Tag Archives: Epiphany

Epiphany: the Lord shall arise upon you

Posted on January 6, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

If we find ourselves in darkness for a season, we have no need to be afraid of it, for Christ is with us, for darkness is the womb of God. If we find ourselves uncertain of the way forward, the heavens clouded and the north star shrouded, we have seen a light that is not distant from us, not hidden in the heavens or shrouded by clouds of grief or of glory, but borne among us, wherever the love of God is remembered, and the child of God attended with mercy and justice and humility. Continue reading →

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The Magi by Night

Posted on January 5, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

They travelled by night.
They followed his star, meaning
they had to wait for darkness to fall as a mantle
about their shoulders to know the way; Continue reading →

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Not there yet

Posted on January 3, 2021 by Rosalind C Hughes

In recent months, we turned 2020 into a scapegoat, piled on our woes: a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, health worries, the inability of our election magically to make everyone finally agree; even murder hornets. But the year has turned, and has a new name, and we are still some way from the solid ground of familiarity, of home. … It’s going to take patience to find our new beginnings this year. Continue reading →

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Epiphany 2020: First, do no harm

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

If we are people of the Epiphany, then we, too, are stargazers. We have been told, commissioned by angels and dreams, to find another road. We worship the Prince of Peace in a world at war. We would rather offer gifts of gold to helpless babies than bribes to politicians or kings. We find truth in the gospel of love rather than the mantra of success. We worship the God of the manger and the Christ of the Cross. We follow Christ through the empty tomb, knowing that the star can take us only so far. Continue reading →

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Star of Bethlehem

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Rosalind C Hughes

I scour the skies to find The light shines in the darkness a false star rising and the darkness did not overcome it haloed with fire power When they saw that the star had stopped (not everything that wears (he … Continue reading →

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The people’s epiphany

Posted on January 6, 2019 by Rosalind C Hughes

When the wise men came to Herod with the news of a saviour, the establishment replied, “Yes, but that is not how we do things here. We know that God has promised something new, but we are happy with the old ways.” One doesn’t have to be as mad and as murderous as Herod in order to shoot down initiatives and new ideas that might, in fact, have been inspired by the heavens. Continue reading →

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Epiphany: we need another way

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Rosalind C Hughes

What I didn’t write in the parish newsletter This Sunday, we celebrate the arrival of the Wise Men at the manger; the completion of many a Christmas tableau. On Christmas Eve, we pondered a moment how the birth of a … Continue reading →

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A fleeting vision of glory

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

If Epiphany is about its revealing, then Lent is about our looking for it; but we have the assurance, as we enter the search, the forty days of wilderness wandering, that it has already been found, and that God, the God of Abraham and Hagar, of Ismael, Moses, and Elijah, the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ will not let us wander alone, nor fail if we falter. Continue reading →

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This is not Sunday’s sermon

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

On Sunday, I may speak of mountaintop miracles, the art of the divine fuller, bleaching all blemishes out of our vision of God Incarnate, revealing glory. But today is Friday. The week was long and the mountain high and hard. … Continue reading →

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Holy innocents

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Rosalind C Hughes

Their wisdom was not wanted by the powers that be, in case it would unseat their certainty of their own anointed state. Warned in a dream, they went home another way, pursued by rumours of mothers kneeling in the ashes of … Continue reading →

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