Small voice

Responding to 1 Kings 19

Haiku of hope

He's in deep trouble,

Elijah. Happens when you

stand against evil.

Jezebel the queen

sends word: Sort out your affairs;

tomorrow you die.

Elijah shoots through,

fleeing for his life. Frightened?

What do you reckon?

He left his servant

at Beer Sheba and headed

off into the bush.

After a day's march

he cried: Let me die, O Lord,

I have had enough!

He got up, ate, drank,

and travelled forty more days;

reaching mount Horeb.

In a cave God spoke:

Why have you come, Elijah?

They seek my life, Lord.

They turned from you, God,

they have pulled down your altars,

and killed your prophets.

Go to the entrance

of the cave. Watch; you will see,

your Lord passing by.

A great wind split rocks,

an earthquake shook the mountain,

and then came a fire.

Sheer silence followed.

In the silence God is found,

not in flash display.

Return Elijah;

it will be all right. Know this;

you are not alone.

© Ken Rookes 2025

Elijah is taken up

Haiku for a succession

The aging prophet,

Elijah, was on the move;

Gilgal to Bethal.

He told Elisha,

Wait here. No, said his junior,

I will not leave you.

The local prophets

announce: This day your master

will depart! I know.

The action repeats.

Bethel, Jericho and Jordan;

they all have a go.

Rolling his mantle

Elijah struck the water.

The Jordan parted.

The old prophet asked

Elisha, Make a request

before I depart.

A double portion

of your spirit! That my friend

is quite a big ask.

If you can see me

as I am taken from you,

it will be granted.

Chariot, horses

of fire separated them;

and then the whirlwind.

Father, my father!

he cried, as the old prophet

ascended on high.

© Ken Rookes 2024

Handing over

 

Haiku of succession

Succession planning

is a challenge. Elijah

somehow managed it.

I will not leave you

Elisha declared, when his

master’s time drew near.

Gilgal to Bethel,

then to the Jordan they went,

inseparable.

What would you have me

do for you? A double share

of your spirit, please.

As they walked and talked

a chariot descended,

fiery, between them.

Elijah ascends

in the whirlwind, Elisha

calls out: My Father!

Elisha takes up

the fallen mantle, also

the prophet’s worries.

© Ken Rookes 2002

I'm focusing on the Old Testament for a while. For a gospel response, check the archives for a similar time in 2013, 2016 or 2019

Sheer silence

 Haiku for the fearful

Fearful Elijah

receiving Jezebel’s threat,

decides to clear out.

Hiding in a cave

on the holy Mount Horeb

he hears God’s question.

I have done your will,

Lord, and my life is at risk,

so I ran away.

Stand on the mountain,

wait and watch, because the Lord

is about to pass.

In turn, a great wind,

an earthquake and fire surround;

God is not in them.

A sound of silence,

sheer and still, tells Elijah

that the Lord is here.

In silence, stillness,

mystery; God’s voice. Questions;

perhaps some answers.

The question is asked,

and answered. Return, Prophet,

and get on with it.

© Ken Rookes 2022

Heaven has come close

Haiku of illumination

Four of them, climbing

the mountain of destiny;

Jesus and some mates.

While he was praying

his face became altered, white,

dazzling and bright.

A conversation,

Moses, Elijah, Jesus,

speaking of the end.

Heaven has come close,

the divine and the human

weaving together.

There is glory here,

a glimpse before the end, when

fullness is revealed.

The descending cloud

overshadows, a voice speaks;

My Son: hear his words!

The cloud lifts. Only

Jesus remains. He tells them,

Do not speak of this.

Only at the end,

Beyond the cross and the tomb

will they understand.

© Ken Rookes 2022

Dazzling White

 

Surprising haiku

Transfiguration,

that’s what we call the event;

filled with wonder, light.

Peter, James and John;

mates of Jesus, went with him

up a high mountain.

Some sort of vision,

collective experience

shared by one and all.

Jesus was glowing,

dazzling white like bleached cloth

shining in the sun.

Moses, Elijah;

law-giver, prophet; join him

in conversation.

Perhaps they talk death;

the two long buried, and one

still facing his own.

His mates are flummoxed,

don’t know what to say. Better

not to have spoken.

A cloud and a voice

bring the scene to its climax:

My Son: Hear his words!

© Ken Rookes 2021

The mountain was high

Haiku of illumination

The mountain was high,

according to Matthew’s text.

Four friends made the climb.

Mystery mountain

cloaked in energy and light;

Jesus shining bright.

Moses, man of law,

talking with the carpenter

and comparing notes.

Prophet Elijah

enters the conversation,

gives his two-bob’s worth.

Jesus, fulfilment

of the law and the prophets.

Illumination.

Further approval

in the voice and shining cloud:

Listen to my Son!

Some who name him, Lord,

forget his command to love.

They will not listen.

Surpassing the Law

and greater than the prophets:

Jesus’ words of love.

© Ken Rookes 2020

Intimations

Intimations

Haiku of wonder

Transfiguration

intimations of glory;

he must be the one.

Great stories are told

to further prove the greatness

of one we call Christ.

The stage is prepared:

for a sacred drama, here,

upon a mountain.

Lots of heavy stuff

happens high up in mountains;

just ask Elijah.

Elijah is there,

along with Moses, talking

with Jesus, shining.

Prophet, lawmaker,

they converse with one who will

surpass both of them.

The cloud voice echoes:

this is my Son, the chosen,

listen to his voice.

His bewildered friends

have no idea what it means,

or who they follow.

The story is told

across two millennia;

and still we wonder.

© Ken Rookes 2019

His face shone like the sun

Haiku of fear and bewilderment

A small, select group

go hiking up a mountain

to admire the view.

A vision of light.

His face, it burns like the sun,

his clothes dazzle white.

Jesus shines, commands

his friends' attention; as if

words were not enough.

Jesus greets Moses

and Elijah, consulting

with history

The cloud of bright light

descends and immerses them

into mystery.

The cloud finds its voice:

This is my beloved son;

what he says is true.

The disciples quake,

with bewilderment and fear.

They fall to the ground.

They are left alone.

Jesus comes to them and speaks:

Do not be afraid.

Making their descent,

he instructs them: Tell no-one

'til death is conquered.

© Ken Rookes 2017

I read a very powerful sermon about this reading, in was a powerful warning to preachers everywhere. This preacher was preparing his sermon to preach to a congregation where he knew there were a couple of parents who were mourning the death of their infant son. He knew he could not preach any sort of sermon that made shallow promises about God’s provision in the face of despair. So he preached what I have heard many times from my Father. He preached about a God who knows brokenness and despair and travels with us into the face of death, and can yet bring life. This is a warning that we should not be tempted here or elsewhere to thing that this story is about a magic trick, it is about the presence of the divine and that is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Elijah and the Widow

This reading sits firmly within the Middle Eastern spirituality that says that one must always make provision for the stranger. Hospitality is not just manners it is an obligation. When a ragged stranger turns up on the widow’s doorstep looking for food, little as she has, she must help! No such thing here as fear of the stranger or the refugee, the law of faith is that, little though she has, she must help!

When the New Testament book to the Hebrews says: Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. It is quoting ancient sayings and practice.

 Elijah meets a widow who is in such desperate circumstances that she is making preparations to cook what she believes will be the final meal before she and her son, with nothing left to sustain them, starve to death. Elijah comes to them asking for food and drink and though we might see him as arrogant, he was only doing what was normal and appropriate in his culture at the time. He was fully entitled to ask for such help from a stranger and to expect assistance.

The glory of God

"In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul indicated that he believed that each of us has the same brilliant light of the glory of God present within us. The glory of God is shown in goodness. The glory of God within us is shown in our goodness. While it is unlikely ever to shine from us to the degree that it did from Jesus that day on the mountain, never- the –less it still can and does show in us, in every living creature and in all creation when we are being who we were created to be and when we are loving and caring. In Genesis 1 we are told that as God completed different parts of creation, God declared them good and when God had created humans, God declared they were very good. All creation and especially us, reflect God’s glory.

For centuries our mantle of goodness has been shrouded by the cloak of emphasis on sin that has been laid on us all as the church has only been interested in us seeing ourselves as sinners and not as blessed prophets of God in the line of Moses, Elijah and Elisha.

The appearance of the light of the glory of God within every person has been dimmed because of this. Like the disciples, we haven’t been listening carefully to what Jesus has been trying to tell us. Like Peter, our own agendas often obscure the true reality of Christ. And when we don’t listen to God, we probably don’t listen to those around us either. We may fail to hear their anguish and to follow Jesus’ example in trying to eliminate the causes of pain and suffering in our communities and the world.

We, like Elisha have been blessed with the Spirit that was in both Elijah and Jesus. We are in effect, witnesses to Jesus death and Jesus told his followers that they would do greater things than he did. The mantle of Jesus has been passed on to us. In grief and in joy, we have been blessed. Let’s listen to Christ and work to show people and all creation, the Good News of God."

Rev Julianne Parker

for full sermon see sermons page

The Sounds of silence

The silence of the Church in the 21st Century is deafening. Perhaps the silence rises and grows because the call from the liberal church for inclusive, distributive justice is drowned out by the fundamentalists’ exclusive, retributive message, which the media have assumed defines “Christianity.”
No wonder old Elijah emerged from the silence in such a negative state that God had to act to replace him.

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the signs said, the words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whispered in the sounds of silence.

Christian “faith” has become believing in magic: walking on water, calming storms, curing terminal illness, finding parking places. While there are no magic wands or crystal balls, the cross has nevertheless conveyed magic power.
Christian “faith” is not just about Jesus coming back from the dead, nor is it about avoiding death altogether. Christian “faith” is trust in God as the source of Mercy, Hope, justice and compassion that holds sway in the Universe, despite us and sometimes through us.
Similarly the story in the gospel today about Jesus walking on the water is not about magic, even God’s magic, it is about the deeper truth that, even when we feel like we are sinking, or that God is absent or silent, God is still present to us and our distress and will walk with us and hold us up.

The news everyday is telling us that all is going to rack and ruin, but the gospel message is that God in Christ is moving all things to reconciliation and renewal.

And it is in the strength of that, with the strength of that vision that we continue to do the things we do.

The church’s call is to be that fellowship of reconciliation and renewal. 

Elijah

God is in the silence

"Message? God wasn't in the sound bites. God was in the silence bites. The word for which Elijah was listening wasn't in the sound bites of earthquake, wind, and fire. God's word came to him in the silence bite that followed. Since we're so long familiar with the King James version of Scripture, the translation of the Hebrew phrase as a still small voice has become treasured language in terms of how we understand God speaking to us, but the original Hebrew says sheer silence, utter silence. Could it be that silence, sheer silence, is very often the necessary prerequisite for hearing the still, small voice of God? Sound bites serve to get our attention. Politicians and advertisers and, admittedly, sometimes even we preachers, capitalize on that and use sound bites. And they may get our attention, but we pay attention in the silence bites. The noise of earthquake, wind, and fire got Elijah's attention so that he was prepared to pay attention in the silence.

As the poet John Ciardi has said, "We are what we do with our attention." We are what we do with our attention. Silence is pregnant with the presence of God. Pay attention."

fromhttp://day1.org/459-silence_bites

The Sounds of silence

I think that Paul Simon's words apply to the experience of Elijah in the lectionary reading from 1 kings. The 'still small voice' is more properly translated as a gentle sound or a whisper or even the sound of silence.


"Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence