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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing, by Rosalind C Hughes, is available from Upper Room Books.
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Tag Archives: COVID-19
Mary and Joseph’s no good, terrible, wonderful year
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
Comfort; comfort my people
The good news of Jesus Christ begins with a voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way, make straight the paths.” The straight and clear way to prepare love this Christmas is to stay at home. Continue reading
Posted in Advent Meditations, sermon
Tagged 2 Peter 3:8-15, Advent 2 Year B, Christmas, COVID-19, Isaiah 40:1-11, St Nicolas
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On judgement
Only the unjust know no shame, and say that because God does not change the dynamic of cause and effect, but lets us lead human lives of substance, agency, and consequence; only the foolish say that this means that God, our Judge and our Redeemer, does not notice nor care what goes on in our hearts, nor in our homes, nor in our nation. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, COVID-19, Jesus, judgement, karma, racism, Year A Proper 28, Zephaniah 1, Zephaniah 3
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Promise and practice
Promises require practice. It is our call and our promise to bring comfort to the broken-hearted, to make peace without sacrificing justice, or mercy, for peace cannot survive without them. … It is our call, and our promise, to resist evil, to proclaim the gospel by word and practice, to serve our neighbour as Christ himself, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being. And God promises us eternal life and an end to this separation, this wrenching of the spirit, not because we do these things, but because Christ does these things. Continue reading
Posted in current events, Holy Days, sermon
Tagged All Saints, baptism, beatitudes, COVID-19, election, grief, Matthew 5:1-12, Romans 8:38-39
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Word, will, work
A sermon for September 27, 2020, at the Church of the Epiphany, Euclid, Ohio. This week Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lay in state at the Capitol. The US passed a grim milestone with 200,000 deaths from COVID-19. One … Continue reading
Elements of creation, currency of compassion
What would we pay to defray the risk of storing explosive chemicals among people’s living spaces? What would we give for an economy that could never be said to depend upon a thousand deaths per day from pandemic to stay afloat? What would we confront in order to be able to offer a cup of clean water to the children of Flint?
What would it take for us to get out of the boat? Continue reading
Free will and freedom
We know from our faith that freedom from tyranny means the freedom not to tyrannize.
Freedom from fear means the freedom not to frighten.
Freedom from oppression offers the freedom not to oppress.
We know from our history that freedom from discrimination only works if we claim the freedom to undo, unravel, repent and repair the damage that has already been done. Continue reading
Posted in current events, sermon
Tagged COVID-19, Independence Day, Matthew 11:16-19 and 25-30, Romans 7:15-25, Zechariah 9:9-12
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The colour of God
We do not hear the word “slave” in the same language as Paul wrote it. We don’t even hear it in the same way as one another. Because of our place in the world, we cannot help but hear the language of slavery in Black and White. Whomever we claim as our ancestors, we cannot hear the word, “slave,” without our history colouring it in.
I can’t speak for others, but I can tell you that is a particular, spiritual problem for people who look like me. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged COVID-19, Lenny Duncan, Luke 4:18-19, Romans 6:23, slavery, Year A Proper 8
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Another Pentecost
How quickly the crowd turned from Hosanna to Crucify; from hearing the miracle of the Holy Spirit poured out upon God’s chosen ones to proclaim salvation to writing them off as a dangerous and drunken mob.
But those who remained to listen learned something that day about the nature of God’s mercy, and the love of God that would go even to the Cross for us; love that would suffer in solidarity with the oppressed, the undermined, the unjustly executed, the betrayed. Continue reading
Posted in current events, Holy Days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, George Floyd, Holy Spirit, Pentecost
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Preaching Pentecost
More than 100,000 people have died in the US of COVID-19.
Nearly 360,000 people have died from the disease worldwide. Close to 6 million cases have been confirmed overall.
George Floyd died after saying, “I can’t breathe,” as a police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. Continue reading
Posted in current events, Holy Days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged COVID-19, George Floyd, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Minneapolis, Pentecost
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