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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
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Author Archives: Rosalind C Hughes
Sabbatical: steady
The stewardship of attention and anxiety has come to the fore as an important dimension of the discipline of preparing for Sabbath. Continue reading
Love, lies, and blessing
We can protect our tongues from bitterness and our souls from shame by keeping to the truth, and holding fast to the hope that Christ has set before us, and following him, step by step, word by word, in the way of the cross, the way of God’s unimaginable love, for all whom God has made in the image of the living God. Continue reading
Posted in blessings, current events, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Graham Greene, James 3:1-12, Mark 8:27-38, way of the cross
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Holy Cross Day
A little sandpaper and stain, you would never tell the blood within the grain, but the wood knows where it’s been. Continue reading
Sabbatical: ready
When I sang in a choir, long ago and far away, we were taught to stagger our breathing through long, sustained notes. As long as we didn’t all do it at the same time, each of us could take a breather from the music, replenish our oxygen exchange, without the note wavering or failing its audience. As long as we supported one another’s rest, no one need gasp for lack of air, and the music (the service, the worship) would continue unabated. Continue reading
Love and death
It isn’t the approval of God that fills us with hope in the face of the unknown journey into life beyond death. It isn’t even the mercy of God that helps our souls to sing “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia” at the grave. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged funerals, Jesus, love, Song of Solomon, Song of Songs, Year B Proper 17
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Bread of life
I knew, in my body and in my soul and in the core of my being that what was offered at that altar was something I needed, something I wanted, something I could not live without. I still can’t quite explain it; I still know that it is true. Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged Bread of Life, Eucharist, Holy Communion, Incarnation, John 6:51-58
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By halves
My mother’s mantra haunts me: Never do things by halves; Continue reading
Posted in poetry, story
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Be angry, but do not sin
Righteous anger can be used to the advantage of the kingdom of God; championing the abolition of slavery; fighting the Nazi holocaust; marching to make sure that everyone has heard and understood that Black Lives Matter; defending the defenceless and the endangered. But anger is only useful as a tool in the hands of one who has control of it, and who is not controlled by it. Continue reading
Posted in story
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Bread and miracles
The feeding of the five thousand is reported in every gospel because that story of Jesus taking bread, and giving thanks, and breaking it open reminds us of the love that God has for us, which is poured out for us as often as we seek it, as much as we need it, as long as we are hungry for it; and not only for us alone but for every stranger on the hillside who holds out her hands for a crumb of comfort. The miracle, the thing which is beyond our understanding, the extent and reach, the abundance of God’s love for us. Continue reading
Heron
Heron: hunched, gray, no plumage to waste on a kingfisher display; patient as a vulture, impassive as a judge, dangling the business end of its beak like a sword until an itch hits its wing-pit; it contorts it like a silly … Continue reading
Posted in poetry
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over the water 