Tag Archives: Jesus

Year A Proper 22: parables and other stories

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

There is a kind of through the looking glass feel to this parable. If you think of the classic fairy tale structure, where a king sends three messengers on a quest to redeem his belongings, in this case the wine … Continue reading →

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Year A Proper 21: By whose authority?

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

Rarely does Jesus give a straight answer to a straight question; but rarely, too, is he quite as direct about his indirection as he is here. Leading to the following reflection: Can you imagine being Jesus’ mother? I don’t mean … Continue reading →

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Year A Proper 20: Jonah and anti-Jonah

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

Poor, petulant Jonah. If he couldn’t give the Ninevites hell, he wanted to at least give them purgatory. I’ve done all of this work, he said, endured all of this drama: the running away the wailing and gnashing of teeth, … Continue reading →

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Who do you say that I am?

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

One with the patience to measure the countless millimetres between here and eternity; his father taught him to measure twice, cut once. He would joke around the workshop that he had come to bring not peace, but a saw; brandishing, … Continue reading →

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When is a door not a door?

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

Jesus is posing his listeners a riddle when he talks of himself in the language of the sheep pen. We only get part of the passage today; we don’t hear Jesus, today, call himself the Good Shepherd. That comes immediately … Continue reading →

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Year A Easter 2: Thus and so

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

“But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.” So says Peter to the masses of the Jewish people gathered in Jerusalem in the aftermath of the … Continue reading →

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PTSD Jesus

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

When he was raised, he bore the marks, which must mean he remembered. Then does each adulterous kiss make him wince at its betrayal; each flash of the needle, of the knife make him flinch? Does he recoil at the … Continue reading →

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Maundy Thursday: footprints

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

Almost all of you have heard this poem at one time or another, or seen it printed on pretty pages in the inspirational section of the bookstore or Christian gift shop. I refer, of course, to the both famous and … Continue reading →

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A sermon for the Palms and the Passion

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

At the beginning, the tempter had urged him to make bread, to bow down, to throw himself from the temple and be saved by the angels. In the end, the people would taunt him and tempt him to leave his … Continue reading →

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Year A Lent 5: Lazarus and other resurrections

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Rosalind C Hughes

Of course, they all would ask him about it, after the event. What was it like, being dead? Lazarus would tell them, “I don’t know what I can say to you about that. I can tell you what it was … Continue reading →

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