Alive in Christ

Haiku responding to Romans 6: 1-11

What then shall we say?

Shall we continue to sin

so that grace may grow?

That would be stupid!

How can we who died to sin

keep living in it?

Don't you grasp the fact:

being baptised into Christ,

we share in his death?

We're buried with Christ

through baptism; just as he

was raised, we are too.

We share his new life.

Joined into his death, we'll join

in his risen life.

Our old selves are dead,

including our sinfulness;

we're set free from sin.

If we died with Christ

we will also live with him;

death has lost its hold!

Consider yourselves

dead to sin, and made alive

to God through Jesus.

© Ken Rookes 2026

Enlightened

Haiku responding to Acts 10:34-43

The Spirit descends

upon some gentiles. Peter

becomes enlightened.

I now understand

that God has no favourites;

God loves everyone!.

In every nation

people who do the right thing

are embraced by God.

This is our message

for Israel, and for all:

Jesus Christ is Lord.

God anointed him

with the Spirit, with power,

to do good, to heal.

In Jerusalem

and Judea he brought hope

They put him to death.

God raised him to life

on the third day; we saw him,

and we ate with him.

He sent us to preach,

to tell that he is from God

and brings forgiveness.

© Ken Rookes 2026

Be at Peace

 Haiku of resurrection greeting

 

Be at peace, he said,

when he stood among his friends;

but they were frightened.

They had watched him die;

thought that he must be a ghost.

He spoke to calm them.

Asks, Why do you doubt;

of what are you so fearful?

Look, see, it is I!

Joy mixes with doubt:

they see him standing there, but

their minds know better.

Jesus eats some fish.

This is meant to convince them

that he is no ghost.

How to understand?

Speaks of Moses, the Prophets;

says: These things must be.

The scriptures, he said,

tell that the Christ must suffer;

rising the third day.

Hope for humankind:

God’s way of love, forgiveness.

You are witnesses.

© 2021 Ken Rookes

Love's duty

Haiku of the dawn

The Sabbath had passed.

They came to tend to his corpse,

to confront their pain.

The three: Salome,

the Marys, women of faith,

doing love’s duty.

As the sun rises

they bring their aching sorrow,

their baskets of spice.

Who will roll the stone?

One more barrier to face

and to overcome.

Look! The stone is gone!

Come inside the dark unknown,

discover the truth.

A youth dressed in white

greets them, Do not be alarmed!

Not much chance of that!

The tomb is empty.

What are we to make of this?

Does he really live?

Mark leaves us with doubt,

bewilderment and terror

as they flee in fear.

© Ken Rookes 2020

One for the Narrative Lectionary, responding to Mark's story of the empty tomb.

They thought him a ghost

Haiku of wonder

They thought him a ghost

when the risen Jesus came

and stood among them.

They were terrified,

did not know how to react:

hardly surprising.

He reassured them

with his words of peace, as if

all was quite normal.

Showing them his hands

and his feet; he ate some fish.

See, I’m just like you.

He died, we saw him

buried, along with our hopes;

and yet now he lives!

Joy and disbelief,

a clumsy combination;

how to deal with it?

Remember the words

that I spoke in your presence;

they make sense of it.

The law of Moses,

the words found in the prophets,

they all point to me.

It is written thus,

the Messiah must suffer,

and rise the third day.

Go, proclaim the Christ,

his life and his forgiveness.

Be my witnesses.

© Ken Rookes 2018

The Sabbath had passed

Haiku of hope and celebration.

The sabbath had passed,

here they come with tearful eyes

to tend his body.

Three of the women,

bring their spices to the tomb

along with their love.

The sun had risen,

the darkness was at its end:

lots of metaphors.

Of the entrance stone

they questioned each other: Who

will roll it away?

The tomb was open,

the stone already rolled back!

Nothing to stop them!

Entering the tomb

there is nothing to be seen;

at least no body.

A man, dressed in white

with his most puzzling words;

Do not be alarmed!

Jesus? He’s not here.

There is the place they laid him;

he’s been raised to life.

Go inform his friends!

The women flee in terror

and keep their mouths shut.

© Ken Rookes

He breathed on them

Haiku for agents of peace.

Peace was his greeting

that night, meeting with his friends,

the day he was raised.

The doors had been locked,

but somehow he was present,

standing among them.

They gasped, rejoicing.

Beyond all expectations

their master lived!

There's much to be done.

Just as the Father sent me,

so I'm sending you.

He breathed upon them.

Receive the Holy Spirit,

God with you, always.

Mercy is the key;

show them. You are to forgive;

you must set them free.

This is why I came,

to bring freedom, grace and hope.

My peace be with you.

© Ken Rookes 2017

All they could do

 

All they could do, the gospel writers,
and those who crafted the stories before them
was to grope in wonder after some words.
Words to convey even a shining edge
of the full mystery.
So they wrote of angels shimmering with white,
and an earthquake that shook the very foundations
of both earth and heaven;
and of the surprise of a disappearing man
who could not be grasped
but who was strangely with them still.
Of the impossibly empty space
that death had once occupied.
They told of a stone,
the removal of which would have required a forklift,
that had apparently been flicked away by a divine finger.
They wrote of unsurpassed joy and of hope
that had been conjured ex nihilo.
They told of embracings,
of illuminating journeys and intimate dinings,
of unexpected recognitions
and equally bewildering disappearances.
Their stories included the elements of honest fear,
uncertainty, and disbelief;
as if to underline the wonder.
One who they had loved,
in whom the Divine One appeared to dwell,
and who, they all attested, had been killed;
was somehow present. Living. Decades on.
All they could do was grope in the diminished darkness,
and hope to find some words.

© Ken Rookes