The Word is one of us

Haiku of wonder

In the beginning.

Great opening to a book

exploring myst’ry.

How did it begin?

Big bang; the divine Logos,

sparking in the dark?

John writes of the Word;

one with God, present; cosmic

primogenitor.

Verses of wonder:

through him came life, bringing light

for all humankind.

The defiant light

shines through the gloom. The darkness

cannot put it out.

Throughout history

the Word comes, speaking God’s life.

Not many listen.

More wonder! The Word

becomes human; one of us,

sharing in our life.

Grace and truth have come

to us in Jesus, God’s Son.

Jesus makes God known

© Ken Rookes 2021

The Word

 

Haiku of the Light.

In the beginning.

John carries us back in time:

God and the Big Bang.

Pushing back beyond

Miriam, Sarah and Eve

to Creation One.

An over-all plan

from the beginning of time:

hope for humankind.

He said, Let Light shine!

And life, light for all people

breaks through the darkness.

John came voicing hope,

to announce the one true light.

He was not the light.

The Light-Hope-Logos,

seed found at creation’s core,

becomes one of us.

Those who receive him,

who take his word deep within,

are made God’s children.

The law has limits.

Jesus brings grace, truth and love;

life comes from these things.

Many speak of God.

Only Jesus, called God’s Son,

truly makes God known.

© Ken Rookes 2020

He was in the world

Haiku of the Word

He was in the world;

he whose heartbeat resonates

with earth’s deep rhythms.

They did not know him;

his own people, not seeing

nor receiving him.

They are crying out,

yearning, aching. They will not

come, they will not hear.

He is in the world

at one with God, and with us;

listen to his words.

What will his words be?

Words that challenge and disturb,

turning upside down.

Some were listening,

taking his words deep within,

God’s faithful children.

And the Word became.

one of us, with flesh and blood,

with pain and dying.

Here, then, is wonder;

here is grace and here is truth,

for each one of us.

© Ken Rookes 2019

Becoming flesh

Haiku of wonder

In the beginning.

What a great opening line;

so much could follow.

Logos, more than word;

impossible mystery,

the essence of God.

There at creation,

alongside and one with God,

through whom all things come.

The six days give way

to the big bang universe;

was the Logos there?

Logos, source of life,

light challenging the darkness,

never submitting.

The true light arrives

to enlighten humankind;

may that day come soon!

Somehow mystery

takes flesh, coming among us;

living and dying.

Can you see where he

does touch earth with grace and hope;

will you receive him?

You who receive him

are his sisters and brothers;

children of God’s will.

© Ken Rookes 2019

He was in the beginning

Haiku of the coming

In the beginning.

They are indivisible,

the Logos and God.

Into the nothing

the Logos-God mystery

find their voice and speak.

The word, now spoken,

all creation comes to be.

Here is wonderment.

The Logos brings life;

life and light for humankind,

defeating darkness.

Logos, always there

in the world he created,

passes through, unseen.

Among his people

he finds no welcome nor home.

The loss is their own.

Yet some received him,

believed, and living by faith,

were made God's children.

To be born of God,

transcending earthly limits;

this, then, is glory.

The Logos took flesh,

our flesh, and lived among us;

full of grace and truth.

© Ken Rookes 2016

And the word became flesh and lived among us

The Logos-word came,

so the story goes,

sharing light and truth and wonder

with us earth-folk;

receiving, in return,

the planet's dust and strife,

along with our tears, regrets and weariness.

Hardly a balanced transaction.

© Ken Rookes 2015

Prologue

Mortal flesh and bone,

the divine word comes unexpectedly among us,

breathing the planet’s atmosphere

and covering his itinerant feet

with earth’s red dust.

Here, in company

with the rest of humankind,

he will do his appointed work

of hope and love and freedom.

Later, this man we call “Light,”

clothed in the dust of ridicule and rejection,

(his words are too hard);

will steel himself against the harsh winds

of fickle opinion,

to inhale the deep and bitter air

of suspicion, abandonment and fear.

From there he will embrace the cold nothingness

of our own inevitable end.

And still the Light shines.

© Ken Rookes 2015

With the coming of Word

With the coming of Word

at the beginning of the second act,

Grace and Truth

stride purposefully to centre stage

to take up their allotted positions.

Law, having featured so strongly in act one,

is, according to the script,

directed to move upstage

and to quietly exit to the right.

Law moves with deliberate steps,

then pauses,

relishing the lingering spotlight,

which, for loyalty or fear, perhaps both,

seems reluctant to trust

the new leads to carry the show.

Law’s assured and comfortable lines

seduce and enthral,

delivered with the much-practised ease

of one who has held the proscenium for centuries.

The spectators are less than convinced

by the unfamiliar and surprising utterances

of Grace and Truth.

The play pauses awkwardly,

perplexing the audience;

some begin to leave.

© Ken Rookes

O Light who is shining

O Light who is Shining

O Light who is shining in all the dark places;

shine on me.
Radiate your hope upon shadowed faces;
let them see
the love and the courage of one who’s defying
the powers that threaten, the gloom that’s denying
the truth, grace and justice; together defining
the kingdom that’s coming to be.

O Light who is true and cuts through the night-time;

shine in me.
Let love glow warm when we’re worried and frightened
make us free;
for action to end all the fear and the hating,
to touch anxious hearts when love is abating,
to bring on the peace for which all are waiting;
where faith, hope and love abide: three.

O Light who is life for all of creation,

shine through me.
We are the offspring of Love’s celebration;
sent to be -
the flickering flames of hope where there’s need,
embracing God’s children, regardless of creed.
To gather a harvest, where love is the seed;
we make this our goal and our plea.

©2010 words: Ken Rookes

music: Judy & Jessica Chalmers

Music may be found at www.kenrookes.com.au