Breathe
Jack Hardaway ] 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 to make it so. An act of faith on […]
Carried Away
Jack Hardaway ] Carried away. Carried away with excitement. Joining in the excitement. Carried away by events beyond our control. Carried away by mob violence. Carried away under arrest. Carried away by the storm, by the darkness, washed away. We all get carried away. The city welcomes Jesus’ arrival as a King, there is so […]
Names and Stories
Jack Hardaway ] Names and stories. They carry each other along. We have this old family Bible that is full of names, from the 1830s to the 1940’s, births, deaths, children, random family tree branches wandering off the edge of the brittle pages. Died in barn fire, died in Panama working on the canal, died […]
Prodigal Gospel
Jack Hardaway ] In the 1970’s my Grandmother worked at a bridal shop on Main Street in Greenville. I was a very young child, I remember the smell of fabric, starch and gardenia perfume. The whole place made me feel itchy. Grandmother would bring me and my brother Geoffrey there from time to time to […]
The Cry
Jack Hardaway ] There is a story, long ago, about a Rabbi named Eliezer. Eliezer declared that a person should repent the day before they die. His disciples protested and said, “But a person can die any day.” And Eliezer agreed and said, “Therefore, all of life should be one of repentance.” Suffering and death […]
Count the Stars
Jack Hardaway ] Have you ever counted the stars in the sky? The more we count the more they seem to keep popping up. Stars defy counting. As if the act of observation changes them, causing them to multiply. Star light, start bright, the first star I see tonight. I wish I may I wish […]
The Devil’s Bargain
Jack Hardaway ] The devil’s bargain. A trade off. We get what we want but we give up who we are. All the stories of the devil’s bargain and cheating the devil involve clear moments of decision. They are stories of warning. Don’t play the game. The devil’s bargain in real life, however, is more […]
Silent
Jack Hardaway ] Light makes no sound. Glory is silent. Clouds are quiet. The breath of the wind, that still small voice, the sheer silence of God’s presence before Elijah on Mt. Horeb. Before Moses as he comes down Mt. Sinai, his face changed with unheard blazing . Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration. Before […]
God’s Good Measure
Jack Hardaway ] Sugar bowls. There is something about them. We have an old pressed depression glass sugar bowl, and a Queen Elizabeth II coronation sugar spoon. We call it the sugar shovel. The bottom of the bowl is always crusty and we scrape it to get that last little sprinkling out. Then we fill […]
Like Trees Planted
Jack Hardaway ] Planting trees. Planting trees is a radical gift of hope and generosity, a pledge to the future, trust in the future. It is the gift of shade, of fruit, of beauty, of rooting the soil into place, of cleaning the air, a gift that matures slowly for another generation to reap the […]
Deep Water
Jack Hardaway ] Call stories. This is one of the great Sundays of the year. We hear the call stories of Isaiah, and Paul, and Simon Peter, and James, and John. The psalm is a call story as well, turned back around, the psalmist calls for God. Isaiah lost in grief for his King, Paul […]
Wasted
Jack Hardaway ] Lately I’ve been listening to love songs. I’ve even made a play list on my phone called, “Love.” I know, very creative. Love songs. I keep singing Al Green, Love is a Beautiful Thing, I can’t get it out of my mind. There are so many kinds of songs, but love songs […]
God Words
Jack Hardaway ] Bad theology hurts people. It is spiritually, emotionally and physically traumatizing. And trauma is crippling if it goes on for too long. Each of us has a limit to how much trauma we can endure until we start to fall apart. Bad theology is crippling and deadly. A good bit of my […]
Cana and Catholicity
Jack Hardaway ] There is a great southern slang twist on a French word. BOOCOO. As in, “We have boocoos of slaw”, or “Boocoos of soup.” “Beaucoup” is the French word, as in “merci beaucoup”, thank you very much. It means, “a whole bunch.” In the slang version that emphasis becomes exaggerated, a surprising, extravagant […]
Lasting Impression
Jack Hardaway ] I went to Mitchell Road Elementary school in Greenville SC. I used to ride my bicycle there and back every day. One day there was some construction and they repaved a section of the sidewalk. Unfortunately, they didn’t mark off the sidewalk afterward. So that afternoon when all the students were released […]
Reverence for Life
Jack Hardaway ] We grow up slowly. Human life, the human soul, we are a slowly maturing fruit. We are always coming of age. My 16th, 17th, and 18th birthdays were these long slow coming of age events. I was given a Remington 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun for my 16th birthday. The power, the responsibility, the […]
Homecoming
Jack Hardaway ] Sometimes, if you are lucky, once in your life, you find a certain dog, usually the dog finds you, and there is a bond that is rarely repeated. I’ve had many pets over the years, but only one dog like that. She found me when I was in college. A little black […]
Time to Love
Jack Hardaway ] Once upon a time my mother did Green Stamps. T’was the season of the green stamp. A wondrous season in my life. Pages and pages of stamps filling those little books, year after year. And the most amazing things would be brought home, purchased with those green stamp books. I still have […]
Showing Up
Jack Hardaway ] It turns out we were wrong. In a big way. To quote Gomer Pyle, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” We thought truth had something to do with saying things a certain way, using words to convey facts. Telling it like it is, speaking our mind, and all that. Telling the truth, speaking truth, seeking […]
The Mystery of Faith
Jack Hardaway ] What do we do when our world falls apart? The Gospel response is to hope beyond reason. We begin a short apocalyptic season today, the last two Sundays of the Christian year and the first Sunday of the Christian year. Three weeks that mark the ending and beginning of the Christian calendar. […]
The Walking Living
Jack Hardaway ] So we have two choices. To walk around being dead, or to walk around being alive. Every now and then I watch a zombie movie or television show, pop culture has an ongoing fascination with the walking dead. The shows are silly and gross, but there is an underlying question that is […]
Common Ground
Jack Hardaway ] We all love a good story. The stories we keep coming back to say a great deal about who we are. The stories we tell each other, reminding each other about. The stories we read over and over again. The stories we find our selves wondering about at random moments. It says […]
Cry Out Be Heard
Jack Hardaway ] Cry out. Be heard. That is the Gospel. The good news. Two brief turns of phrase. Call. Response. Pulling Joseph out of the pit, betrayed by his brothers. The Lord hearing the cries of his people Israel in bondage in Egypt. In the psalms, psalm 40, “he stooped and heard my cry, […]
Renewing Faith
Jack Hardaway ] Things fall apart. We wear out. We wear one another out. Bodies, minds, relationships. Faith. Faith wears out. Trust wears out. The invitation, the need, the opportunity to renew faith is always there. To renew trust. To plant the garden again. To plant another generation of trees. I’ve always been in awe […]