Category Archives: sermon preparation

Blessed

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

He breathed on them the scent of grave-clothes, myrrh, and aloes, the stench of forgiveness; I imagine that smells of olive oil pressed from the groves in the Garden of Gethsemane, drowning out with unction the fetor of betrayal and blood.  All day long they shed … Continue reading →

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Preaching from the shadows

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

The sound of mallet on metal
wood and splintered flesh
ricochets around the city walls
shivering the fabric of
the crowd that clothes the alleyways
too often lost in thought and prayers
we fall without an echo
into the open grave Continue reading →

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Afterwards

Posted on March 21, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

It was the following day that sealed it for him waking with the rooster an hour before dawn the darkness of the room unfamiliar tangled in bedsheets he shivered still straining his hope to conjure up that sun light and … Continue reading →

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Living water

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

I have always loved the sea. Continue reading →

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Born of water and the Spirit

Posted on March 4, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

I am not preaching this Sunday, and there was no little Lenten story/legend this morning, so consider this an offering to replace them both. ____________ You know, although it wasn’t recorded, that when God made Adam — dust of the … Continue reading →

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Fall silent

Posted on February 18, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

A short (but true) story for the Sunday Last before Lent: “We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven” (2 Peter 1) _______ Every day, at around about eleven in the morning, the world stood still. Teachers fell quiet mid-lesson, … Continue reading →

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Nativity

Posted on December 24, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

Not by might the almighty shoulders a way into the world, but on borrowed strength, the muscles of his mother conspiring to bring him to birth;  Not by right does he claim his throne but humbles himself to the stable stall and is fed by … Continue reading →

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A messiah for the rest of us

Posted on December 6, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

A reflection on the coming Sunday’s gospel, John’s question, which is perennially ours; Jesus’ answer, which is ours, too While John took on kings and their consorts, Jesus consorted with the lowly and the leprous. While John baptized gods, Jesus … Continue reading →

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A crown of thorns

Posted on November 14, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

They twisted together a crown with which to anoint his brow.  They thought to make a mockery,but had the pliant green twigs not yielded of their own accord, their obeisance and homage to their king, then their hands would have held only dust rubbed into the … Continue reading →

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Who am I to judge?

Posted on October 12, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

The judge of the parable had no regard for anyone, but the God who will pass judgement upon me so loved the world as to become Emmanuel, God with us, to suffer under our unjust judgement, and to die. The God who will, I pray, have mercy upon me hears the cries of the widows to whom I turn a cloth ear, and continues to importune me with opportunities for penitence.  Continue reading →

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