All rights reserved
© Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, 2011-2026. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
https://bookstore.upperroom.org/Products/1921/a-family-like-mine.aspxWhom Shall I Fear: Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence
https://www.amazon.com/Whom-Shall-Fear-Questions-Christians/dp/0835819671-
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
RevGalBlogPals
Meta
Category Archives: story
What is the church for?
How do we let people know that we are here for them? Not, as James said a couple of weeks ago, only if they are properly turned out and prompt in their arrival, if they know their way around the service, and sing in tune. I love that in my twelve years with you, there have always been people who come late, leave early, get up and stretch mid-service, act like human beings in the middle of divine worship. Just as Jesus became human with us. And that matters, so much, that we can be human in church, drawn toward the one in whose image we all share. How else do we let people know that we are here if they are sick, if they are suffering, if they are singing, if they are sighing, that they can be human here? Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged Christianity, church, faith, God, human, James 5:13-20, Jesus, worship, Year B Proper 21
Leave a comment
The ship
A sermon on Mark 4:35-41 – Jesus stills the storm Jesus, do you not care that we are perishing? Many years ago, as I was preparing for ordination, I was assigned to do fieldwork at a church far, far … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged church, Mark 4:35-41, storm, vocation, Word of God, Year B Proper 7
Leave a comment
Perpetua and her companions
It is always a question, isn’t it, when we read of these martyrs, what we would do? How we would face the crisis, the challenge to our faith, the pleas of friends and family to save ourselves, to care for our own interests – or theirs – in place of the way of the Cross. Continue reading
War
I want to write about the unbearable irony of dry breasts in a land of milk and honey, the bitter taste of hunger among the olive groves, but I am not qualified. Instead, I will contemplate the crumpled faces of … Continue reading
Posted in current events, poetry, story
Tagged Gaza, Holy Week, hunger, Israel, Jerusalem, Jesus, Luke 23:29, promised land, starvation, war
Leave a comment
Perspective
Writing the annual report like teaching a child to draw perspective, moulding a year into blocks, trying to keep to scale but death is slippery and shows between the lines; grief will not hold its shape. Joy alone stays along … Continue reading
Posted in poetry, story
Tagged annual meeting, annual report, church, grief, joy, writing
Leave a comment
It is the Lord: Come and see
Evangelism, Year B Epiphany 2, 1 Samuel 3, John 1:43-51, Nathanael, Philip, Eli, Samuel, church hurt, church healing Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Leave a comment
The erosion of innocence
Every night, we listened to the rockets fall. The one night that all was quiet, no one could sleep. Still, the most danger I fell into that summer was from the heat, high waters, and the inappropriate appetites of certain men. One evening I sat on the hillside with my arm around a friendly Doberman who had planted himself between my body and that of a young man who had tried to separate me from the herd. I felt safe. Continue reading
Posted in current events, story
Leave a comment
Two or three
Two or three: Jesus why are you afraid to be too alone with me? ______________ #preparingforSundaywithpoetry. This Sunday’s Gospel is full of numbers – no, not of numbers, of people, unalone. Matthew 18:15-20
Walking on water
Heartracing like the tideebbing and flowing withoutvolition, permissionbattering this vesselbattered by the moonand its phasesfading Do not be afraidof ghostsconjured of foamand fearsome prayer on the cusp of translation Takea stepmy handmy life and let it betake heartthe storm by … Continue reading
A new creation
You know the saying, that the leopard cannot change his spots. A thistle cannot become a fig tree. But there is one, there is one who can make all things new. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged covenant, Genesis 15:1-18, Matthew 7:15-20, new creation
Leave a comment
