Category Archives: sermon

Working on a miracle

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

Some say that the next wars will be fought not over oil but over water; but it doesn’t have to be that way. When one runs short, it is all of our business. There is no, “What is that to me?” Continue reading →

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The gifts of the wise ones

Posted on January 9, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

The Feast of the Epiphany is a new year of sorts for us, the people of Epiphany. Who knows what this one will bring. But if we are able to keep our hearts and minds and expectations open; if we deploy the gifts of humility, creativity, faith that the magi, the wise ones have taught us, then we may find unexpected grace, unlooked-for epiphanies, the glory of God waiting for us to stumble upon it as the year takes shape, growing like a child, full of curiosity, wonder, and delight.  Continue reading →

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When worlds collide

Posted on January 6, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

Today, while our church celebrates and ruminates on the revelation of Christ to the nations – the arrival of the magi at the manger and their joyful homage to the child they recognized as the saviour of the world – the news cycle is full of analysis, unresolved shock, and grief over what happened and what so nearly happened to our nation a year ago today. Continue reading →

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Joseph, the dreamers

Posted on January 2, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

With the eyes of his heart enlightened, Joseph knew how to pay attention to the whispers of God, how to be guided by love, how to risk giving everything up, giving everything to the project of God’s incarnation as the Christ. Continue reading →

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All in the family way

Posted on December 26, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

It seems as though the depth and strength and sheer closeness of God’s love for us defies any single image of relationship that we can dredge up and dress in poetic language. God is our father and our mother and our lover. 
And then, and then, God became flesh, and dwelt among us. Continue reading →

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Word, wordless

Posted on December 25, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

A brief message for Christmas Day If, like me, you have memories from long before you learned how to talk, then you know that even before it speaks an infant tells itself stories and lays them down, woven into the … Continue reading →

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Mary’s song, our song

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

The name Mary cried havoc and announced the day of the Lord’s deliverance from the bonds of oppression. Mary’s word to the angel, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord,” was the acceptance of a mantle, the mantle of Miriam, the sister and peer of Moses. Mary’s, “Let it be with me” was saying, in effect, “Bring it on.” Continue reading →

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Because love is the miracle

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

Love is what it takes
to make the other
miracles true… Continue reading →

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Karl Barth, St Paul, and the stickiness of sin

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

“Who … is aware of man’s real wretchedness, save he who is aware of God’s mercy?” Barth lectured his students in Bonn. We know our sin, we are convicted of it, Paul discovered his error in persecuting the followers of Jesus only when he was confronted by the living Christ himself, the revelation and reality of God’s saving mercy. Continue reading →

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It’s (not too) complicated

Posted on December 5, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

It means beating swords into ploughshares, guns into shovels, removing them from the hands and the lives and the deaths of our children. There is no deeper shadow cast than the deaths of children, and the enormity of the problem before us is our mountain to climb. Continue reading →

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