Category Archives: sermon

Easter

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

Someone called John tells an Easter story: It was dark. It was so early, it was still late, but she couldn’t sleep. It was too still, too cold, too dark and silent. So she went to be with him in … Continue reading →

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Easter Vigil Sermon: New fire and living water

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

New fire and living water. Extremes of existence, held together by the cross and the resurrection, like life and death. Water. Soothing, refreshing, life-giving. We play in it, luxuriate in it. Our bodies are more than half made of it. … Continue reading →

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Last words

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

This is a meditation delivered at a service of the Seven Last Words at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, Good Friday 2009, revisited today in honour of Holy Week and in memory of Joyce.  – Woman, behold your son: behold your mother … Continue reading →

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The Archbishop of Canterbury: Poet, Politician, or Parable?

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

A Homily for Evensong at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, on the feast day of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop and Martyr, March 21st 2012 Thomas Cranmer: was he a romantic or an adventurer? A wise man or an opportunist? Was the man better … Continue reading →

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John 3:16

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

For God so loved the world he came between a mother and the baby at her breast so that each saw the image of love reflected in the other’s eyes God so loved the world that he sat at the … Continue reading →

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Serpent

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

Fashion your fear in all its detail. Make your sin shiny, sleek and dangerous. Fill its fangs with all the venom you can muster. Gaze upon it, and know that you are greater than the thing which you create.   … Continue reading →

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Year B Lent 3: Superstitions and the first commandment

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

The rest of the sermon: God spoke these words: I am the Lord your God … you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol … you shall not bow down to them or worship … Continue reading →

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Superstitions and the first commandment

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

Looking towards Sunday, I read this in the Oxford Bible Commentary about the Exodus reading (Ex0dus 10: 1-17): “Modern preachers interpret this [the first] command in a moralistic way: anything which absorbs a person’s devotion is his/her god … But this is … Continue reading →

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Lent-check

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

Matthew 20: 17-28 Jesus predicts his suffering and death – and the disciples’ response still leaves a little something to be desired. They have got past last Sunday’s denial of the whole horrible thing – they can, perhaps by now, bring themselves … Continue reading →

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Year B Lent 2: The cross: hoping against hope

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

Jesus began to teach his disciples that he, the Son of Man, must undergo great suffering and be rejected by his own people, and killed, and after three days rise again. The promise of God with us is a strange … Continue reading →

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