Portents in the skies

Haiku for the watchful

Let the walls crumble!

The temple no longer serves;

welcome the new thing!

Portents in the skies.

How we love to speculate,

what does it all mean?

Don’t be led astray.

Test their claims; do they measure

up to love’s standard?

Coming in the clouds!

Expectations have worn thin

in two millennia.

Is it really near?

Is the Son of Man coming

to end history?

These understandings

from two thousand years ago;

are we bound by them?

Everything passes.

His words remain to give life,

calling us to love.

Be watchful with love.

Be eager in your serving.

This is faithfulness.

Midnight or cockcrow

or at dawn, it matters not

if love is your guide.

© Ken Rookes 2020

Some haiku for teh Narrative lectionary, Lent 5

Setting the pace

Haiku for getting serious

They were on the road.

Their destination; trouble.

Big Jerusalem

He was leading them,

setting the pace; they held back,

anxious and afraid.

It will get ugly,

he told his friends. Always does

When you challenge them.

They fear my message,

hate me for daring to speak.

They will have their way.

Don’t ask for honour,

honour comes with pain and death.

There are no short-cuts.

The cup is suff’ring,

the baptism, it is death.

Will you still follow?

Will you follow me?

Will you be a slave to all?

Will you give your life?

© Ken Rookes 2020

Some haiku for the Narrative Lectionary, Second Sunday in Lent.

They called out to God

Haiku for those in bondage

Time’s dust overlays

memory; generations

cause the past to lie.

Joseph is forgot

and those who once were welcomed

are made enemies.

Arriving as guests,

they multiplied, became feared,

ended up as slaves.

Crying out to God

to end their cruel suffering;

Lord, deliver us!

Fugitive Moses,

tending sheep in Midian

sees a burning bush.

As the twigs crackle

Moses hears a voice calling,

takes off his sandals.

Most disturbingly

the voice purports to be God:

I am sending you!

I hear my people,

I know their pain. You must go,

bring them from Egypt.

Demurring, Moses

protests his limitations.

This is beyond me!

Say to my people

I am has sent me to you;

My name for all time.

© Ken Rookes 2019