Category Archives: sermon

Betrayal

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

Loose lips sink kisses drunk on Communion wine love’s drowned by desire ______________ Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man.” (Mark 14:44) ______________ Giotto di Bondone, Kiss of Judas [Public … Continue reading →

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Palm Sunday 2018: outsourcing peace

Posted on March 25, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

It is hard to keep up with the Prince of Peace, but I learned a valuable lesson years ago from a philosopher named Tony whose day job was selling burglar alarms. Continue reading →

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Show me Jesus

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

Imagine that they ask you, “Sir, sister, stranger, where can we find Jesus?” What would you tell them? What might you show them? Where would you take them? Who would you call for back-up? Continue reading →

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Idols made of metal

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

The bronze serpent was not an amulet, but an icon of futility; an emblem of the impotence of evil in the sight of a gracious God.
The modern casting would be an AR-15 made into a museum piece, rendered harmless, useless, toothless by its irrelevance, not empowered by false reverence. Continue reading →

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Sinners at the cross of angry Jesus

Posted on March 4, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

I’m not going to go through the Commandments one by one, because frankly, unless we can reconcile our fundamental issues with the first three and the prohibition on killing, not to mention loving our neighbour, I do not see a way for us to achieve any kind of passing grade. Continue reading →

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Cleansing the temple

Posted on March 3, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

Christ, cleanse our temple courts where money changes hands to purchase  sacrificial lambs offered on the high altar hymned with thoughts and prayers and the black sheep, tethered, set aside for the devotions of white-robed acolytes, while mourners shuffle ceaseless intercessions … Continue reading →

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Their cross, our cross

Posted on February 25, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

I have been trying to imagine how the words of Jesus to the pre-resurrection people would have sounded. We cannot hear of the cross without spiritualizing it, sublimating it post-resurrection. To have the same impact today as he had on that crowd in first-century Galilee, what might Jesus say? Continue reading →

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A perfectly imperfect marriage

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

I think John Henry was lonely, and that Christ was as much his consolation as his committed husband.
He approached his ordination like a wedding, with excitement and dread, with joy and cold feet. Continue reading →

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Bruising God

Posted on February 18, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

Just before setting the bow in the sky as a sign of the covenant of mercy between God and all flesh, God tells Noah that since humanity was made in God’s image, God will require a reckoning for our lifeblood. God considers violence against any one of us violence against God’s own self. Continue reading →

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Do not give your heart to the ashes

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

The landscape within which we live is littered with sin, from the scars we inflict upon the earth on up through the twisted veins of hearts that would burn down a church built in the image of God’s mercy. And it is impossible to stand here in an attitude of repentance tonight without acknowledging the complicity of our common life in the deaths of 17 students, children, at a high school in Florida this afternoon. Our participation in systems of sin, as its priests and as its victims, is as inevitable as the ice of winter. Continue reading →

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