Enemies

Enemies




We need enemies.

People we can fear and mistrust.

And hate. Against whom we can unite

our efforts and our souls.



Look, can you see them;

those ones, over there, they don’t

share our values at all. They threaten the way of life

that God has given us and that our comfort has blessed.

They are dangerous.



Yes them;

Let us take up our arms,

our pens and our umbrage

and demand that they are suitably confronted,

confounded and called to account.

Feel the pleasing warmth of our cultivated outrage;

enjoy the convenience of enemies.



Even Jesus had enemies,

People who opposed his work,

ones against whom he felt he had to stand;

but perhaps fewer than we might have thought.

Passing up the opportunity of rallying his supporters

and joining in their fears,

he is said to have once declared

that “whoever is not against us

is for us.”

No wonder he was such a failure.



© Ken Rookes 2012

Stumbling blocks

My hand, my foot, my eye;

yes, from time to time

and on occasions, each of these

causes me to stumble.

Other parts too, including some

which my innate sense of decorum

precludes me mentioning.

My brain is the worst,

harbouring, as it does,

my quest for comfort,

my desire for a quiet life,

and those thoughts

which might properly be described

as lustful.

Shall I cut them off, or tear them out,

as the gospel writers suggest?

But I no longer believe in hell,

and my brain might be considered

a somewhat essential organ;

and it appears that my selfish desires

are as much a part of my core being

as any proclivities towards goodness,

love and generosity.

This latter group of worthy aspects

are, I like to think, fruits

of a discipleship choice I have made

to follow one who is truth.

These qualities I try to cultivate;

the others, I strive to keep in check.

Everything else is grace.

© Ken Rookes 2012

suffer the little children

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4539/Suffer_the_Little_Children_to_Come_unto_Me_Laisser_venir_%C3%A0_moi_les_petits_enfants

the kid understands

let the little children come to me

children are something like communion

If we are to take seriously what Jesus is saying here, these children are to us something like what the bread and wine is to us at communion — signs of the life of God — signs which we can receive unworthily and mindlessly, or in which we can recognise the fragile presence of God and receive as both a gift and a call to totally reorient our lives. Perhaps the main difference is that, unlike the bread and wine, the children will detect how we regard them and respond in ways that reveal the truth. You can’t fake it with children. They pick up very quickly who loves them and treats them with joy and respect, and who sentimentalises them and patronises them in a parody of care, and who simply pushes them aside. When Jesus wanted to illustrate his point with a child, there was one close at hand and only to happy to hop onto his lap. Kids were always coming to Jesus, despite the best efforts of adults who thought them too unimportant. The kids knew that Jesus took them seriously and that they were safe with him. That’s all he’s asking of us. Simple request.  Probably a lifetime project to live it out. But the realm of God is like that!

http://www.laughingbird.net/SermonTexts/0312.html

Who will be the greatest?

Every four years

the Christians put aside

their differences to gather

at the Discipleship Olympics.

There they contend with each other

to determine who is the greatest.

The rivalry is fierce,

with acolytes punishing their bodies

and exercising their minds for many years

even to prove worthy of selection.

After days of contesting, measuring,

personal-best scores, fingernail finishes

and acts of heroism and sacrifice;

after countless stories of love,

devotion, triumph over adversity,

courage, heartache and disappointment,

winners are declared.

Flagpoles are readied, anthems are cued

and the victorious ones are called

to stand behind the podium

and await the invitation to ascend.

Before they can do so,

a group of children,

playful, unkempt and disorderly,

is herded before them.

The medals are presented

to the children, who play with them,

laugh, and take turns

in having their pictures taken.

© Ken Rookes 2012

So also the tongue

So also the tongue

James 3:5-10

The heart is hungry,

the tongue is its servant.

“More, more,” it cries,

even though it has never missed a meal

and knows that the storehouses overflow.

The heart is greedy;

the tongue insists,

“I know what is best

for your well-being.

Trust me, make me your king;

these others are fools.”

The mines thrust deeper

to ravage red earth,

forests are levelled,

while quarries gobble their way

to the horizon and beyond.

The heart is never satisfied.

“More, more!” the tongue shouts

at gargantuan dozers and digging machines;

“Less, less!” the tongue protests against

the people and their taxes.

They are an inconvenience, undeserving;

annoying obstacles to the heart’s

never-ending lusts.

The heart will never have enough,

even as multiple tongues bring

their restless evil workings

to the task.

© Ken Rookes 2012

The Gospel

"It seems to me that it is a minority that ever gets the true and full Gospel. We just keep worshiping Jesus and arguing over the exact right way to do it. The amazing thing is that Jesus never once says, “worship me!”, but he often says, “follow me” (e.g., Matthew 4:19). Christianity is a lifestyle—a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, inclusive, and loving. We made it, however, into a formal established religion, in order to avoid the demanding lifestyle itself. One could then be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain at the highest levels of the church, and still easily believe that Jesus is “my personal Lord and Savior.” The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great." http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--Compassionate-Action----September-8--2012.html?soid=1103098668616&aid=0dakmIEvssw

the healing of acceptance

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body      
love what it loves.Tell me about despair, 
yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, 
high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, 
harsh and exciting 
–over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
-Mary Oliver

Definition of ephphatha.

EPHPHATHA - ef'-a-tha, ef-a'-tha (Ephphatha): Aramaic word used by Christ (Mk 7:34), the 'ethpa`al imperative of Aramaic pethach (Hebrew pathach), translated, "Be (thou) opened"; compare Isa 35:5. The Aramaic was the sole popular language of Palestine (Shurer, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, IIg, 9) and its use shows that we have here the graphic report of an eyewitness, upon whom the dialectic form employed made a deep impression. This and the corresponding act of the touch with the moistened finger is the foundation of a corresponding ceremony in the church’s formula for baptism.

http://classic.net.bible.org/dictionary.php?word=Ephphatha

be opened icon

Ephphatha

Speech impediment

We have a collective problem

with our hearing, our seeing, too.

There are sounds that we struggle to hear,

sights that our eyes refuse to see.

There are certain frequencies,

cries, groans and wailings,

that auditory senses fail to discern

above our chosen and familiar din.

There are vistas pleasant and reassuring,

scenes of blue skies and gum trees;

with these we make pretty our walls,

convincing ourselves

that cruel and confronting landscapes

in territories beyond our own,

either do not exist

or are none of our concern.

Hear no evil, see no evil;

not my problem.

The denials of sensory perception

are employed to foster

an untroubled existence.

Thus we avert the need

to speak, to act, to confront,

and our voices become forfeit.

In the blurry stories of human origins,

a mythical man

demonstrates the timelessness

of speech impediments.

In feigned innocence, he enquires:

Am I my brother’s keeper?

Jesus, we are told, came

to open the eyes of the blind,

to unstop the ears of the deaf,

and to release the tongues

of those who will not speak.

Pick me, Jesus;

pick me!

© Ken Rookes 2012