Digging Holes
Jack Hardaway ] I’m good at digging holes. Lots of practice. I’ve worn out shovels, the tip of the blade develops a sort of U-turn. I’ve snapped off Lord knows how many shovel handles. I used to bury things as a child. Finding excuses to dig, I’d bury secret treasures, broken toys, and secret potions […]
Waking Up
Jack Hardaway ] You ever have trouble sleeping? In the night, when we should be asleep, what is it that keeps us awake? What runs through our minds? What are the worries and preoccupations, all those details that make us burn the midnight oil? Until we fall asleep, our minds worn ragged. My grandmother used […]
Going To School
Jack Hardaway ] When love is easy it is so easy. When love is hard it is so hard. It is the stuff of songs, and poetry, and story, and dance, and art. It is the hard wood of the cross, and the soft flesh Jesus, nailed together, bleeding and splintered. We are students of […]
Imago
Jack Hardaway ] We live in a world soaking and sopping with images. Dripping, swirling, awash in images. We can’t see the water for the flood. Yet we live a faith where the image reveals God. We are over stuffed yet starving due to becoming resistant to the image, an acquired immunity due to over […]
Believing What We Live
Jack Hardaway } How we live tells us what we really believe. God gives water to the thirsty. God is water to the thirsty. That is the Exodus lesson. Jesus says whoever gives water to the least of these gives water to him. It becomes an act of worship and devotion, a sacrament. What does […]
Manna
Jack Hardaway ] Losing a job. Sometimes, it can be like losing part of ourselves. We forget who we are, or who we used to be. It can leave us wondering who we are. Do we have value? It can break the heart. It can leave us empty. And that wilderness- of searching for a […]
Sometimes You Just Gotta Sing 🎶
Jack Hardaway } Sheeruh la Yahweh keeg gao gaa sus maro ka voe va yom. Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. Moses’ older sister, Miriam, who pulled baby Moses from the water and tricked Pharaoh’s daughter into caring for him, this is her […]
Barefoot and Holy
Jack Hardaway } Take your shoes off and leave them at the door. I was a child and a new family moved into the neighborhood, with children. When we came over to play we had to take our shoes off. The shoes were all lined up at the door. Which was fine, we didn’t even […]
Crazy, Sneaky, Funny
Jack Hardaway } The taste of freedom. That breath of fresh air. That moment where confinement ends. You know what I mean. Like getting out of a bad job. Or a bad relationship. Or toxic religion. The cessation of pain, fear and abuse. The taste and feel of that moment. The feeling and taste of […]
Wanna Wrastle?
Jack Hardaway } Have you ever noticed that sometimes those who suffer rejection end up becoming very welcoming and inviting people? They become the kind of people who have the true gift of hospitality of reaching out and inviting. We hear today part of the story of Joseph. “I am Joseph”, he says. And boy […]
A Hot Mess
Jack Hardaway So get this. Jacob, of all people, has 12 sons and one daughter. They become the 12 tribes of Israel. Of course, only God would choose Jacob’s children to be the chosen people, to bring the Lord’s light to the nations. What could possibly go wrong? You know Jacob’s parents were rolling over […]
Jack Hardaway ] If only Jesus had known about zucchini. I’m sure he would have had a parable about it, the parable of the zucchini. Crazy amounts of produce in a mad tumble of green sticky leaves. A parable of surprising abundance. God plants crazy gardens. That is what we hear in the Gospel today. […]
Feral
Jack Hardaway ] Long story short. I once had to get Animal Control to catch a feral cat. It involved a cage with bait, and eventually, late one night, it set off the trap, and was captured. I found it the next morning. It was huge. Its ears were tattered ribbons, its face was a […]
It Feels Like Rain
Jack Hardaway ] If I do and say the right things then God will like me. It is hard to escape from that kind of thinking. And by extension the idea that God doesn’t like those who do and say things differently from me. That is how religion usually seems to work. There is fire […]
Salt and Light
Jack Hardaway ] Christians are sneaky people. Subversive. Covert. On the surface we might appear to be polite, law abiding, good citizens. But, if you cut through that thin veneer of civility, and get into our minds and hearts, and attend our gatherings, what you find are a bunch of people who want to change […]
Salt and Light
Jack Hardaway ] Christians are sneaky people. Subversive. Covert. On the surface we might appear to be polite, law abiding, good citizens. But, if you cut through that thin veneer of civility, and get into our minds and hearts, and attend our gatherings, what you find are a bunch of people who want to change […]
The Right Thing to Say
Jack Hardaway ] Have you ever wondered if the words are out there to make things alright? Have you ever searched and agonized and dreamed of the right thing to say that will fix things, pull things together, build something, fix what has been broken, save someone? Are there words, if put together in the […]
Fulfill
Jack Hardaway ] A forgotten old bucket sits outside, dry and full of dust. The rain starts to fall and the bucket slowly fills up until it overflows. Filled full. Fulfilled. The bucket fulfills its obligation, its purpose when it holds water. The Holy Spirit broods over creation at the beginning, creation is fulfilled when […]
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 […]
The Dangerous Game
Jack Hardaway ] On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me…ten Lord’s a leaping… That is today, the tenth day, ten lords a leaping. Jeff Foxworthy did his own 12 days of Christmas song years ago with a “tin of Copenhagen” for the tenth day, a fun song. Christmas ends this […]
Finding Jesus
Jack Hardaway ] Where do we find Jesus? The Wise Men had it easy. They only had to travel a great distance, follow a star and avoid the evil clutches of King Herod. Now the disciples didn’t have to find Jesus, Jesus found them. Then Jesus found them again, leaving the tomb to search them […]