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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
https://bookstore.upperroom.org/Products/1921/a-family-like-mine.aspxWhom Shall I Fear: Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence
https://www.amazon.com/Whom-Shall-Fear-Questions-Christians/dp/0835819671-
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Author Archives: Rosalind C Hughes
Prayer for a silly goose
The geese are flying messily, put to shame by the perfect vee of clouds gesturing toward the horizon. But geese know no shame. They are free to tease the breeze, course the currents easily. They do not perform for me, … Continue reading
Posted in poetry, prayer
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God who made the hedgehogs
Arguments over banknotes and silver coins can seem arcane in this day and age – who even uses cash any more? But the question that the Herodians and the Pharisees put to Jesus, and the one that he chose to answer, remain: what are your values? What do you value? Whom do you recognize as bearing the image of the living God? How will you live that out, in everyday transactions and in community? Continue reading
Posted in gun violence, homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Jesus, gun violence, money, hedgehogs
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Love is stronger
The prophet makes clear that there are things that must give way, or be transformed, if the kingdom of heaven is to be built. Systems of oppression and exclusion cannot stand if the table of love is to be set. And it will be set, Isaiah insists. God’s love will conquer all. Here is the good news. Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged capital punishment, death penalty, Indigenous People’s Day, Isaiah 25:1-9, Jesus, matthew 22:1-14, Year A Proper 23
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Tomorrow’s sermon today: World Day Against the Death Penalty
On World Day Against the Death Penalty, and in light of this week’s news headlines, an extract from tomorrow’s sermon:
When we get stuck on narratives of vengeance and violence, when we get stuck on who is deserving to attend the feast to which God, not we, issues the invitation, well, then we get stuck.
And here we are, reduced to a nation threatening to stream its gun violence, state-sanctioned and sanitized as justice, to the world. … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, sermon preparation
Tagged death penalty, gun violence, Isaiah 25:1-9, Jesus,, matthew 22:1-14
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A love song to the vineyard
Jesus doesn’t need us to make wine. He can make wine out of water. But we have the opportunity to share in the delight of God, the joy that God takes in planting and tending and harvesting and writing love songs to a vineyard. Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged parable, Jesus, Psalm 80, death penalty, vineyard, Isaiah 5:1-7, Matthew 21:33-46, parables of the vineyard
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A shark on retreat
They say that a shark will die if it does not keep swimming. Invited into stillness and silence, I notice the tremor in my legs, swaying to and fro, dancing without rhythm to an unheard tune; the heaviness of tongue … Continue reading
The mind of Christ Jesus, the love of God
What if to have the mind of Jesus Christ, the living image of God was nothing more nor less than to regard that equality not as something to be exploited, but squandered in the service of love? Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged AI, God, Jesus, kenosis, love, Philippians 2:1-13, Year A Proper 21
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Jonah
A sermon on the story of Jonah and Jesus’ parable of the generous landowner (Matthew 20:1-16) The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness. (Psalm 145:8) Jonah experienced both the anger of God and the … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged generosity, Jesus, Jonah, Matthew 20:1-16, mercy, Psalm 145:8, Year A Proper 20
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Gentiles, tax collectors, and the beloved community
Owe no one anything, except to love one another, writes Paul to his congregation of Romans. And, it is written elsewhere, Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and … Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged baptism, beloved community, Jesus, Matthew 18:15-20, Year A Proper 18
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Compassion and complicity
Pray for the people of Nepal and Tibet, the dead, the dying, the missing and the missed, the grieving, the helping, the despairing. Pray, too, that we might learn to promise never again to flood the whole earth, and, with our knowledge of good and evil, to find a way to keep it. Continue reading
