Tag Archives: Christmas Eve

The gift

Posted on December 23, 2022 by Rosalind C Hughes

Wrapped in flesh and tenderness – the fragile feet, the faltering hands – a hunger was born, squalling for a landscape flowing with milk and kindness. Little did the wise know, still less kings that this small and helpless this … Continue reading →

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Mary and Joseph’s no good, terrible, wonderful year

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

A homily for Christmas Eve, 2020 At the turning of the year, as the days began to push back against the pushiness of night; as the light grew longer and the shadows shorter, the people were going about their business … Continue reading →

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Making room

Posted on December 24, 2019 by Rosalind C Hughes

Still, into this tight and griping world, Jesus is born, with the effortful but determined, sometimes complicated but unanswerable, slow but urgent pangs of labour, the contract between heaven and earth that will not be denied. God finds room, becoming small enough to be swaddled and laid in a manger, as the glory of the new covenant splits open the skies and lets the angels loose. Continue reading →

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Christmas Eve: even unto Bethlehem

Posted on December 24, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

When we had had our fill of the manger, we headed out to the Shepherds’ Field, where the angels sang their Gloria, and announced peace to the weary and waiting world. Continue reading →

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I heard it from an angel …

Posted on December 21, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

“I heard it from an angel, who heard it from a shepherd, who heard it from his sheep, who heard it from a donkey, who heard it from an ox that you had a baby tonight. Continue reading →

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Christmas Eve 2017

Posted on December 25, 2017 by Rosalind C Hughes

As we contemplate the vulnerability of a God who would be born homeless, human, humble, we remember the power of love to change the world. Continue reading →

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Christmas Eve

Posted on December 24, 2016 by Rosalind C Hughes

A message for and from the Church of the Epiphany, Euclid, Ohio There’s something strange about the sign that the shepherds outside Bethlehem received that Christmas night so long ago. After all, if a choir of angels appears above the … Continue reading →

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Sermon for a Christmas Eve with pick-up pageant

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Rosalind C Hughes

This sermon was written for a Christmas Eve on which the Church of the Epiphany hosted a pick-up pageant, invited any and all children to come and pick out a costume to join in the play as they arrived in … 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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Saturday, December 24th: Christmas Eve

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Rosalind C Hughes

So here we are, at the end of Advent. “You have reached your destination,” as my GPS would optimistically put it, moments before we actually get there. There have been detours. There have been slow times, and smooth rides. And … Continue reading →

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