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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
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Author Archives: Rosalind C Hughes
For the love of Jesus
I think that in this gospel reading, Jesus is asking us to see him for himself, as himself. To spend the time, to invest ourselves in knowing him. Not because he needs us to, but because if we can see him more clearly, and follow him more nearly, we will learn to love more truly, to heal more fully, to find the image of God where we most need to see it, where it most needs to be seen. Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Jesus, Mark 8:27-38, prayer, Springfield Ohio, St John of the Cross, Year B Proper 19
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Get thee behind, Satan
A piercing crown of loneliness, seductive pain plays behind the eyes; a weary hand passes over as though palming pennies for the dead. Easier to surrender now to sleep and rise in glory than to die. Who then, though, to … Continue reading
Humanity
It is a call not to lose sight of the humanity of Jesus at work in the most difficult situations, even among the demons. … Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged bias, humanity, Jesus, sin, Syro-phoenician woman, Year B Proper 18
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Ephphatha
The risks of cracking ajar the teeth, loosing the tongue of fire fanned by vague spirits, unstopping the ears, allowing the world to pound its wares upon its drums outweighed in an instant by the shriek of an eagle drafting … Continue reading
For the love of God
You have to wonder how the Song of Songs ever made it into the Bible. … The poem never explicitly mentions God, but if we read it as sacred story, then we affirm and proclaim that this is God’s love for us; this is God’s love song.
That’s what I wanted to preach about this morning. Then, the night before last, there was a mass shooting outside the high school down the street. Five teenagers were hospitalized. One of them has since died.
God loves these children too much for us to continue to let this happen. Continue reading
Posted in gun violence, homily, sermon
Tagged gun violence, James 1:17-27, Jesus, Mark 7, nonviolence, Song of Solomon, Song of Songs
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Hungry
Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.”
Now I could quibble and say that elsewhere Jesus said that a person does not live by bread alone – but since Jesus is, also, the very Word of God, I think he has that covered.
So what does it mean for him to say, “Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”?
Surely it cannot mean that I don’t need my electricity back on after all! Continue reading
Body parts
Don’t give up, Paul might say, despite the worn and broken nature of the world, despite our own limitations, whether every part works or not. For we are each formed by God and called together in the love of Christ, and when we work together, to support and to encourage and grow one another’s faith, we will discover and do more than we can ask or imagine, by the love of God. Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Body of Christ, Ephesians 4:1-16, Year B Proper 13
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Abundance
We live in a world, in a country and a community, hungry for love, starving for mercy, thirsty for good news. We have all that is needed to provide those essential nutrients to the people before us, around us, among us. And that is exactly where Jesus asks us to begin. Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged abundance, Ephesians 3:20-21, feeding, feeding five thousand, Jesus, John 6:1-21, politics, prayer, providence
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Walking on water
Because the clutch between creation and Creator is solid. Because the Word that spoke light into being fills the space between waves and atoms so that none is wasted, so that there is not room between one thought of God and another to … Continue reading
Leftovers
One made bread pudding, another, croutons for soup.One mashed them in milk next day for the baby’s breakfast. The important thing was, they got to keep the crumbs, got to bring bread home, swapping hunger for sufficiency, sharing recipes for remainders;that … Continue reading
over the water 