Love must be real

Haiku responding to Rom 12:9-21

Love must be real.

Hate the things that are evil,

hold fast to the good.

Love one another.

Compete with each other in

acting with honour.

Don't lag in zeal,

let your spirit be ardent

as you serve the Lord.

Rejoice as you hope,

be patient in affliction,

don't give up on prayer.

Support each other

financially; show strangers

hospitality.

When people oppress,

offer blessings. Yes, bless them,

and do not curse them!

When people rejoice,

rejoice with them, when they weep,

join your tears with theirs.

Live in harmony.

Try not to be arrogant;

mix with the lowly.

Don't repay evil

with evil. Act nobly, be

a good example.

If it's possible,

as it depends on you, live

peaceably with all.

Do not seek revenge;

vengeance is the Lord's concern.

Let God sort it out.

If your enemies

are hungry, feed them; if they

thirst, give them a drink.

Don't be overcome

by evil. Rather, defeat

it by doing good.

© Ken Rookes 2026

How we should live

 

Haiku responding to Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Continue to build

affection for each other,

as Christ commanded.

Be hospitable

to strangers; you may find you've

entertained angels.

Don't forget prisoners.

Imagine if it were you

in prison with them.

Those being tortured;

remember them, support them,

grateful it's not you.

Honour marriages;

don't cheat. God will judge the ones

who defile marriage.

Try to be content

with what God has given you.

Don't worship money.

God is your helper;

there is nothing to fear. What

can be done to you?

Imitate the faith

of those who brought you God's word.

Look at how they live.

He is constant; same

yesterday, today, always.

Jesus Christ, our Lord.

© Ken Rookes 2025

No laughing matter

Haiku of unexpected fecundity

There, at Mamre’s oaks

Abraham met three strangers;

he made them welcome.

Hospitality:

bread, cheeese and a barbecue;

the men were grateful.

She will have a son,

Sarah, your wife. Hearing this,

the old woman laughed.

Shall we have pleasure;

is life in these old bodies?

(The young don’t think so!)

Why did Sarah laugh?

God wants to know. There’s nothing

too tricky for God!

The thing came to pass

as the Lord had promised them:

Isaac, laughing boy.

Sarah was most pleased;

God has brought laughter to me,

laugh out loud with me!

Abraham, Sarah;

hard to believe such old folk

could become parents!

© Ken Rookes 2023

In our welcoming

In our welcoming

Haiku of the cup

Honours and rewards.

Why are they so important?

Simply do what’s right.

Hospitality;

welcoming his followers

and welcoming Him.

God has welcomed us;

so we open arms to God

in our welcoming.

A righteous reward;

not cash or shining medal,

but satisfaction.

Cups of cold water

for one of his little ones,

these, too, are noted.

Honours and rewards?

We have no need of these things,

serving is enough.

© Ken Rookes 2020

Laughing Boy

Haiku of surprise

Back in ancient times

God wandered with some angels,

met with Abraham.

At Abraham’s tent

the Lord was welcomed with cakes,

yoghurt, milk and veal.

The childless couple,

long past it, would have a child,

the strangers promised.

Sarah overheard,

listening near the entrance;

she laughed at the thought.

The promise mocks her.

Her childlessness is failure;

laughter hides her pain.

The impossible

is made possible, with God;

so the story says.

Sarah does conceive.

Apparently the old folk

still knew what to do.

Laughing Boy arrives.

Lots of joy, hope, and wonder,

not to mention laughs.

© Ken Rookes 2019


Haiku in response to the Narrative lectionary.

Hospitality

Haiku of grace

Martha and Mary:

the sisters receive Jesus

and make him welcome.

Hospitality.

Someone has to cook the food,

Marha is busy.

On the other hand,

Mary is quite indolent,

list’ning to Jesus.

A gen’rous spirit

is key to any welcome,

but Martha complains.

Lord, do you not care?

she protests, asking Jesus

to judge between them.

It’s all right, he says.

Mary hears my words of grace;

you should listen, too.

Jesus’ correction

is not without affection.

One thing is needed.

It’s about choices,

every day we make them;

choose grace ev’ry time.

© Ken Rookes 2019

None of these will lose their reward

Haiku for disciples

Welcoming others,

showing hospitality,

it's what Jesus wants.

When you are welcomed,

Jesus is made welcome too,

and God who sent him.

As you show welcome

to the small and lowly ones

you are rewarded.

As you invite them

to come under your welcome,

so you will be blessed.

Cups of cold water

given to these little ones

won't go unnoticed.

Hospitality:

a forgotten eastern art,

much undervalued.

Generosity –

a function of the kingdom.

That, along with love.

© Ken Rookes 2017

Haiku of humility and hospitality

Places of honour

are kept for the distinguished;

take the humble chair.

Maybe you'll be asked

to come to a higher seat;

but then, maybe not.

Better to be known

for grace and humility,

and to be content.

Hospitality

when you expect a return

does not count for much.

When giving banquets

invite the poor, the needy;

they can't return it.

Generosity

when it cannot be repaid

is tested and true.

Jesus lived it well;

his life, generous with love

and humility.

© Ken Rookes 2016

Elijah and the Widow

This reading sits firmly within the Middle Eastern spirituality that says that one must always make provision for the stranger. Hospitality is not just manners it is an obligation. When a ragged stranger turns up on the widow’s doorstep looking for food, little as she has, she must help! No such thing here as fear of the stranger or the refugee, the law of faith is that, little though she has, she must help!

When the New Testament book to the Hebrews says: Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. It is quoting ancient sayings and practice.

 Elijah meets a widow who is in such desperate circumstances that she is making preparations to cook what she believes will be the final meal before she and her son, with nothing left to sustain them, starve to death. Elijah comes to them asking for food and drink and though we might see him as arrogant, he was only doing what was normal and appropriate in his culture at the time. He was fully entitled to ask for such help from a stranger and to expect assistance.

The big complaint

 

This was the big complaint,
the one that had them all grumbling:
He has gone to be the guest
of one who is a sinner.
He’s hanging out with the ratbags,
the worthless ones;
the dodgy people that nobody cares about.
Taking seriously his message,
(he says it comes from God),
of life-changing love,
and grace without limit;
he takes it beyond the mere words
of earlier stories
and moves confidently
into disreputable reality.
Apparently unconcerned
by the great offence he has caused
to those who practise polite religion,
he claps his hands,
laughs in celebration
of the unexpected new beginning;
and calls it ‘salvation’.

© Ken Rookes 2013

Come down, Zacchaeus.

The crowd offered no help
to the short-in-stature man, whose face
confirmed their initial impression
that this was one Zacchaeus, chief
among the ratbag tax collectors.

The tree was a sycamore;  its gnarled
and twisted branches offered a convenient
means of elevation, enabling the man to rise
above his dilemma and successfully view the teacher,
whose reputation had travelled ahead of him,
all the way to Jericho.

Perhaps the Zac-man’s reputation
had also preceded him. Who can say?
When the teacher looked through
the shadowed leaves and branches
he saw the face of the climbing man,
and called him down with an unexpected invitation.

Hospitality is extended and accepted,
much to the grumbling derision  of the good religious people,
who could offer only sneering observations
about who one should choose as friends.
The teacher laughs them off,
captive to a larger vision of divine friendship.

Unsettled by such disturbing grace,
sinner Zacchaeus offers compensation
and justice to any he has defrauded;
a sure sign that the gospel has been truly proclaimed
and the kingdom has indeed come near.

© Ken Rookes 2010

true hospitality

“In a world of terrorism and war, school shootings, road rage, and pervasive anger and discontent, it is no wonder that concern for safety and security frequently triumphs over hospitality to the stranger,” Wadell admits. Yet this environment “is toxic for the hospitality and generosity that enables us to see the poor, the homeless, the hungry and the needy, immigrants and refugees and prisoners, not as dangerous threats, but as Christ’s presence among us.” It diminishes our humanity, for we “are created for the communion and intimacy that are the fruit of an ever-expanding love.” Precisely in this culture of fear we must see hospitality as our Christian vocation, “because it is through hospitality that we offer the most compelling witness of who God is, who we are called to be, and what the world through God’s grace can become.”
http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/53394.pdf

Tepid hospitality

Turning away from the righteous Pharisee
he looked with love
upon the subject of his host’s derision.
The unnamed woman knew her place,
and had knowingly disregarded all the conventions,
upsetting more than a jar of ointment.
The consensus was clear: this woman
did not fit in with polite company.
She belonged out there,
in the shadowed places,
where ambiguities abound
and sinners lead their anxious lives.
Not in here, where the well-mannered Simon
extends his tepid hospitality
to this latest sensation,
the wandering teacher from the provinces;
he, at least, had an invitation.
With his feet still wet from ointment and tears,
the man speaks softly of warm forgiveness,
of welcome, gratitude, love and peace.
He does not care for the cold and calculating rules
by which respectable society is ordered;
and outrageously says so.


© Ken Rookes 2013