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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
All Saints 2014
Jesus clearly didn’t have the best agent. If he had titled his sermon on the mount, “How to live your best blessed life right now,” he could have gathered forty thousand on the hillside instead of four thousand. He could … Continue reading
Year A Proper 24: the stewardship sermon
The question about taxes, and rendering unto Caesar, led into a sermon with time for pew-talk. The outline / framework went something like this: Jesus does a really nice politician’s job of handing the question back to the Pharisees and … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged adoption, Caesar, church finance, Matthew 22:15-22, pledge, stewardship, taxes
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Love you to death
Flashback: That week, everyone spoke in sympathetic soft, tilted voices. In a grim comedy, I parrotted their corporate condolences, squawking them directly into my father’s hearing aid. The funeral director was trying coyly to explain the need for a high-necked … Continue reading
Posted in current events, other words
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Render
A silhouette against my eyelids, black on red; a name beaten out by my heart’s tattoo; the claim that staked me through and through; I render unto, surrender unto – whose image and title is this?
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged Matthew 22:15-22, render unto Caesar, surrender, Year A Proper 24
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Year A Proper 23: come to the feast
There have been two weddings in this church in the past ten days, and three within three months. Each was its own blend of nervousness, family friendship, family friction, love, hope, and joy. Each of them was noticeable, in the … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged Communion, Isaiah 25:1-9, joy, matthew 22:1-14, parable, Philippians 4:1-9, the wedding feast
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The wedding robe
White lace cut down to a christening robe. Later, a doll with curly blonde hair wore my mother’s leftover wedding weeds, a moulded Miss Haversham preserved in plastic, dressed for the feast, rosebud lips perpetually parted for love.
Year A Proper 22: parables and other stories
There is a kind of through the looking glass feel to this parable. If you think of the classic fairy tale structure, where a king sends three messengers on a quest to redeem his belongings, in this case the wine … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged baptism, Ebola, fairy tale, God's mercy endures forever, Isaiah 5:1-7, Jesus, Matthew 21:33-46, oppression, parable, Psalm 80, vineyard, Year A Proper 22
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over the water 