Growth

 

Haiku of the kingdom

Agricultural

metaphors abound: seeds, growth

and much fruitfulness.

Here is the kingdom;

seed is scattered on the ground,

grows in ways unseen.

How does the seed grow?

Who can understand? Who cares,

we’ll still harvest it!

Again, the kingdom

is like a mustard seed; small,

but great potential!

A home for the birds;

a great outcome for this seed,

small and unacclaimed.

Parables sneak up,

catching hearers by surprise;

life-giving wisdom.

Great story-telling

Jesus! Drawing us in, and

disturbing our thoughts!

© Ken Rookes 2021

It will be like this

Haiku of the Kingdom

Lots of parables;

what will the kingdom be like?

It will be like this!

The mustard seed, small,

sown in a field, growing large;

a home for the birds.

Yeast, mixed with flour,

three measures, causing the bread

to rise and become.

A hidden treasure,

uncovered; sell ev’rything

and purchase the field!

A merchant, searching

for pearls, finds the perfect one;

sells ev’rything else.

The net that catches

all kinds of fish; sort them out,

discard the useless.

Do you understand?

You are like a scribe finding

new and old treasures.

© Ken Rookes 2020

The size of a mustard seed

Haiku for the faithful

Increase our faith, Lord,

the apostles requested.

A silly question.

What’s the point of faith,

however big or tiny,

unless it is used.

You don’t need much faith,

a mustard seed will suffice.

Just put it to use.

Even a schoolgirl

can make a real difference;

faith joined with courage.

Do not reward us

for doing what’s expected.

We do what we must.

We are worthless slaves.

We owe God everything;

thanks are not required.

What to do with faith?

Love, forgive, build justice, peace;

welcome the kingdom.

Look deeply within;

see the faith already there,

ready to wake up.

© Ken Rookes 2019

The kingdom

Haiku of emerging abundance.

The kingdom of God!

A diff’rent reality,

strange, unexpected.

The seeds are scattered.

The sower gets on with life;

the seeds sprout and grow.

First the stalk, the head,

then the grain swells full and ripe,

and the harvest comes!

Take a mustard seed,

the tiniest of them all;

grows big for the birds.

The kingdom of God;

growing fruitful love, justice;

though we may not see.

Many parables,

riddles to confuse and hide;

his friends understand.

The kingdom of God;

when God rules in hearts and minds,

grace and love abound.

© Ken Rookes 2018

What is the kingdom like?

Haiku of discovery

Like a mustard seed,

small, seeming of no account;

yet it surprises.

Like yeast mixed for bread,

lost in the flour’s abundance;

transforming presence.

Like treasure hidden

in a field and forgotten;

a most welcome find.

Like a collector

who searches for a lifetime,

chancing on the prize.

When you find your pearl

nothing else really matters;

you must possess it.

So with the kingdom,

this way of being, of life

abundant and true.

When we were children

they told us of these things; now

they have become real.

© Ken Rookes 2017

Mulberry tree messiness

Haiku of insecure faith

Lord, increase our faith.

Why do you make this request?

You have all you need.

A mustard seed faith

would see you directing trees

and they would obey!

What a metaphor

for faith that is sufficient;

the uprooted tree!

Hail mulberry tree!

Generous red stickiness

and messy fingers.

You have faith enough

to tread discipleship's path;

put it to good use.

Being uprooted,

with red mulberry tree faith

and sticky fingers.

© Ken Rookes 2016

mustard seed

The parable of the Mustard seed

The opposite

 

The opposite of the kingdom of heaven
is that loss of spirit,
that diminution of hope,
that dark emptiness,
where the possibilities
of surprise and generosity
have been forgotten.
No seeds grow,
the birds make no nests,
and no one searches for pearls.


© Ken Rookes 2014

If you had faith as big as a mustard seed . . .

Quite silly, really;

the notion of trees being uprooted

and planted in the sea because of faith.

Wouldn’t do anything for the environment.

The meaning of the teaching, therefore,

is clearly not in the literal;

so it must lie somewhere else.

How much faith does a person need

to successfully negotiate through life?

A mustard seed’s worth? Hardly;

with that amount we’d all be showing-off

and the oceans would be full of wasted metaphors.

No, a lump of faith as little as half a mustard seed,

or a quarter, that will be enough:

probably still too much. God

will do the rest. “Make our faith greater!”

the disciples request. “No need,” says Jesus.

“You’ve already got plenty. Enough

to do great things in my name. Enough

to serve and give and love. Enough

to tread the paths of the kingdom. Enough

to turn the world upside down. Of course,

you might want to get together.”

© Ken Rookes

sermon illustration - seed

In London during the Second World War a church was decorated to celebrate harvest homecoming. The blitz began and the building was destroyed before the celebration could begin. Some of the sheaves of corn were scattered by the bombs. During the next spring, a small patch of corn began to grow through the rubble of the church. Life will not be stifled. 
http://www.sermonsuite.com/free.php?i=27457&key=gvshf3hh7ZykTlop

The kingdom of God is like a weed

Perhaps the element of joyous unruliness that has been added to the liturgy is a far more faithful sign of the culture of God than any of the polish and dignity and niceness we had previously achieved. If Jesus compared the kingdom to a weed, it is a fair bet that it is not going to look all neat and carefully pruned and in its right place. And sure, we don’t have the same sort of silence. But it was never supposed to be about silence anyway. It was always supposed to be about stilling yourself and listening for what God might be whispering to you, and the sort of God whose kingdom looks like a shrubby weed is just as likely to be heard in the out-of-place voice of a small child as in some carefully cultivated deep silence.

http://www.laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html