Category Archives: sermon

The spiritual gift of doubt

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

Blessed are those who can live with certainty, who can bear the burden of sureness. Because in certainty there is no need for hope; sureness has no need for trust. Some of us are not so strong. We cannot live … Continue reading →

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Easter 2013: Aslan is on the move

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

Why do you look for the living among the dead? It is the question of Easter morning. Why are these women coming to the tomb carrying their supplies of bodily embalming, their perfumes and their potions to preserve the dead, … Continue reading →

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Great Vigil of Easter: 2013 update

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

(For the fire and water demo that accompanies this sermon, see last year’s offering: https://rosalindhughes.com/2012/04/07/easter-vigil-sermon-new-fire-and-living-water/) New fire and living water. Extremes of existence, held together by the cross and the resurrection, like life and death. Fire. It falls from the … Continue reading →

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Maundy Thursday: the sacrament of love

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

Ambrose, Bishop of Milan in one of the early centuries of the church, believed that the washing of feet instituted by Jesus was as sacramental, as important and as necessary as the two sacraments that the churches have all ended … Continue reading →

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Year C: Palms and Passion

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

I am going to guess that you already know the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, and then I’m going to tell it to you, anyway. Once there was an emperor, who wanted a splendid new costume for his grand … Continue reading →

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Year C Lent 5: a royal priesthood

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

The story of Jesus’ anointing is told in all four gospels, although there are differences in the details that each reports. Only John names the woman who performed the prophetic act: Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, of Bethany. … Continue reading →

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Nothing, nor anything else

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

A grace-filled daily reflection from a colleague got me thinking. He was writing about those wonderful words of Paul, which are included in the little rationale for joy and grief coexisting at funerals which is included in our Book of … Continue reading →

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Year C Lent 4: The hungry sons

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

I’ve been thinking this week about titles for this story, this famous parable of Jesus, so familiar and so well-thumbed that we defy ourselves to find anything new in it. I do wonder if it needs a new title. “The … Continue reading →

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Hungry

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

My brother was one of those children – maybe you were, or maybe you had one like him – who would, from time to time, express his displeasure at his parents by leaving home. He would pack up his little … Continue reading →

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Prodigal

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

“The Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” So Jesus told them a few stories, about things that were lost and then found, about a boy who got a little lost then found … Continue reading →

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