These letters from Pastor Harry and church leaders explore the challenges we face as people of faith in a complicated and fearful world, not unlike the world that Paul faced, and not unlike the world that Dr. King faced down.
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April 26, 2025
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
The Seven Mile Walk.
I remember reading a story years ago about a young high school football player who ran 82 yards for a touchdown. It was a Friday night game under the lights in front of his hometown fans, his parents, and his girlfriend. Eighty-two yards! He was on top of the world that night and he expected his life to be filled with more accomplishments like this. It never was.
How sad to me. Nothing would ever be as good as that Friday night on a football field, that life would never get to the eighty-third yard.
So, two disciples took a walk (Luke 24:13-27). They were traumatized and in despair. An Empire and a cross took Jesus away from them, their friend and teacher, and they walked and talked on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, about seven miles.
One thing they said has stayed on my mind since 1982 when a New Testament professor at Yale Divinity School expounded on it for an entire class: “But they had hoped.” He talked of the political assassinations of the 1960s, two Kennedy’s and a King. But we had hoped they could bring about a different, better world.
It’s far too easy to think that the best days are behind us and that hope is in the past tense.
Monday we heard the news that Pope Francis had died. But we had hoped. We had hoped he would live long enough for his words and convictions to become reality for all people, and the world.
The violence and war in Gaza and the Ukraine. But we had hoped. We had hoped it would be resolved by now, the bloodshed and horror ended and the long-suffering people able to live and breathe again.
The way we treat people different than us. But we had hoped. We had hoped that we would finally learn to see all people as our siblings, our sisters and brothers.
So, we take a seven mile walk. Long enough to meditate on what Easter means in such a “But we had hoped” world. An 82-yard world where the eighteen yards to get the goal line seem impossible.
So I say Alleluia. That’s the Easter word. That’s the story found in the New Testament. Rome may have thought they took care of their Jesus problem once and for all, but they were sorely mistaken. His followers still had the unmistakable sense that Jesus was still alive, present with them, giving them power and strength they thought they never had. And they went on to do amazing things, even to this day. With more to come.
Eighty-two yards? Let’s go the eighty-three, then more. Alleluia! Seven miles? Let’s go eight, then more. Alleluia! The old is gone, the stone is taken away, the culture of death is exposed for what it has done to people, and in its place is this beautiful idea and promise that the best is yet to come.
With Easter we change the past to the present. “But we have hope.” Alleluia! Yes we do.
Grace and peace,
Harry
Recent Letters
April 19, 2025
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
I never thought much about Holy Saturday before.
It has always been a day of preparation, to catch my breath after Holy Week which seems to be more busy and anxiety-provoking than I think. So, I spend my Saturday consumed with the Easter sermon I give the next day. Can I find the right angle? Do I have the right message? Is it good enough? Will anyone remember it?
April 12, 2025
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
I thought I heard alleluias.
I really did, every Palm Sunday, year after year, this parade of joy and celebration and waving palms, this recognition finally that Jesus is the man, the one that inexplicably defeats Empire for this one shining day on a donkey.
It’s like Easter without the eggs, without the cross, without the crucifixion. Less messy and more fun. Who doesn’t like a parade?
Yes, it’s time to sing our alleluias!
Arpil 5, 2025
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
Healing you, me, and the world.
I know this sounds a bit far-fetched, but the Bible doesn’t think so. Page after page is filled with stories of people who are ultimately persuaded that they and the world can be healed, with God’s help. Like our story last Sunday of Naaman, the great commander of the Aramaean army who was healed of a skin ailment. Let’s start there.
What did Naaman do to be healed? Not much really. He got angry. He felt entitled. He thought he could buy his way to healing. Then he listened to his wife who listened to a slave girl who talked about the power of God through the Prophet Elisha. And just as Elijah said, Naaman was healed on the seventh dip. How, again? And what about those first six dips? Here are some ideas, dip by dip . . .
March 29, 2025
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
When I get discouraged about church, Christianity, this present day . . .
Yes, you can answer this. Don’t wait for me. But while you are thinking and since I posed the question let me tell you how I would answer. I read John Philip Newell books. The latest one, The Great Search, has been the subject of our current Adult Education series that wraps up this Sunday.
March 22, 2025
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
When I think about it I am a bit amused and somewhat surprised.
I never imagined in my early years that I would ever give a sermon, let alone keep giving them for forty-one years! By my rough calculation I have given 1600 sermons and logged around 13,000 hours preparing them.
I cringe thinking about my first sermons and still cringe when I can’t figure out a way to make scripture come alive and grab hold of us and take us to a new address. That’s on me, not scripture. It has plenty of power and resources to change lives.
March 15, 2025
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
Here I am, Lord.
Have you ever said this? I know we sing the hymn a few times a year with this refrain, but have you ever thought more about what it means?
Be careful if you do. Ask a prophet, any of them, and you’ll learn that a call from God is not all sunbeams on a golden field or fluffy clouds spelling out your name. (Where did we ever get that idea?) Instead, God’s call comes in times of spiritual desolation, religious corruption, political danger, and social upheaval.
March 8, 2025
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
Jesus wept.
If you want to impress your friends with reciting Bible verses this is the one. It is easy to memorize, yes, but that’s where easy ends. Jesus weeps and it’s hard to watch. The fully divine don’t weep, do they? But the fully human do, I know, those who feel deeply the plight of the human spirit trying to survive in a world turned upside down and sideways.
March 1, 2025
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
Do I sacrifice my corn dog and let my coke splash to the ground?
Let me back up. It must be told that after all the games I have watched in stadiums across the country, I am yet to catch a foul ball at a major league baseball game.
I came oh-so-close twice. The first when I was twelve and came down with a fever the Sunday I was to go to a Dodger game with my friend and his parents and they gave my ticket to their uncle who sat in my seat. I get a call that afternoon saying that the uncle caught a foul ball! Came right to him, my friend told me. Right to my seat.
February 22, 2025
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
The forgiveness of sins.
Who would have thought this one small phrase could be traced back to the earliest books of the Bible, found in the narratives of cultures ancient and now, and has perpetually occupied the souls and pews of Christians in Sunday worship and in prayer? It has and still does.
Before I go any further let me state plainly and simply we all need forgiveness. We’ve all done things our moms would disapprove of. …