The day is coming

Haiku of righteousness

The day is coming

to fulfil the promise to

Israel, Judah.

At that time, says God,

I'll make a righteous branch spring

up for King David.

Justice, righteousness;

these are what a nation needs.

All else is detail.

Justice, righteousness;

these are the gifts of the one

that God is sending.

Judah will be saved,

Jerusalem will be safe

when justice prevails.

The day is coming,

God says. On that day justice

brings life to the land.

© Ken Rookes 2024

Hope for the oppressed

Haiku of restoration

The spirit of God

rests on me, says the prophet;

I must speak good news.

Hope for the oppressed;

God will bind up the broken,

and set captives free.

The year of favour

God will show to those who mourn;

they’ll be comforted.

They will sing and dance

with gladness, praising the Lord.

I will raise them up.

The ancient ruins

are rebuilt, generations

of damage restored.

God hates robbery,

wrong-doing. God loves justice,

reclaims his people.

A new covenant

will be made between the Lord

and the ones he loves.

So much is promised.

God declares that righteousness

 

should cover the earth.

 

 

 

© Ken Rookes 2023

Keep yourself nice

Haiku for a polite and ordered world

Is righteous living

about keeping yourself nice?

Jesus says there’s more.

The holy people

observe the old tradition:

wash before you eat.

Always wash your hands

before you eat. Good practice,

enshrined in the law.

Other rules as well;

the washing of cups and pots

and kettles of bronze.

Pharisees object

to the careless disciples

and their defiled hands.

Isaiah knew it;

the faithless hypocrisy

behind your worship.

You care about rules

much more than you care about

what God is wanting.

It’s time to get real!

It’s the things you do and say

that make you defiled.

Always there is more

than the narrow, centred fears

of the self-righteous.

© Ken Rookes 2018

Things that defile

Haiku for a blameless life.

Those who are upright

offer many righteous rules

to keep us from sin.

Laws for cleanliness,

crucial for a blameless life!

Make sure you obey!

Forget about them!

When the blind guide each other

both fall in a pit.

Where do they come from,

all those evil intentions?

They come from the heart.

Not what we take in

that determines righteousness,

but what we put out.

© Ken Rookes 2017

The Righteous

Righteousness

consists not so much

in keeping oneself free from

all manner of sin and impurity,

(although this could be a consequence for some),

but in living in ways that are governed

by divine principles

of generosity and love.

The sort of foolish care

that treats prisoners with dignity,

recognises strangers as fellow pilgrims,

and offers food, clothing and water

to the least among the forgotten.

The kind of reckless defiance

that befriends the embarrassing,

confronts institutional cruelty and fear,

and supports the claims

of the homeless and the refugee.

The improbable commitment to one’s neighbour

that builds community, creates hope

and strives towards justice.

These, the parable tells us,

are the things that determine

who is truly righteous.

© Ken Rookes 2014