Ruth. Part 1.

Haiku to set up the story

A protest story.

Ruth, the faithful foreigner,

wife par excellence!

The story’s set up

with famine, and a welcome

in a foreign land.

The Hebrew brothers

marry local Moab girls,

then all the blokes die.

Widow Naomi

heads back home. Daughters-in-law

Ruth, Orpah, go too.

Naomi says: Go

back girls; and find new husbands

among your people.

My lot is bitter,

God has turned his back on me,

I have no future.

Orpah kissed good-bye.

Naomi commanded Ruth

to also return.

Don’t make me leave you,

said Ruth. Where you go, I go;

where you stay, I stay.

Your people are mine;

your God will be my God too.

Where you die, I die.

Death itself shall not

part me from you! Naomi

accepted Ruth's choice.

© Ken Rookes 2024

Sorry I spoke, God.

Haiku of vindication

Overwhelmed by God’s

magnificence, Job is forced

to humbly concede.

Compared to you, God,

I am an ignorant fool,

I’m sorry I spoke.

How can I question

your ways, O God? My knowledge

can’t compare with yours.

I had only heard

of you; now, having seen you,

I am mortified.

The story concludes

as Job’s fortunes are restored;

a happy ending!

The bit we missed.

After Job’s response

God agreed against Job’s friends;

Job had spoken truth.

Vindicated! Job

did not deserve to suffer;

he’d done nothing wrong.

A protest story:

Just because you’re suffering

doesn’t mean you’re bad.

Among the lessons

of this story: it’s okay

to argue with God.

© Ken Rookes 2024

Out of the whirlwind

Haiku of continued questions

At last God responds!

Hides God-self in a whirlwind;

very dramatic.

Questions, not answers.

God’s grandeur seems to excuse

him from answering

God holds all the cards,

suggests that Job is unwise

to ask such questions.

Make yourself ready

Job, almighty God’s about

to ask you questions.

God asks: Where were you

when I laid the foundations

of the earth? Tell me!

Who measured the earth

making sure all was in line?

Surely you know this?

Did you hear the stars

singing for joy when the world’s

cornerstone was laid?

We are impressed, God.

Hardly a fair contest, though;

you being divine!

Ken Rookes 2024

Why me, God?

 

Why me, God?

Haiku seeking answers

He hasn’t cursed God,

but Job doesn’t hold back in

voicing his complaint.

It’s simply not fair;

I’ve done nothing wrong, I don’t

deserve this treatment.

Why is God hiding?

I want to argue my case,

hear what he would say.

I keep asking, Why?

I am upright, tell me, God,

why I must suffer.

God holds all the cards.

If he listened to me he’d

find me innocent.

But I can’t find God.

I look front, back, left and right;

I cannot see him!

I have had enough!

My heart faints. Let me vanish

into the darkness.

Ken Rookes 2024

Under attack

Christianity is under attack! they cry.

I respond inwardly, keeping my thoughts to myself.

Good! It has been ever so,

or at least, it should have been.

I will join in the attack,

there is so much that denies the kingdom,

so much that despises the words

that we declare came from the carpenter’s lips.

He was up-front with his followers,

told how he would suffer, be put to death

for the words he spoke, the things he did.

Said they could expect the same.

We are frightened

watching with alarm as the privileges of our glorious past

are challenged and slowly stripped away.

This cannot be God’s will! Surely this is not right!

But, perhaps it is right;

maybe it is God’s will. When all else is removed;

when what remains of Christianity

is love, bleeding and incarnate,

then we might be said to have arrived

at the gates of the kingdom,

and we should have cause to rejoice.

Ken Rookes 2024