Buckets of Money

 

Haiku for having a go.

The journeying man,

in the story Jesus told,

left his slaves in charge.

Diff’rent sized buckets

of money according to

perceived competence.

Take what you’re given

and use it well, with wisdom,

grace and compassion.

Fear is enemy

to action. What if I fail;

what if I blow it?

The master returns

to inspect the estate. How

is your stewardship?

Days of accounting

wherein my efforts are judged.

I have judged myself.

Well done, companions,

you have loved, served and striven!

You are my true friends.

© Ken Rookes 2020

Peace I leave with you.

It doesn't seem to have been very effective,

that Johanine blessing of peace

upon the lips of Jesus.

Wars, crusades and other violences

have never been in short supply

throughout the years of Christendom.

And so we internalised peace;

pointing to the interior serenity

of those who have come

to worship the Christ.

Self-satisfied peace is not worthy

of disciples.

It seems a sad substitute

for an end to brutality, violence and bitterness,

not to mention suffering, abuse, hatred

and fear-engendering politics.

Look around,

see for yourself.

“My peace I give to you,”

the Nazarene is reported as saying.

Are these words for real?

It we take them seriously,

we might need to accept our discipleship calling

to become makers of peace;

we might need to actually do something.

Something to give peace substance,

to clothe it in reconciling flesh and blood,

like the one who came to be its prince.

Something that helps end the fear

and begins to make peace happen.

© Ken Rookes 2016

When Jesus returns

 

It doesn’t really matter what we do
in our own finite occupation of planet earth;
so one theory goes.
All the pollution and the global warming
and the depletion of the fishing stocks
and the extinction of the various species;
not our problem.
And all the refugee camps in border regions
and the ragged children on the smoking garbage mountains
and all the repression and the fear
and the greedy corporate exploitation
and all the political lies; about these things
we need have no concern.
Because Jesus is coming back.
Yeah, Jesus is coming back
and he’ll wave his hand,
his magic Holy Spirit hand,
and the new heaven will replace the old,
and the new earth will take over from the old,
and everything will be clean and sparkling
and smell like a pair of shiny new shoes,
fresh out of their box.
Or so one theory goes.

© Ken Rookes

Get on with it, Thomas

Get on with it, Thomas.

In the business of faith, so-called,

words are gathered on paper,
sorted into groups,

numbered and annotated,

printed with indelible ink,
framed behind glass
and made into standards
behind which combatants assemble
and accuse their opponents
of heresy and betrayal,
and by which fellow humans
are categorised as being in or out.
But faith is not about words,
or being right,
(or, even more importantly,
not being wrong);
faith is responding to grace
and risking all
on the wild adventure
of life and of love.
When, a week after he was raised,
Jesus told Thomas to stop doubting
and to have faith,
he was not so much worried
about the content of his beliefs
or his ability to put aside his questions,
or so it seems to me,
but simply telling him to get on with it.
Get on with it, Thomas.

 

© Ken Rookes