For All the People
Jack Hardaway } 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 are joyful for everyone, all the time. How do you even do […]
Knock Down Drag Out
Jack Hardaway ] Make no mistake. God is dangerous. Sometimes we forget. To encounter God is to be wounded in the case of Jacob, blessed, but also wounded. For the disciples it is to be moved to silence as they walk quickly downhill toward the cross. God and suffering are always in close company. Holiness, […]
Grace for All
Jack Hardaway ] Hold on. With both hands. And don’t let go. What is it about children? Always grabbing ahold of both our hands, and standing on our toes, calling out, “Swing me around!” There were years where my toes were continually smashed and black and blue, from multiple generations and families of children standing […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]