To Bethlehem we come

The course of the Advent and its violet road-map

was determined two millennia ago.

We who claim our places among his disciples

walk the Coming-Season’s famous annual path to Bethlehem.

Was he even born there?

Perhaps / probably not:

it doesn’t matter.

We tread our Advent road toward Bethlehem

to meet with shepherds and other disrerputable people

to sing the songs of the coming of our friend and mentor.

We travel, recalling those irresistible demands of the ancient bureaucracy

to be counted, numbering ourselves

among those blessed to share in his suffering.

We bypass Jerusalem,

knowing that there are many places where truth is hidden,

that deeper truth awaits its revelation,

and that our ultimate destination will, one day,

include that great and troubled city.

Our journeying eyes search out inns and stables,

knowing that God and Spirit and other mysteries

will be found in the most unlikely places.

The city of David calls to us with the power of its history,

but we come, knowing that the new story being birthed

will be a far deeper drama

of love, generosity and sacrifice.

To Bethlehem we make our Advent journey,

with gratitude, wonder, and trepidation.

© Ken Rookes 2018

The word of God came to John

There must have been a number of them,

words, that is,
that drifted through the ether

to lodge themselves in the cranium of the prophet.

Repent, for one, springs quickly to mind.

It is an unfriendly word,

strident and uncompromising,

articulating its 'holier than thou' attitude

of judgement. Perhaps necessary;

all the same.

Prepare is friendlier;

along with the request

that we actually do something.

Prepare tantalises with its sense of expectation.

Something big is about to happen;

something wondrous and unprecedented.

Borrowing some more words

from the processes of creation

the prophet gets down to business.

The mountains will be razed, he tells us,

and the valleys filled!

Geologically improbable,

at least on the time scale

to which the prophet is working.

How many hundred million years would we need?

Get excited!

the prophet's hyperbole declares;

the Lord, (whoever he or she might be), is coming!

You may be present when she comes,

you may witness his arrival;

you may not,

but the hope embodied in this advent event

will be there for all humankind to see.

So get yourself ready.

Now!

© Ken Rookes 2015