Tag Archives: Christ

Karl Barth, St Paul, and the stickiness of sin

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

“Who … is aware of man’s real wretchedness, save he who is aware of God’s mercy?” Barth lectured his students in Bonn. We know our sin, we are convicted of it, Paul discovered his error in persecuting the followers of Jesus only when he was confronted by the living Christ himself, the revelation and reality of God’s saving mercy. Continue reading →

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Advent (the second coming)

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

There is no cloud of glory can define, no gates of heaven can confine; there is no dogma, doggerel, or doctrine can describe, no earnest imitation reinscribe him.  Christ’s coming cannot be constrained or restrained by our rituals of mortality.Our candles are dimmed, our illuminated manuscripts … Continue reading →

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Bless, and do not curse or kill

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

Peter is angry, I’m angry, and we each struggle to see the way forward.
Then there’s Jesus.
Do not set your mind on earthly things, he admonishes. Don’t get mired in anger and defeat. Do heal the sick, do bring good news to the poor, do raise up the broken-hearted; but don’t confuse crucifixion with failure. Continue reading →

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Fraction

Posted on June 15, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

The crack of the communion host like a whip, like bone, like the click of handcuffs; how far we have roamed from the upper room: warm bread softly torn, love-fuelled bodies, blood fired by passion’s wine. You come to us … Continue reading →

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Year B Easter 7: outside agitators and inside voices

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Rosalind C Hughes

The leaders in Jerusalem, religious and secular, were anticipating with no small degree of anxiety next weekend’s Festival of Weeks, or Pentecost, so called because it fell fifty (pente) days after Passover; a full week of weeks since death was … Continue reading →

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Healing the holidays homily 2014 edition: holding out on hope

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

Six months before the Angel Gabriel to earth came down, as the story goes, he was hanging out in Jerusalem, visiting with Zechariah. Zechariah and Elizabeth were much older than Mary – which is not to say that the young … Continue reading →

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John of Damascus

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

A homily for Evensong at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland. In a characteristically involving novel, Kazuo Ishiguro broached the subject of souls. I don’t want to give too much away, in case you still want to read the book or see the … 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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Seven Psalms: A meditation for Good Friday

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

Psalm 55:13-14 If it had been an adversary who taunted me, then I could have borne it; or had it been an enemy who vaunted himself against me, then I could have hidden from him. But it was you, a … Continue reading →

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Epiphany – a showing forth

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Rosalind C Hughes

What did they find amid the mess of humanity, dispersed, dislocated, de facto dispossessed by a collaborative cabal from within and without the wall; a mess of humanity birthed in the mire of the base realm which we inhabit – … Continue reading →

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