Tearing

On the day when Jesus

strolled down to the Jordan

to meet with John and to be baptised,

the heavens, it is said, were torn apart.

They’ve been tearing apart ever since,

not just with Jesus,

who was outrageous enough;

some of those who came after him

have ripped things up a bit, too.

They broke laws, defied the powers

and governments, and challenged

the fearful and loveless status quo.

Here are some of the outcomes;

divine fragments,

torn from the heavenly interface

like squares from yesterday’s newspaper

and layered with earth’s paste

as they are fashioned into something new

and surprising.

A papier-mâche new creation, disturbing,

defiant, and more than a little foolish;

it is flimsy and fragile,

a vulnerable reliquary

of sacred hope.

© Ken Rookes 2015

Are the heavens open for you?

"About ad 500 a book was written by a mystic or group of mystics called the ‘cloud of unknowing’, which talks of the mystical nature of belief, a sort of working in the dark.  

Do you feel that the heavens are opened for you, or are they closed and dark?

They were for Jesus, that was the whole point of this story. In everything this incomparable Person was and did. Jesus’ life and death embody the opening of the heavens. After this his life is transformed, he goes out into the world healing preaching and loving all those with whom he came into contact. His life was motivated by heavenly love and despite all the hatred and temptations to power that came his way, heaven remained open to him.

Interesting isn’t it, that when we think of the heavens being opened for us, we think of the effect of that being a new batch of miracles that take away the pain of the world around us, but for Jesus, the heavens being opened was about how his life became moved by the power of love and the goodness of God.

For us the heavens are never now closed. Never! In Christ and through Christ they are open! Our feelings do not determine the status of the windows of heaven. It has been determined in Christ Jesus. The Word and the Spirit flow free and are among us.

When the heavens are open, anything is possible."

http://www.bruceprewer.com/DocB/BBAPTISMOFJESUS.htm

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