All rights reserved
© Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, 2011-2021. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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-
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
RevGalBlogPals
Meta
Category Archives: current events
Envy is the enemy of the gospel
A sermon for Sunday, September 26 at the Church of the Epiphany, Euclid. In the readings, disciples of Moses and Jesus object to unauthorized deployment of the Spirit. In the news, images of border patrols chasing immigrants with horses, and … Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged envy, grace, immigration, Jesus, peace, salt
Leave a comment
Vengeance is not ours
When we allow even small things to breed evil intentions in our hearts, to divide us from the humanity of another, we are headed for trouble. Jesus is heading us off, reminding us to stay close to God’s law: the law that begins with loving God, and ends with loving our neighbours as ourselves. To develop and feed habits of the heart and soul that lead to life, rather than to revenge. Continue reading
What we owe one another
If you have been in that line at the airport, you have seen the individuals and families pulled aside, sent to the back room, a cage of windows, to await further scrutiny after the line has been processed and dismissed. If you were in the line, your passport stamped, passed on to customs to collect your bags, you may have wondered what happened to those people in that side room, who they might be, and why they were there. Continue reading
To whom shall we go?
I do not know another way that leads to eternal life, in this life and the next. I do know that if I abide in him, however imperfectly, he will stay with me, for he is faithful, and merciful, and his love endures for ever. Continue reading
Prayer for a day when there are no words
I do not have words to imagine the prayers of the falling.It feels ironic to light a candlewhen fires burn freely and fast;to kneel as though the earth might otherwiseflee from beneath me.Breathing has becomean act of defiance. Baptism threatens to flood … Continue reading
Posted in current events, poetry, prayer
Leave a comment
A sustaining hope
The interventions of God, strength for the journey, can come from humans sweating over laboratory test tubes as easily and as often as angels baking on hot stones. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged 1 Kings 19, Bread of Life, COVID-19, Elijah, gun violence, Jesus, John 6:35
Leave a comment
Vaccines, masks, love, and religion
For the love of Christ, let’s take care of this body, with tenderness, respect, selflessness, wisdom, and love, so that in good time and good health, we may rejoice together. Continue reading
Some people are never satisfied
I wonder how many evictions one trip into the atmosphere could offset. Continue reading
Posted in current events, sermon
Tagged Bread of Life, envy, hunger, Jesus, Moses, Olympics, space race, Zora Neale Hurston
Leave a comment
A red, white, and blue sermon
Might we be just a little afraid of what might happen if we allow ourselves truly to be changed, converted, transformed by the grace of our Saviour, Jesus Christ? Are we just a little concerned about going against the flow of popular culture, painting with a different brush, suggesting that mercy is greater than might and love more lasting than power; that even the great and the wise need repentance? Are we afraid to trade in our red, and blue, and whiteness for something in a soft velour? Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged discipleship, Ezekiel 2:5, Independence Day, interdependence, July 4, Mark 6:1-13, Matthew 18:1-4
1 Comment
Trinity Sunday: we who are many are one
It is the mutuality of the Trinity that we seek. We hear its echoes in our prayers: “though we are many, we are one body” (Romans 12:5). We come closest to it when we experience compassion. Continue reading
Posted in current events, Holy Days, sermon
Tagged Amos 5:8, COVID, crossroads, gun violence, John 12:32, John 3:17, John Donne, racism, Romans 12:5, Trinity Sunday
Leave a comment
