Category Archives: sermon

Year A Advent 4: playing the fool

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

You have to wonder how many times Joseph had that dream. I mean, once is good; but after a few days, a weeks, wouldn’t you find yourself wondering all over again what was going on, worrying whether you had been … Continue reading →

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Blue Christmas 2013

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

There is a scene in the extended poem by W.H. Auden, For the Time Being, that has never left me since I first read it. The language is so visual I can almost see it. Transplanted into contemporary England – … Continue reading →

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Year A Advent 3

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

John sends a message from prison. Whether he is worried, depressed, or angry we don’t know; but he asks, through his disciples, “Are you the one, or are we still waiting for somebody else?” John has already told the whole … Continue reading →

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Year A Advent 2: Snakes and other stories

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

There are a lot of snakes in today’s readings. In Isaiah, a small child plays over the nests of asps and adders. In Matthew, John the Baptizer calls the Pharisees a brood of vipers. Now, a quick survey of biblical … Continue reading →

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John of Damascus

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

A homily for Evensong at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland. In a characteristically involving novel, Kazuo Ishiguro broached the subject of souls. I don’t want to give too much away, in case you still want to read the book or see the … Continue reading →

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Year A Advent 1

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

And so the season, the year, begins in the middle – in the middle of the story, in the middle of a field where two men are working, and there then was one; in the mill, where two women are … Continue reading →

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Year A Advent 1: starting in the middle

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

In the middle of the story, in the middle of the day, when two women are in the middle of a studied silence over the millstone. They are not speaking. One of them is not speaking so hard, she disappears. … Continue reading →

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Sermon for Christ the King 2013

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

The gospel of Luke, which we have been reading since last Advent; the gospel of Luke, from its beginning to its end, is about a revolution, the quiet revolution of the Magnificat, the secret story of a young woman who … Continue reading →

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Christ the King

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

The honest thief Don’t tell me you are saving me while we hang here side by side in searing pain under a searing sun; don’t talk to me of gardens of ease where mercy falls down like a river when … Continue reading →

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Year C Proper 28: Work and do not be weary

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

They are words that strike terror into the hearts of the unemployed, the underemployed, the working poor, the uninsured. They are words that form a hard and heavy stone in the stomachs of too many people, even in these enlightened … Continue reading →

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