Don't remain angry

 

Don’t remain angry

Haiku of realisation and repentance

You’re elusive, God,

time you made your presence felt,

made the mountains quake!

Make a big display,

cause the nations to tremble;

make them take notice.

No God except you

has ever been seen or heard

throughout the ages.

Those who wait for God

find themselves in God’s presence;

they do what is right.

We made you angry

when we sinned. We were unclean;

and you hid yourself.

Our righteous deeds, they

are nothing, they cling to us

like a filthy cloth.

We fade, like a leaf.

Cut off from you, the wind blows

us away. We die.

You are our Father,

the potter who shapes our lives;

your hand has made us.

Don’t remain angry,

Lord, or remember our sins;

we are your people.

© Ken Rookes 2023

At one

 

Haiku for the flock

It is wintertime

in Solomon’s portico.

They come to Jesus.

Delay no longer,

answer us plainly: Are you

he, the Christ from God?

Why are you asking?

I have told you already;

you will not believe.

The works that I do

are done in my Father’s name;

you cannot see it.

You do not belong

to my sheep. My sheep can hear

my voice. I know them.

My sheep follow me.

I give them life eternal,

they will not perish.

My Father gives them

to me; my sheep. The Father

and I are at one.

Ken Rookes 2022

All mine are yours

Haiku of departure

He calls God ‘Father’

inviting his friends to share

the intimacy.

He keeps his father’s

trust; the men and the women

he took to himself.

Not one of them lost.

He embraces them in love,

giving protection.

Their home is not here

amidst earth’s dust and despair,

but with the Father.

Here, amidst earth’s dust

is the place of struggle, where

love is made concrete.

I made known your word,

they are holy through your truth.

Father, keep them safe.

Here, amidst earth’s dust

they must go on, without me;

making the love real.

The joy is complete

when love, truth, witness and word

are come together.

© Ken Rookes 2021

 

Protect, keep them safe.

Haiku for persevering.

This eternal life

is given to all of you;

you who are my friends.

Life that’s full and true;

forget the hereafter, this

is eternal life.

The hour has come near,

we’re coming to the climax;

glorify your Son.

The work is finished,

well, almost. Shadows lengthen,

the darkness threatens.

You gave them to me,

I made your name known to them,

they have kept your word.

What are mine are yours;

when I am with them no more

hold them in your hand.

They remain earth-bound;

here they must live out their faith

with courage and love.

Protect them, Father;

let them be as one, just as

you and I are one.

© Ken Rookes 2020

But you will see me

Haiku of abiding

Prove that you love me,

you who are my disciples;

keep my commandments.

What was that command

that he gave to all his friends?

Something about love.

I’ll ask the Father.

He will send the Advocate;

with you for ever.

The Spirit of truth;

you know him, he is with you.

He will be in you.

Soon I will be gone,

the world will cease to see me,

but you will see me.

You, friends, will see me.

Life and love are found in me;

you also will live.

I in my Father,

you in me and I in you;

much shared indwelling.

Prove that you love me

by keeping my commandments.

Love will unite us.

© Ken Rookes 2020

In my Father's house

Haiku of the Way

In my Father’s house

there are rooms for all of you;

put your trust in me.

I go on ahead

to prepare a place for you.

You will be with me.

Lord we do not know

where it is you’re going to;

What will be the way?

Friends, I am the way;

truth and life are found in me.

Come, meet my Father.

Show us the Father!

I’ve been with you all this time,

and you still don’t know?

Whoever sees me

sees the Father. My words and

works are from him.

Those who trust in me

will continue what I do,

even greater things!

© Ken Rookes 2020

No exceptions allowed

           "There is an internal logic to the Christian good news. Since God "created all things in heaven and on earth" (Colossians 1:16), seeks the worship of all "things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth" (Philippians 2:9–11), intends to "reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven" (Colossians 1:20), will sum up or bring together "all things in heaven and on earth" (Ephesians 1:10), then of course God delights in bestowing his fatherly favor on "the whole human family in heaven and on earth" (Ephesians 3:15). The Psalm for this week makes just this point: "The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made" (Psalm 145:9). In fact, the words "all" and "every" occur eighteen times in this Psalm 145, extending God's bounty beyond every human family to the entire created cosmos (cf. Romans 8:19–22, Acts 3:21).
           In his bestseller Velvet Elvis, pastor Rob Bell of Mars Hill church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, reminds us that the Christian gospel is good news about God's fatherly favor to every human being and to all of creation, "especially for those who don't believe it. . . The church must stop thinking about everybody primarily in categories of in or out, saved or not, believer or nonbeliever. Besides the fact that these terms are offensive to those who are the 'un' and 'non,' they work against Jesus's teaching about how we are to treat others. . . As the book of James says, 'God shows no favoritism.' So we don't either" (James 2:1–13). No exceptions allowed.   "
  https://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20090720JJ.shtml    

the Way, the Truth and the Life

"Thomas is the first to make a statement and then ask the question that is our question: How can we know the way?

Jesus' response to this question is one that has caused enormous suffering and harm through the centuries.

But I think we have not read his response for the plain statement of truth that it is. Jesus first says:

I am the way, and the truth, and the life

And then he says:

No one comes to the Father, except through me

Now, if we simply substitute for the "me" in the second statement with who Jesus says "me" is - the "I am" in the first statement, we get:

No one comes to the Father, except through the way, the truth, and the life.

That statement, I think, is NOT grounds for slaughtering non-believers in Jesus, or forced baptisms, or worrying that non-believers have been condemned to everlasting damnation. It is, I think, a plain statement of the simple truth that the life to come will be a way of truth and life - and thank God for that. And, since Jesus has said that he will come and take us to himself, we can trust that we will not be abandoned and left on our own to find this impossible-for-us-to-be-nothing-but-truth-and-life way."

http://www.holytextures.com/2011/04/john-14-1-14-year-a-easter-5-sermon.html

At one with the Father

At one with the Father,
the mystery of light;

he shines into the darkness,

he chases in the night.
 

At one with creation,

at home amidst the dust;

the redness at the centre,

the fire and the rust.

At one with the people,

the tears and the chain;
the wandering and homeless,
the loneliness and pain.

He does not shun the struggle,

dark thoughts or the questions;

embracing of the challenge
and seeking its connections.
 
Comrade to the travellers
on wilderness journey;
searching for that pilgrim goal
through windings and through turnings.
 
Confronter of the wealthy
disturbing those who rule;
discomfort for the righteous,
the wise sent back to school.
 
Friend of peace-creators,
holding frightened hands,
at one with those who protest,
and those who make a stand.
 
At one with the rhythm,
the feel and the pulse;
seeing truth and all things good,
and weeping o’er the false.
 
Dust and spirit joining,
in love they are united,  
reaching out to gather in;
the love, it is requited.
 
At home among the humble,
they know him by his voice,
he speaks of hope, of truth and life
for all who make the choice.
 
© Ken Rookes 2013

Jesus dares to redefine the concept of family

Mark, in the pages of whose gospel

we find ourselves, makes no mention

at all of Jesus’ father.

Perhaps Joseph understood his son

better than the rest,

or else the tradition is correct,

and he had died before Jesus began his work.

Whichever is the case,

Joseph was not leading the family group

when they came to restrain Jesus

and take him home,

before he could do any real harm

or get into any serious trouble.

The reports had alarmed them;

he had always been different,

but they loved him,

and forgave him his eccentricities.

Now he has gone public,

and it is being said, rather too gleefully

it seems to his mother and his brothers,

that he is no longer in his right mind.

Best they bring him home.

Returned to his carpenter’s bench,

they will keep him busy

and watch over of him.

In time he will sort out his thinking

and people will begin to forget.

The family waits outside; expecting, no doubt,

that their errant brother and son

will submit to their collective wisdom,

recognise their love, and come quietly.

Ah, but he has a new family, now!

© Ken Rookes 2012

Trinity colouring page

Something to keep you occupied and thinking about just what it all means really