Holy Name
Jack Hardaway ] Yeshua. It would have sounded something like that. First century Aramaic, we don’t know exactly how it would have been spoken, but it would have sounded something like Yeshua. Deliverer. Savior. In English, Jesus. The name the Angel spoke. The name that Joseph heard. The name that Joseph and Mary gave their […]
Praise Happens
Christmas Eve Jack Hardaway ] Magic. Christmas magic. I can still feel it. The wonder of being a child in a world full of enchantment and miracles. It does become more elusive as we age, doesn’t it? But, it also grows deeper. Christmas re-enchants a world that is always losing its spark. The awe and […]
In a Dream
Jack Hardaway ] We are all detectives sifting through the evidence of our lives. Like Sam Spade, picking up the black statuette in the Maltese Falcon. When asked what it is, he says, “The stuff that dreams are made of.” Meaning that life is fleeting, and we grasp at things that fade so quickly, grasping […]
Waiting
Jack Hardaway ] Prison is a dark place. Crowded and lonely. Heavy with waiting. John the Baptist, was in prison, he upset the wrong people. Matthew’s Gospel has the story John woven through out. John’s story starts off with the exhilaration of announcing the arrival of the Messiah, baptizing him, the sky opens, John is […]
Hope Arrives
Jack Hardaway ] We all hope for things. Advent is the season of hope. Along with faith and love, hope is one of three things that abide, according to the Apostle Paul. More specifically Advent is about what gives us hope. What gives us hope? We had a wedding here last night, weddings give me […]
Surprise!
Jack Hardaway ] All the desserts for Thanksgiving are on the side table, apple pie, cherry pie, lemon meringue, pecan pie, chocolate cake. Glory, glory! One of the children in his excitement leans against the table, and the table leaf gives way and suddenly folds down, and all the pies and the cake plop upside […]
Now Where Were We
Jack Hardaway ] Bed time stories. They were a big deal in our home. We read stories every night. Stories as night settled, awake watching with Christ and sleeping resting in peace. Stories as we face the darkness. Bed time stories are more than a comfortable way to end the day, the winding down into […]
Children of the Resurrection
Jack Hardaway ] We are forgetful. We forget who we are. We forget one another. We are all eventually forgotten, our memory endures for a time among the living, perhaps our name remains behind written somewhere for future generations to wonder who we were. We are forgetful. We will be forgotten. But God remembers. That […]
Write the Vision Big!
Jack Hardaway ] I saw a doe in the church parking lot last Sunday, at Sunrise, glowing silver in the early morning mist. I’ve never seen one on the church campus before. It stopped me for a moment. It was standing straight. It flicked an ear, then its tail and it slowly turned and ambled […]
Contempt and Mercy
Father Jack Hardaway ] “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 […]
Set Loose
Jack Hardaway ] School buses. So much of my childhood revolved around old school buses. Back and forth. Up and down East North St., over in Greenville, year after year. Back then high school students drove the buses, and that was always interesting, they would race each other up and down East North St., gunning […]
Love Train
Jack Hardaway ] God’s love train is on the move, people all over the world join hands, the Gospel has embraced the world. The parable today of Lazarus and the Rich Man is a cautionary tale about how life and eternity are inextricably woven together, the cars in that train are all on the same […]
Lovin Every Minute
Jack Hardaway ] My grandfather, on my mother’s side, was a Manhattan businessman who dressed and played the part with style. The hay day of his business was in the 1970’s and 80’s, advising companies on how to claim as many tax credits as possible. I remember him talking about how so much of his […]
The Weather
Jack Hardaway ] Summertime. We watch the clouds for those sudden thunder storms and down pours that just appear out of nowhere and then are suddenly gone. The weather reports become unreliable so the sky holds our attention, watching for those thick dark clouds, the towering walls and columns of approaching weather. I love those […]
Unseen
Jack Hardaway ] I bump into things. Bumbling around in the dark, or not looking where I’m going, distracted by something, or just past the edge of my peripheral vision, or blinded by the sun in my eyes. What I don’t see leaves me black and blue. What I don’t see has consequence. So, I […]
Something About Martha
Jack Hardaway ] Well imagine that! Sisters not getting along. It is such a rare thing for sisters to disagree! Siblings. So close, so much alike, yet so different, so much love but not enough room… We all know about sisters and brothers, we either have them or have been around them. I think about […]
The Parable of Grace
Jack Hardaway ] Our lives are parables that reveal God. Every day, every breath is the story of God showing up. Like parables, life has these moments when we feel the surprise, the contradiction, the whiplash change of perspective when at the end of the story we change, from death to life. God is like […]
Swing Low
Jack Hardaway ] Nothing really lasts does it? Everything is temporary. There are deep still places in our lives where we can anchor for a while, people and places of stability, a constant. When these end, the grief knocks us down, we lose our balance. Swing low sweet Chariot gather us together again. Hope and […]
Tell Us a Story
Jack Hardaway ] Grandfather! Grandfather! Tell us a story! Tell us a story about Elijah the Tishbite, the prophet of God! Tell us a story! So children, you wish to hear another story about Elijah the Tishbite, the prophet of God do you? Yes, did we not just tell you that very thing? Why do […]
Teeming
Jack Hardaway ] My first Bible was a birthday gift from my grandparents, when I turned seven years old. It was an illustrated children’s Bible, The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, by Kenneth Taylor. I still have it. Mom would read them to me, in the mornings, before I walked to school. We sat […]
Puzzled
Jack Hardaway ] So here is a puzzling thing, we’ve been puzzling and figuring this for a long time, not sure if we have ever gotten many of the pieces to fit together. How do we stop people from doing horrible things? That is the puzzle. It’s a real stumper. The Catechism has a deep […]
Fringe Dwellers
Jack Hardaway ] We are in danger. We are in danger of many things. We are primarily in danger of overdosing on holiness, being deluged in sanctity, overwhelmed by the tidal forces of the Spirit. And we so often miss and misunderstand what is happening all around us and within us. The prophet Isaiah understood, […]
God’s Briar Patch
Jack Hardaway ] And it was night. The darkness has arrived. The hour has begun. Judas takes his bread and leaves. The Judas walk. What he does he does quickly, the betrayal. The Passion begins with Judas walking out. And this is where Jesus’ glory shines brightest, this is where God’s glory is seen most […]
God’s Stubborness
Jack Hardaway ] There is scripture and then there is scripture. There are the words and images that we all share in and then there are the words and images that we have a more personal credence too. Sometimes, often, the two overlap. I have known many people who have what can be called an […]