WAKING UP
Wake up. Wake up, Jack. My mom would gently poke me, standing as far back as she could, I often woke up with an abrupt jump. What is it about waking up? It’s almost like coming alive, slowly the body and mind begin to move again in an orderly fashion. The first light […]
Good Friday 2011
Why did Jesus have to die? Did he give us an example to follow, an example of a holy life and the consequences of that holy life? Or was he a sacrifice? An offering up? Was he trading his life, turning his life over to the powers of death and darkness so that […]
Maundy Thursday 2011
Why is it so difficult to love? We sing of love. There are so many definitions of love. Many different kinds of love. Yet Jesus gives a very specific command, that we love one another as he has loved us. And he shows it by washing the feet of the disciples. A humbling […]
Palm Sunday 2011
Preparation. We are getting ready. Company is coming over. Jesus. He is coming back. Death can’t hold him. But before then we have to get ready. We have to walk with him these his last days, this week that we call holy. The last supper, the commandment to love one another, the washing […]
IMAGE
It is time to dig in the dirt. If you have ever done much gardening around old houses or buildings you find all sorts of stuff buried in the ground. Mostly old garbage and bottles, lots of burned up coal trash. My pocket knife, that I always carry, is an old Barlow, Queen Steel #22 […]
UNBOUND
A valley of bones that comes to life, putting on flesh and skin and breathing once more. A vision of hope to a people in exile who were forgetting who they were, forgetting the God they worshipped. The vision promised that God’s people would rise again. The people may forget God, but God would remember […]
Ash Wednesday 2011
A little pile of dust and dirt. That’s all we are. Add a few gallons of water, add the breath of God, and we live. The grace of God holds us together and animates us into life, holding us in life, keeping us alive for only a short time. And then something happens or […]
MOUNTAIN TOPS
Moses woke up. The last thing he remembered was dying. Slavery was long behind them, the Promised Land just within reach after all those years, and he had died. It was like falling asleep. He had died wondering where God was going with this exodus out of bondage? Where was God going with these commandments? […]
ATTEND
Look. Consider. Attend. Pay attention. Observe. The birds of the air. The lilies of the field. The grass arrayed in glory. Watch carefully, then look closer. What we find is a world, a creation, a whole universe that God cares for in every intricate and intimate detail. Sometimes it might seem […]
THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
Do you make lists? I always have. Lists of names and places. Things to do, lists of ideas, turns of phrases. My problem is that I usually lose them, those piles of sticky notes are eventually buried and forgotten. Right after college I started making lists of virtues and vices and I discovered a whole […]
CATCH ME
Blue crabs. The child was crabbing on one of the old marsh boat ramps, fish heads on the string thrown out into the water and slowly pulled in luring the crabs in to be scooped up by his brother with the scoop net. The boat ramp was slippery with slime and the child stepped out […]
What are you looking for? Stalking God
We often make much of first words. The first words of a story. The first words of a relationship, of a friendship, of a romance. Inaugural speeches. First words should be chosen carefully if we don’t want to lose attention, lose the connection, lose the relationship. Such as the first words of a sermon. Do […]
Salt and Light
Christians are sneaky people. If you think about it we are involved in covert operations. We are a subversive movement. On the surface we might appear to be polite and law abiding good citizens. But if you cut through that thin veneer of civility, and get into our minds and attend our gatherings what […]
WHERE WE COME FROM
I once spoke at a men’s breakfast prayer group. I gave my spiritual journey, my testimony, how I came to faith and my experience of God’s grace. When I finished it was silent for a few moments and a man raised his hand and said, “Are you John Hardaway’s boy?” I said, “Yes sir.” He […]
FOLLOWING A STAR…
When I was in middle school I was given a telescope for Christmas. I remember being in awe at the craters of the moon. And then I found Jupiter and three of its moons. One night I found Venus and couldn’t figure out what it was, so I started reading up on astronomy and figured […]
MOVING DAY
A moving truck pulls up to the place across the street. It looks like someone is finally moving in. The boxes and furniture are unloaded; all the stuff of a human life is stacked up and taped together, brown cardboard and packing tape holding everything together. They finish. A man comes outside. They […]
GOD’S DREAMER
A dead end. Stuck in a big way. No way out. Nothing can be done. Time to call it quits. Night after night without sleep, awake worrying, rearranging all the pieces of a life’s puzzle, and they never all fit together, there is no way it can work. Until. Until a blessed moment of […]
STORM FROM HEAVEN
The weather is changing. The wind is changing directions. Clouds are gathering in the distance, heading this way. A storm front is coming, a collision of two weather fronts, and where they touch, that is where the storm happens, as one front pushing back the other. But this is not a regular storm of wind […]
GOD’S ROTOTILLER
There goes that wild man with his old rototiller. He pushes that rickety old machine up and down the street knocking on doors asking if anyone needs some tilling done. When he starts that machine up he must pull on that cord at least a dozen times, and it chokes and puffs and spits […]
RAINBOW RESIDUE
On rainy days when I was a child I remember seeing swirls of rainbow colors in water puddles in the street. I didn’t know it was just a little oil slick from the asphalt and the drippings of passing cars. I thought they were where rainbows touched the earth, kissing the ground with their swirling […]
UNVEILING
Hell. It is a very southern word. It is very important not only to our theology but also to our daily language. Hell is an all around good cussword, good for a point of emphasis and favorite topic for Sunday School and bill boards. Part of being southern is a firm belief in hell, or […]
SHINING LIKE THE SUN
The procession of the Saints, grim and fierce, awe-full in their splendor, a joy filled radiance that burns to the bone, dancing like a storm, solid and sturdy as the mountains, the saints of God in procession. The Saints of God. Today we celebrate the Saints of God, the Communion of the Saints, as […]
Trying to See
I like climbing trees. The last one I climbed wasn’t all that long ago, we have an ancient gnarled mulberry tree beside our house. It was my secret hiding place while playing hide and go seek, until I was found out. Now it’s not so secret anymore. I’m not ready to give up climbing trees […]
PRAYER, CONTEMPT AND MERCY
“God I thank you that I am not like other people….especially that guy over there…” “What was that God? What did you say? Now just hold on for just one second! What’s the point of religion if I can’t look down on someone else? What good is that? Why be virtuous if I can’t […]