Category Archives: sermon

Year A Proper 9: of fourth of July fireworks, parades and prophecies (and little donkeys)

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

When I was growing up, a trip to the seaside meant (if we were lucky and good) a ride on the beach donkeys. These little donkeys plied their trade on every tourist beach in England. Usually, there would be about half … Continue reading →

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Year A Proper 9: Little Donkey

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

When I was growing up, a trip to the seaside meant buckets and spades, sandcastles in the sand, fishing nets, for catching shrimps in the rockpools, ice cream, and late in the afternoon, before loading up the car for home, … Continue reading →

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Independence Day

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

It feels like a good day to be contemplating Sunday’s sermon. Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a … Continue reading →

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Things I can’t imagine doing this week

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

Going out for a beer with a corporation. Telling a woman that her choice of contraception is against my religion. Bellowing “no one wants you” to a bus load of children. Carrying an assault rifle into a department store. Carrying … Continue reading →

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Paying the piper

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ …Yet wisdom … Continue reading →

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Year A Proper 8: Good news and free gifts

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

I doubt that there is anyone in this room who has never had pressed into their hand, or encountered on the back of a public convenience door, or otherwise been accosted by a photocopied pamphlet containing, among other words, this … Continue reading →

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Year A Proper 8: Whoever welcomes you

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me; whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me (Matthew 10:40). When my parents took me home, they invited into their family a whole other set of DNA, a whole other history, a whole other … Continue reading →

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Zechariah and the newborn

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

Today is the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist. According to the Gospel of Luke, when Gabriel (an archangel) announced to John’s father that his wife would conceive, Zechariah was doubtful, and Gabriel, as a sign that this … Continue reading →

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Year A Proper 7: fear, scams and sparrows

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

First, a little bit of context. This gospel starts in the middle of Jesus’ instructions to his disciples as they are getting ready to go out into the world on their own for the first time as his emissaries, his … Continue reading →

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Six impossible things before breakfast

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

A crossover from the bible challenge blog: “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in … Continue reading →

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