A worker, unashamed.

Haiku responding to 2 Timothy 2:8-15

I've been in prison

for the sake of the gospel:

Jesus Christ, risen.

Enduring hardship

that the many might be saved;

God's word is not chained!

The saying is sure:

we have died with Christ Jesus;

so we live with him.

We endure; we reign

with him. Should we deny him,

he will deny us.

Should we prove faithless,

he will stay faithful. Unreal,

that is who he is!

Trivial disputes

should be avoided; they do

no one any good.

Bring yourself to God

as one approved; without shame,

a worker for truth.

© Ken Rookes 2025

These too will pass

Haiku for those who wait

Apocalyptic;

exciting literalists;

Jesus is coming!

Here are rich pickings

for those who speculate, who

think they have knowledge.

What does it all mean?

Much ink has been expended

through the centuries.

Perhaps those who lived

in the first century knew

the hidden meanings.

The disturbing signs

hide a worse reality;

as the planet burns.

Jesus will return

to fix the climate. Is that

what it really says?

The generation

did pass away, so that much

is proved incorrect.

All is temporal.

Heaven, earth, these both will pass.

Jesus’ words remain.

Inescapable:

the warning to be ready,

alert and faithful.

© Ken Rookes 2021

 

It is hard to remain alert

Our houses are reliquaries.

The objects they hold have many shapes, colours and sizes;

some are valuable, and promise much.

We festoon our dwellings with chains and bolts fashioned from fear,

and security cameras, should the locks fail.

We will not be taken advantage of;

we will guard what we have.

Yes, we know these things are all just stuff;

precious, perhaps,

but stuff, nonetheless.

In time it will all be reduced to dust.

Still we take much comfort from our locks.

The disciple is to be prepared, alert;

so the ancient scripture enjoins.

This instructive text was written in those excited early years

when the imminent return of the master

was eagerly anticipated.

Jesus is coming; look busy!

After two millenia the sense of expectancy

has largely evaporated, at least for some of us.

For twenty-first century disciples

the urgent metaphors for faithful living –

being dressed for action and keeping our oil lamps burning –

must have some other purpose.

© Ken Rookes 2016

Be ready, therefore.

 

There is only one way for a person to be ready,
only one thing that person should be doing
when Jesus comes. One thing
that he, who called himself the Son of Man,
expects of his followers at any time.
He set it forth in plain Aramaic
on more than one occasion, that is,
if the gospels are to be believed
and not merely taken literally.
One thing.
It is the singular mark of discipleship,
the sign that a person has listened,
truly heard, and been shaped by the words,
the actions, and the friendship of the coming one
It is he same thing that directed the course
of the Son of Man’s surprising life;
he who continues to come to his own.
This always-present one
defiantly embraces the costly consequences of his choice.
This one thing makes a person ready
for abundance in living, and fulfilment in dying.
The fumbling and grace-dependent followers
of He who comes,
know that they, too,
must become caught up into the generous
and sometimes painful work of love;
this one thing that declares our readiness
to receive him.

© 2010 Ken Rookes

Painting 1977

The man in the Peter Booth landscape

stares out with red eyes

while the city burns behind him.

Fearful and anxious blacks and greys

give birth bloodily to the distress and pain

of orange flame and scarlet moon.

(Or is it the sun?)

The standing white dog observes without judgement;

nothing that these mortals do can surprise him.

Booth’s apocalyptic vision

could have been referencing this Lucan passage,

speaking as it does, of celestial signs

in the firmament above,

and distress upon earth.

The literalists get excited,

talk fervently of the day that is coming,

of end-times, judgement

and of the hope of heaven’s compensation

for earthly hardship and indignity.

Vindication for the righteous.

They look to the skies, eager to be the first

to see their Master surfing the clouds,

hoping for a mid-flight rendezvous.

Look, Jesus, here we are;

we’ve kept ourselves nice!

It is not in the skies

that the work of faith is to be done,

but here, among earth’s dust,

where the faithful wait

with yearning and with tears,

and with defiant love; costly, unresting.

They press on, determinedly declaring 

in the midst of indifference, uncertainty and distress:

The kingdom of God has come near!

© Ken Rookes 2012

Link to Peter Booth's Painting 1977