In the Air
The wind.It changes.Sometimes we can feel change coming, the wind changes, a fresh breeze, a new scent in the air. Wait for it.The wind.In silence wait for the change, a new season, a new heart, a new direction, a new purpose. Sometimes it feels like nothing ever changes. The air grows thick and stagnant.It is […]
Being Born
Jack Hardaway ] Being born is a pretty traumatic experience. So I hear. I don’t remember it myself. Though I do remember my three children seemed to find it pretty upsetting. There was this silly movie years ago, Look who’s Talking, where the babies talked, Bruce Willis was the voice over for the main character. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Two Daughters
Jack Hardaway ] Stories. We are surrounded by stories. Stories of people and pain. The ease with which we can tell our stories, and the ease with which we can hear each other’s stories is one of those slow surprises that we have woken up to in today’s world. We are overwhelmed by each other, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]