Abide

 Haiku of love

Make my joy complete

by keeping my commandments;

abide in my love.

You will know my joy

when love is allowed to rule.

Grace, forgiveness, love.

You, too, are to love

as Jesus loves each of us.

Love, costly and true.

No love is greater

than that which offers itself

for the sake of friends.

Servants no longer!

When you do what I command,

you become my friends.

I have no secrets

from you. All God has shown me

I make known to you.

Go and bear much fruit.

Enduring fruit, born of love,

as God’s own children.

© Ken Rookes 2021

The Spirit will come

Haiku of promise

They sing lots of songs,

sweet romantic songs of love,

to Jesus on high.

Do you cringe at them,

those romantic songs of love,

Jesus, Son of Man?

If we love Jesus

it’s not about singing songs,

but obedience.

Pouring his Spirit

on the ones who prove their love,

doing what he says.

The Spirit will come

to abide in and with you,

present in my place.

He stands beside you,

an advocate and teacher,

recalling my words.

I give you my peace,

my Spirit and my presence

to guide your living.

When the troubles come

let your hearts rise above them;

do not be afraid.

© Ken Rookes 2019

Difficult words

Haiku of offence.

Eating and drinking,

taking my life deep within;

they abide in me,

They will always live,

nor will their deeds be forgot,

alive in God’s heart.

Difficult teachings,

who can accept them? Even

disciples struggle.

From the spirit comes

true life; the flesh is useless.

Believe in my words.

Many disciples

turned back. His words were too hard,

the way was too tough.

He questioned the twelve:

Do you also wish to leave,

is it all too hard?

Where else can we go?

said Peter. Your words are life;

you have come from God.

© Ken Rookes 2018

Abide in me.

                  

 

Do I want to live forever?

It’s not a priority.

My mind struggles with notions of heaven;

of existing somehow, conscious and individual,

beyond one’s allotted days

in this corporeal world.

Across earth’s stones and tracks I journey,

love, rejoice,

wonder and rage.

I breathe its red dust and taste its sorrow;

here I belong

and yet am never quite at home.

 

Perhaps I never shall be.

Striving, longing and hoping

I seek the company

of those who also yearn

and weep and groan.

My comrades are my abode,

my sisters and brothers are my home.

Perhaps this is what the gospel writer meant

when he spoke of abiding in Jesus,

earth-dweller, brother of us all,

and true child of heaven.

(Whatever that means).

 

 

© Ken Rookes 2015