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

A calf of gold

Haiku for an angry God

Moses is delayed

on the mountain. The people

are concerned, anxious.

This elusive God

is not what they want. Give us

a god we can grasp.

A god to guide us,

a god we can take with us;

make us such a god.

All right, said Aaron,

give me all your gold, the rings

that hang from your ears.

Aaron took the rings,

melting them, cast an image

of a golden calf.

He built an altar.

Tomorrow we sacrifice,

celebrate our god!

The people ate, drank

and rose up to revel. God

was most unimpressed.

Go back down, Moses.

They have turned away from me,

these faithless people.

Now leave me, said God,

my wrath burns hot against them,

I will consume them.

Take it easy, God.

You brought them out of Egypt,

don’t waste it all, now.

You gave a promise

to Abe, Isaac, and Jacob;

you would make them great.

Moses convinced God

to change his mind. Disaster

averted, thank God.

© Ken Rookes 2023