Absence
Today is probably the only truly liturgically dysfunctional Sunday of the year. Is it pink, or blue, or purple? Is it Mary’s Sunday? Is it Gaudete Sunday? Is it Mothering Sunday? Is it Stir Up Sunday? The third Sunday of Advent. So many customs from different times and places have accumulated and accrued on this […]
A World Full of Leaving
Jack Hardaway ] We are always leaving. Someone is always leaving. Something is always ending. Seasons of life slip away, sometimes quietly and slowly, sometimes suddenly. The next thing we know everything changes. I thought I saw it coming, but I didn’t. Sometimes we get to say good bye, sometimes we are just up and […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
What Connects Us
Jack Hardaway ] Ladders are curious things They look funny. They are awkward. We all have funny and sad stories involving incidents and accidents with ladders. Our electricians had to get a special ladder to reach the lights here in the nave. I have to laugh whenever I see them carry it into the building, […]
Light People
Jack Hardaway ] Light. We can’t see it unless it shines on or through something or someone. Like stained glass. Or, like the Light People in Pelzer, wrapped and robed in Christmas lights, waving as people drive by in the dark, regardless of everything else, just bringing some light to a dark place. Light requires […]
After Jesus
Grieving is the most powerful part of love. It leaves us tattered and full of the Spirit, it changes us, it leaves us with the power that parts the waters. Sometimes there are these times of stillness, in between times, in that nowhere on the way to somewhere. Lately I’ve been remembering this one day, […]