!  So, I looked through my Crayola box and found the crayon I wanted and colored away.  I was proud of my work, kept within the lines and everything, but when Mrs. Garvin walked by my desk she looked down and shook her head.  “Harry, there are no green squirrels.  Here’s another paper, start over.”

Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places, Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! The Great Transition. Whatever you might call it, we are in it.  Our politics may be a harbinger of such a transition with the current spirited conversation between past ways of ordering society and emerging new ones. From the beginning, literally, God has been part of such conversations, calling us to remember our ancestors while reminding us “I am making a new creation.”  How many times does Jesus start off a lesson with “You have heard it said . . . but I say to you”?