Joy Has Come to the Whole World
Jack Hardaway ] Joy has come to the world. The whole world. Through the Cross of our Lord. We forget that so easily. Today we remember and give thanks. The Gospel today at first glance is about divorce and children. A careful reading shows that it is about much more than that. Just like the […]
What We Leave Behind
Jack Hardaway ] So often blessings and burdens are so closely tied together. I have another Grandmother story. A short and simple one. I am the oldest of my generation in a large extended family, siblings, 1st cousins, 2nd cousins, first cousins once removed. One of the many things I heard my grandmother tell me […]
What to Wear?
Jack Hardaway ] You know that sound. Clothes hangers sliding back and forth on the clothes rod. That soft screech. Dresser drawers opening and shutting. That muffled slide. The sounds of getting dressed. What will I wear today? The first thing I see? Just grab something? Or maybe more thoughtful, mixing and matching? It depends. […]
Signs of Life
Jack Hardaway ] A cool stream in River Falls on a hot day. The sun rising that day over the ocean. The smile of a dear friend, that thing they did with their eyes. A brave woman fighting pain and cancer, slowly walking down the church aisle to pray. The cook stirring the pot at […]
Pursued
Jack Hardaway ] We are being pursued. Relentless. Tenacious. Pursuit. The Shepherd is following us. Nothing stops the shepherd, nothing, even death, even the grave is crushed, setting the captives free. The Shepherd. Relentless. Tenacious. We are pursued. This is one of the great images of God, the Shepherd. Fierce, tender, in pursuit, single minded […]
Christ Haunted
Jack Hardaway ] Family is complicated. That would be an understatement for today’s scripture readings. David dancing before the Lord offering sacrifices every six paces, an ox and a fatling. That’s a lot of sanctifying life poured out onto the way, copious, as they moved the Ark of the Covenant. David’s wife, Michal, the daughter […]
Independence Day
Jack Hardaway ] “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent […]
The Great Storm
Jack Hardaway ] It was a dark and stormy night. A cliché. A melodramatic opening sentence. I grew up seeing Snoopy on his dog house with a type writer, using this turn of phrase, over and over. The weather without echoing with the thunder of the weather within. Ominous and foreboding symbolic action. But that […]
Good Dirt
Jack Hardaway ] One of my favorite all time bands over the years has been The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I enjoy them as much for their name as for their music. The Nitty. Gritty. Dirt. Band. Their first greatest hit collection is called 20 Years of Dirt. I love that title! Their second greatest […]
Falling Into Grace
Jack Hardaway ] Falling from grace. That turn of phrase, falling from grace, it carries a whole bunch of baggage. Falling from grace, originally it was a reference to Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the garden, choosing to elevate themselves in God’s place rather than being in communion with the Holy One. The turn of […]
Like Nothing Else
Jack Hardaway ] The problem with the Trinity is also it’s great beauty, it isn’t like anything else. Words fail. Analogies crash and burn. Comparisons collapse. The doctrine of the Trinity is really a teaching about not being able to teach. Staring into the infinite distance and slowly growing silent and still. So many people […]
Dry Bones
Jack Hardaway ] What is it about old Rail Road tracks? That shambled, elegant, beauty, and mystery. They have been there for so long. They slowly curve into the distance and disappear behind trees and forgotten green overgrowth. Going somewhere, coming from somewhere, a line across geography, a line through time and history, connecting across […]
The Victory of God
Jack Hardaway ] There are days. And then there are days. Days of Ascension, transcendence, rising, floating, going up with a shout of victory. Like the mass ascension at a hot air balloon festival, the colorful canvass filling the sky, rising, carried by the wind, like God’s sail lifting and pulling. Our eyes are turned […]
That Moment
Jack Hardaway ] Tipping points. Those moments when things can go one way or the other. Which way will the tree fall? The balance of the scale pauses. Which way? Choosing to care. Choosing not to. The jumble of thoughts and emotions, leading up to the tipping point. The tipping of the chalice to drink […]
Sappy Green Stickiness
Jack Hardaway ] We have a wild tumble of vines in our backyard. It would technically be called a thicket or a briar patch. Muscadine, wisteria, brambles, green briar, cross vine, ivy, morning glory, sweet pea, jasmine, and then sometimes tomato and cucumber volunteers splash up out of the green storm gasping for air and […]
The Tie That Binds
Jack Hardaway ] What connects us? What divides us? What holds us together? What are the ties that bind? What abides and what fades? Like many others these questions have been on mind more than usual for quite some time now. Our country, like most of the world, has become very aware of just how […]
Outward and Visible
Jack Hardaway ] What is it with Jesus and food? If it involves food then it must be Jesus. No one believes it is really him unless they see him eat. Bread and fish. Jesus has this thing with food. And those closest to him could not recognize him or believe in him with out […]
Breath
Jack Hardaway ] That first breath and that last breath. A new born, that first choking indignant intake of breath before that first scream. And then when we breathe our last. Sometimes it stops immediately. Sometimes it slowly fades, getting softer and softer. Breath. Breath is Spirit, and Spirit is life. The life force is […]
Cliffhanger
Jack Hardaway ] Beginnings and endings. They draw us in and send us forth. “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” That is how Mark’s Gospel begins the proclamation. An allusion to the creation story in Genesis, a Genesis moment, a creation moment. We are drawn in to the […]
God is for Lovers
Jack Hardaway ] There are certain things that I should not be allowed to do. This comes from experience. Like filing my own taxes. I just get in trouble. Or talking about whatever ever sport happens to be in season. I just embarrass myself. Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to do certain things. Have […]
Snake Stories
Jack Hardaway ] One time we opened a kitchen cabinet and a snake fell out. Well looky there! A sight to see! A little thing. It had a diamond pattern. It rattled its tail. I thought it was a baby rattler, turns out it was just a juvenile black rat snake. They imitate rattle snakes, […]
I Forget
Jack Hardaway ] Posted right there in the front yard, the Ten Commandments. I remember seeing an interview, someone was protesting the Ten Commandments being removed from public spaces, like schools and court rooms. The reporter asked the man if he could remember all of the commandments, and the man could not, he then said, […]
Spectacular Failure
Jack Hardaway ] What do we do with suffering? Explain it? Justify it? Turn away? Hide? Bury it deep inside? Push it away? Addiction? Distraction and numbing agents? Seek it out? Inflict it? Despair? Lash out? Offer comfort and company? Try to fix things even if it makes things worse? Try to feel useful by […]
Driven
Jack Hardaway ] Appearances can deceive. A purring cat that scratches. A dog wagging its tail that bites. A sunny day that rains. The beauty of nature and the danger of the untamed wild. The garden with poisoned fruit. And a wilderness whose fruit is medicine for the sick. And then there is the dove […]