Higher and Higher
Ascension Sunday 2025; 1 June Jack Hardaway HIGHER AND HIGHER Your love, lifted me higherThan I’ve ever, been lifted beforeSo keep it upQuench my desireAnd I’ll be at your sideForever more Now once I was downheartedDisappointment was my closest friendBut then you came and it soon departedAnd you know he neverShowed his face again […]
Stirring the Water
Easter 6c 2025; 25 May John 5:1-9; Jack Hardaway STIRRING THE WATER I love swimming. The summer camp for our diocese, Camp Gravatt, has a dark murky lake where the campers swim. The camp is located in the Pine Hills near Aiken, so it is always hot and humid. I help out as a […]
All You Shining Stars
Easter 5c 2025; 18 May John 13:31-35; Jack Hardaway ALL YOU SHINING STARS And it was night. The darkness has arrived. The hour has begun. Judas takes his bread and leaves. The Judas walk, leaving the Lord’s table early. What he does he does quickly, the betrayal. The Passion begins with Judas walking out. […]
Fish Fire Feed Follow
Easter 3c 2025; 4 May John 21:1-19; Jack Hardaway FISH FIRE FEED FOLLOW There are stories that are hard to tell, hard to speak. My great uncle came home from WW2, from prison camp, captured during the Battle of the Bulge. He came home, gathered the family together, and said, “I’m only going to […]
Holy Dirt
Easter 2c 2025; 27 April John 20:19-31; Jack Hardaway HOLY DIRT Creation. That word requires faith. The Heavens and the Earth, and all the fullness there of, are a decision, an act of will, they are full of intention, and purpose, and direction, and deep, deep goodness. An act of faith on God’s part […]
Joanna
Easter c 2025; 20 April Luke 24:1-12; Jack Hardaway JOANNA The wicked. They do one thing. And they do it really well. They are simple people really. They take advantage of the vulnerable. That is it. It’s that simple. That one simple thing, the wicked play it out in so many ways, taking advantage […]
Palm Sunday 2025
Palm Sunday c 2025 13 April, Jack Hardaway The parish where I grew up is on the top of a small mountain. On Palm Sunday we would gather outside in the neighbor’s yard overlooking the city. Don’t worry. They gave us permission. At least that was what I was told. It was where I grew […]
Names and Stories
Lent 5c 2025; April 6 John 12:1-8; Jack Hardaway NAMES AND STORIES Jesus and the devil were walking across a desert wilderness full of rocks and tangled twisted brush. They had been on the road, with a car, driving for weeks and weeks. The car eventually gave out. Now they had left the […]
Prodigal
Lent 4c 2025; 30 March Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32; Jack Hardaway PRODIGAL A dry dessert highway, empty, no traffic. A cloud of dust is rising off to the side in the prickly thickets, where a car rests, upside down, one tire slowly spinning. Jesus and the Devil sit inside the car, suspended upside down by […]
Fox and Hen
Lent 2c 2025; 16 March Gen. 15:1-12, 17-18; Luke 13:31-35 Jack Hardaway FOX AND HEN A hot desert highway. An old car broken down on the side of the road. The devil climbs out of the car, pops the hood and takes a look. He bangs and cusses and spits until he kicks the […]
Whose World is it, Anyway?
Lent 1c 2025; 9 March Luke 4:1-13; Jack Hardaway WHOSE WORLD IS IT ANYWAY? A hot dry road runs through the dessert. An old car comes along, windows down, no air conditioning, held together with primer and bondo. The devil is driving the car. Jesus sits there next to him in the passenger seat. […]
Ash Wednesday 2025
Ash Wednesday 2025 Jack Hardaway I made a mess. How do I put it back together? Is it even possible? Beyond fixing. Not so much picking up the pieces as it is starting over. All those chances to choose love, to explore love, that I missed out on. Too scared. Too angry. Too clueless. Too […]
Oliver Nicholas Thompson
Burial Oliver Nicholas Thompson 18 Oct. 2024-20 Feb. 2025 1 March 2025 Jack Hardaway At times like this, my priest growing up, Bob Riegel, he would say that for Ollie this is only the blink of an eye, he now lives in the fullness of the resurrection and the renewal of creation. But for us, […]
Mixed Idiom
Epiphany 7c 2025; 23 Feb. Luke 6:39-45; Jack Hardaway MIXED IDIOM Contradictions have a way of catching our attention, bringing us to a stop, causing us to reconsider: like bright sunlight during a downpour, like cats and dogs being friendly, or beef BBQ. Paradoxes. Oxymorons. Contradictions. Mixed idioms. Malaphors. The unlikely pairings that make […]
Make Like a Tree
Epiphany 6c 2025; 16 February Luke 6:17-26; Jack Hardaway MAKE LIKE A TREE I like trees. I plant them where ever I find a spot. Tomorrow is Presidents Day, I like to do some planting around the Church on Presidents Day. Maybe a tree in the playground tomorrow. We’ll see. They don’t all make […]
The Miraculous People
Epiphany 5c 2025; 9 Feb. Luke 5:1-11; Jack Hardaway THE MIRACULOUS PEOPLE I like shallow water. I can swim just fine. I just like to see the bottom or touch it or just know it’s there. That’s how I like it. I go out on boats with people and they invariably show me these […]
Hurry up and Wait
Feast of the Presentation 2025; 2 Feb. Luke 2:22-40; Jack Hardaway HURRY UP AND WAIT I once read a short story about a writer who wanted more time to write but he spent too much time waiting for things, waiting in traffic, waiting in line, waiting on the phone. Somehow he made a wish that […]
Body of Evidence
Epiphany 3c 2025; 26 January Neh. 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Ps 19 I Cor. 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21 Jack Hardaway BODY OF EVIDENCE Like many people many of my foundational memories are Walt Disney movies. I’m always getting flash backs to episodes of the old animation stories from my childhood. Foundational stories that for good or […]
Handle with Care
Epiphany 1c 2025; 12 January Ps.29; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Jack Hardaway HANDLE WITH CARE Do you ever think that sacraments are dangerous? That they aren’t safe? If I think about it too much they kind of start to scare me. Maybe we should string up yellow caution tape, or place a “handle with care” […]
Hidden
Christmas 2c 2025; 5 Jan. Matt 2:1-12; Jack Hardaway Hidden 7, 8, 9, 10. Ready or not here I come. Hide and go seek. I have always loved that game. And all it variations like Sardines, or Kick the Can, Ghost in the Graveyard and I forget what else. It seems like I played […]
I Never Get Tired of Being Wrong
Christmas Eve 2024 Luke 2:1-20; Jack Hardaway I NEVER GET TIRED OF BEING WRONG I’m going to get this wrong. Good news of great joy to all the people. How do I do that? Good news for everyone. What are the words? How do I say it the right way? Words, news, tidings that […]
Unbounded
Advent 4c 2024; 22 Dec. Luke 1:39-45; Jack Hardaway UNBOUNDED Experience is often a bad teacher. We learn the wrong things. Usually we hear the opposite. Experience is a good teacher. But experience is only a good teacher when we learn the right thing. Often we learn the wrong thing. Experience teaches us to […]
Falling in Love
BEAR FRUITS WORTHY OF REPENTANCE Advent 3c 2024; December 15 Luke 3:7-18; Jack Hardaway FALLING IN LOVE I’ll let you in on a big secret that isn’t really a secret. The true way to read scripture is not as a recipe to follow to get to heaven. That is the common mistake. The true […]
Feral Hope
Advent 2c 2024; 8 Dec. Luke 3:1-6; Jack Hardaway FERAL HOPE John the Baptist and Mary the mother of Jesus, they are the two Advent Saints who embody the anticipation of God’s arrival. They are both inhabited by the holy to deliver God’s presence into human history. They are portrayed so differently, John a […]