All rights reserved
© Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, 2011-2026. 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: sermon
Parabolic
It is often said, but bears repeating, that we have a tendency to tame Jesus’ parables. Familiarity breeds, if not contempt, at least complacency. When we stop hearing them as stories, and instead hear only the interpretation and allegorization and reenactment … Continue reading
Posted in sermon preparation
Tagged absurdity, Jesus, Matthew 25:1-13, parable of the bridesmaids, parables, Year A Proper 27
Leave a comment
All Saints 2014
Jesus clearly didn’t have the best agent. If he had titled his sermon on the mount, “How to live your best blessed life right now,” he could have gathered forty thousand on the hillside instead of four thousand. He could … Continue reading
Year A Proper 24: the stewardship sermon
The question about taxes, and rendering unto Caesar, led into a sermon with time for pew-talk. The outline / framework went something like this: Jesus does a really nice politician’s job of handing the question back to the Pharisees and … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged adoption, Caesar, church finance, Matthew 22:15-22, pledge, stewardship, taxes
Leave a comment
Render
A silhouette against my eyelids, black on red; a name beaten out by my heart’s tattoo; the claim that staked me through and through; I render unto, surrender unto – whose image and title is this?
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged Matthew 22:15-22, render unto Caesar, surrender, Year A Proper 24
2 Comments
Year A Proper 23: come to the feast
There have been two weddings in this church in the past ten days, and three within three months. Each was its own blend of nervousness, family friendship, family friction, love, hope, and joy. Each of them was noticeable, in the … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged Communion, Isaiah 25:1-9, joy, matthew 22:1-14, parable, Philippians 4:1-9, the wedding feast
Leave a comment
The wedding robe
White lace cut down to a christening robe. Later, a doll with curly blonde hair wore my mother’s leftover wedding weeds, a moulded Miss Haversham preserved in plastic, dressed for the feast, rosebud lips perpetually parted for love.
Year A Proper 22: parables and other stories
There is a kind of through the looking glass feel to this parable. If you think of the classic fairy tale structure, where a king sends three messengers on a quest to redeem his belongings, in this case the wine … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged baptism, Ebola, fairy tale, God's mercy endures forever, Isaiah 5:1-7, Jesus, Matthew 21:33-46, oppression, parable, Psalm 80, vineyard, Year A Proper 22
Leave a comment
Vineyards
I cannot grow an apple tree, aromatic herbs, fresh flowers. I dig and plant and water and weed; everything dies. I drink the wine of another’s vineyard, climb the walls to scrump the orchard, cadge the scent of another’s roses … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon preparation
Tagged Isaiah 5:1-7, Matthew 21, parable, Psalm 80, scrumping apples, vineyard
Leave a comment
