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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
Year C Proper 28: Work and do not be weary
They are words that strike terror into the hearts of the unemployed, the underemployed, the working poor, the uninsured. They are words that form a hard and heavy stone in the stomachs of too many people, even in these enlightened … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, anchorites, Crossing the Unknown Sea, David Whyte, food stamps, Julian of Norwich, liturgy, Martha and Mary, prayer, SNAP, work, Year C Proper 28
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Anything but straightforward
“Those who will not work will not eat:” There are several nuances to the seemingly harsh sentence that we miss when we reduce it to a slogan. … … there is the description of work itself. We use the word work … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon preparation
Tagged 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Eucharist, food, labour, poverty, preaching, work, Year C Proper 28
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Year C Proper 27: No such thing as a stupid question?
You know how we always tell each other, and especially our children, that there’s no such thing as a stupid question? I have to think that the Sadducees were pushing the envelope on this one. It wasn’t because they were … Continue reading
Responding to a Sadducee
Resurrection is not “a conjuring trick with bones,”* nor is the resurrection a reality-tv show about the life of seven brothers and their unnamed widow-sister-wife Resurrection is not undone by the cynicism of the resurrected one blinking, bewildered in the … Continue reading
Be Still
I am Lazarus, lying still. In the whitewashed tomb even time stops running, runs down, stops. The air is still, unstirred by breath of life; deep dark unbroken by flashing eye, or a rogue smile. I am Lazarus, numb, unfeeling, … Continue reading
All Saints
The letter to the Ephesians makes a perfect sermon all by itself for All Saints and a day of baptism. I hardly feel as though I need say more. But there is more. Listen to the words that come just … Continue reading
Praying alone
The writing was on the wall outside: the service ended hours ago; the people gone to their Sunday dinners, families, fire sides. The church empty, gaping open, sat stone cold and silent as the grave, its pews petrified, unforgiving, its … Continue reading
All Hallows Eve
Reaching through the darkness in the long, dark night, a soul might lose it way, fall away, if not for the light, beckoning. All in white they stand before the throne of light, shining through the hollow pumpkins, porchlights, tealights, singing softened … Continue reading
Year C Proper 25: Stand closer
Have you ever read the brilliant dystopian novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley? I won’t give the whole game away, but one of the themes in the book is social engineering, which is achieved by a mixture of genetic … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged 2 Timothy 4:6-8.16-18, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Euclid Prayer Walk, God, Jesus, Joel 2:23-32, Luke 18:9-14, parable, Pharisee, prayer, Psalm 65, tax collector, year c proper 25
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Prayers, overheard
Each stood away from the other, his face turned anyway but there, no meeting of eyes for these two, let alone hearts, minds. One looked up to heaven, his prayer belying his blindness to the other, “Thank God I am … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon preparation
Tagged humility, Luke 18:9-14, parable, Pharisee, prayer, pride, repentance, tax collector, year c proper 25
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over the water 