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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
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Author Archives: Rosalind C Hughes
Was it necessary?
We do not have Pharaoh’s excuse, whose heart by God was hardened, but from that evening in the garden we have pursued our own destruction. We cannot claim we didn’t know, with the fruit still sweet on our tongue. Was it necessary? Better ask the serpent, … Continue reading
The olive grove bears witness
They say that the pelican plucks out her feathers to feed her young with blood; I have never seen it, but I hear from the pilgrims who come to see where he fed our roots with prayers pulled out by the shaft. They … Continue reading
Posted in story
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No longer Monday
It’s not Monday any more, but the scent still lingers in the house when they awaken, and Lazarus is grateful for the distraction; he hardly knows himself these days, still amazed at the complicated gift of life. The echoes of … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection
Tagged Holy Week, Isaiah 42, Jesus, John 12:1-11, Lazarus
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If these were quiet …
Think of the palms, crushed and bruised by the colt and the crowds, and of the ones who came back, the poor, the quiet, who came back to collect their broken stems and bleeding leaves, and wove them into something new, something to sell back to … Continue reading
God’s time
His last breath took him by surprise. Until its vapour dissipated in the ragged inhalations of his sisters, beginnings to convert his death into ululation; until then, he had thought that he would come. Hard to say what happened next: … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, preparing for Sunday with poetry, sermon preparation
Tagged death, hope, Jesus, John 11:1-44, Lazarus
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A world of miracles
Do you also want to be his disciples? asked the man. Then try this: Listen. Listen to the stories of the one you have walked by a thousand times in as many days dripping with pity without breaking your stride. … Continue reading
Dramatic irony
I find myself drawn to the contrast between reports this week that some military commanders are framing the war against Iran as an effort to bring about the end times, as though we may decide these things for God, in our wisdom; the contrast between that and Jesus’ words to the woman that the hour is already come, quietly, unnoticed over a cup of water, when reconciliation happens, and the truth of God’s love for the world, in all of its invented factions and fractions, has been revealed. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer
Tagged Armageddon, dramatic irony, Jesus, John 3:1-17, John 4:1-17, Samaritan woman, war, woman at the well, Word, year a lent 2, Year A Lent 3
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The well
Fed by generations, torrents of history running wild within the earth, the holy ground shaped and watered by the tears of war and weddings, piety and pity. Still waters run deep within the earth, seep between the shoulders of the land, shrugging off the stories that we … Continue reading
Amongst the Babel of war
We too often misunderstand, I think, what it means to become like God. We build our towers, our satellites in the sky, posing as heavenly bodies, the better to crater and control the earth. We rain down judgement as though … Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon preparation, story
Tagged Genesis 11:1-9, Iran, John 3:1-17, war, year a lent 2
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Nicodemus has insomnia
He couldn’t sleep for the moon light streaming through creation, for the sound of the wind sighing over a sea too deep for words, for the shiver when he heard him speak liberty as though it were at hand,the shock of justice overturned, the taste of mercy … Continue reading
over the water 