Category Archives: sermon

Year C Epiphany 3: The year of the Lord’s favour

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

There has never been a time that God was absent from us. There have been times when it seemed a close thing. The Flood, for example, the bondage in Egypt, the Exile, the cry of dereliction from the cross. But … Continue reading →

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Year C Epiphany 2: Sermon for Annual Meeting Sunday

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

In another year, perhaps this sermon will sound more like an annual report. For today, since I was only here for a quarter of last year, I feel as though I’m still finding my way around a little; there are … Continue reading →

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Year C Epiphany 1: For us, and for our salvation

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

After Christmas, after Epiphany, we come to the baptism of Jesus. In a way, this story is the culmination and confirmation of everything that has happened up to now. An angel announced his conception. Faithful even before he was born, … Continue reading →

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In bodily form

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

When our bodies betray us, let us down, we berate them, hesitate to call them holy, when, after all, they are the sacrament of God’s creative genius, each featherlight touch a reminder of the love that engendered our creation, redemption, … Continue reading →

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Telling stories: extracts from a sermon on Jesus in the Temple, aged twelve

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

I have a weakness, I confess, for all things biblical, especially stories, especially imaginative retellings of biblical stories, or poetry, or words, words, words … I am drawn like a moth to a flame to a new fictionalized gospel account, … Continue reading →

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Epiphany

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

Epiphany: A lightbulb moment. A parish church. A cake, a tradition. People going down to a snowy river in Russia to renew their baptismal promises in the freezing waters. The other Christmas. Magi, wise men, kings; gold, frankincense, myrrh; Herod … Continue reading →

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Following

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

The brightness beckoning, reckoning light years away, in the beginning, there was a star which now calls them from afar to follow, stumbling in the daytime, in the forests, fog-filled valleys, rallying with breathless joy on the mountaintop where all … Continue reading →

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Christmas Eve: Good news

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

“I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.” Good news. “To you is born this day a Saviour, the Messiah, the Lord.” Good news indeed. The shepherds were, it is safe to say, not used … Continue reading →

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Year C Advent 4: The Magnificat

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

Mary went out with haste into the hill country. A young woman, a teenager pregnant with a baby of uncertain paternity, an unwed mother in first-century Galilee – you can bet that she got out of town with some haste. … Continue reading →

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Blue Christmas homily

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

I remember one Christmas Eve years ago, when I was a Sunday School teacher trying to wrangle small children dressed as shepherds and herd animals dressed as small children and deal with both kings and wise guys and try not … Continue reading →

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