Category Archives: sermon

Friday 2020

Posted on April 10, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

The loneliness of death frightens us … we are rightly afraid, I am afraid that I will be unequal to my promises, the promise of Peter, though all become deserters, to stay with you, to stay near you, come what may.
I am unequal to my promises, but Jesus is not. If nothing else, he proved that on the Cross. Continue reading →

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Thursday 2020: Betrayal

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

“One of you,” he said, “will betray me,” and each of them immediately beset his soul with cross-examination, face afire with a thousand slights, deft denials and sleight of conscience, self-deception well practised since the first temptation in the Garden … Continue reading →

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Wednesday 2020: Cornerstone

Posted on April 8, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

Look for the cornerstone, smutted and mossed, every so often sandblasted clean, surprising anew; not the one five blocks up with date and name, but below, at ground level, hefting the weight of the world, unnoticed for the most part, … Continue reading →

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Tuesday 2020: By whose authority?

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

One asks, Is it politic? One asks, Will it profit a man? One asks, Is it legal? One asks, Is it ethical? One asks, Is it even practical? One asks, Is it possible? One asks, Is it blasphemy; if so, … Continue reading →

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Monday 2020: Cleansing the temple

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

Monday morning: disinfecting doorknobs, disaffecting traders, tilting tables to wipe them down, zealously sanitizing sacred space, swiping between compassion and contempt; mask slipping, brow sweating, having tested positive for mortality Also from Monday’s Daily Office readings: How lonely sits the … Continue reading →

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Ostriches and jackals

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

(This Lenten meditation for the daily series from the Diocese of Ohio was composed before our part of the world was turned upside down by COVID-19; but God’s mercy endures forever.) Continue reading →

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The question of Lazarus

Posted on March 28, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

“Tell me, mortal,
can these dry bones live?”
Lazarus, coughing and blinking
replies, or would
if breath permits, Continue reading →

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Chasing clouds

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

Not as children naming
animals in a fluffy sky; nor yet
storm chasers, seeking secrets
funnelled from heaven to earth; more
refugees from understanding,
lost in bewilderment, following
clouds across the wilderness
desert dry-mouthed – Continue reading →

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Why did this happen?

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

When Jesus and his disciples come across a blind man begging, the disciples ask a question that the sages have answered in various ways throughout the ages: why is there suffering in the world? Why do even the unarguably innocent – babies and children – suffer? Why do we live with these questions from birth and throughout our lives, even in the midst of joy, even in the midst of love, even with Jesus walking right next to us? Continue reading →

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Sermon from the edge of a pandemic

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

Jesus was not great at social distancing. Wherever he went he attracted crowds that pressed against the lake shore, against one another, against him and the hem of his garments. Once, he filled a house so full that they had to take the roof off to fit one more person in.

Even out in the sticks, he managed to find the one woman next to a well, and asked her for a drink. Continue reading →

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