Days of Darkness

 

Eschatological haiku

The days of darkness

are coming upon us all;

the sun will be hid.

The moon will not shine,

and the ever faithful stars

will absent themselves.

We might all be lost,

unable to navigate,

or to find the way.

Will he be coming,

the sky-sweeping Son of Man,

to bring us all home​?

Read the signs, he told

his friends. The fig tree’s lessons

are long forgotten.

The generation

did, in fact, pass away; He

must have got it wrong.

My words will remain

when all else is gone, he said.

Ah, Lord, but which ones?

When not expected

the Master will return. Be

about his business.

© Ken Rookes 2020

Not yet enough

 

Days of darkness,

days of fear.

The sun is hidden,

Even the moon directs its light elsewhere,

bending its rays away from planet earth.

The stars absent themselves,

as if there is not yet enough darkness.

The shadows expand and creep to embrace the forlorn landscape,

growing warmer every day.

The Son of Man, they say,

comes in the clouds to gather the elect.

Does he?

There are signs for those who can read,

but the good christian folk cannot see them,

having found more earthly distractions.

The fig tree’s lessons have been forgotten.

The generation did, in fact, pass away,

as have hundreds since.

Must have got it wrong.

His words, Mark tells us, will remain for all time.

The good christians all concur,

but find it hard to agree on which ones.

The story tells us that the master will return

at an inconvenient hour.

The faithful servants will not be fazed.

© Ken Rookes 2020

But I say to you

Haiku for doing better

We need “shall-not” laws

to limit bad behaviour.

But that’s all they do.

You have heard it said.

All the shall-nots from the past

do not lead to love.

It is wrong to kill.

Ev’ryone knows that. We need

to deal with anger.

Violence has roots:

anger, abuse, injustice.

Act against these things.

Let love rule your hearts,

make your peace, be reconciled;

ev’rybody wins.

Try to be faithful,

and not just with your body;

with your mind as well.

Always speak the truth.

All should know your “yes” means “yes,”

and your “no” means “no.”

© Ken Rookes 2020.

Not on the Sabbath

Haiku of freedom

Jesus was teaching

in one of the synagogues,

it was the Sabbath.

She came to see him,

the woman; she hadn’t stood

straight for eighteen years.

As we might expect

Jesus spoke words of freedom;

touched and made her whole.

Standing straight, praising,

and giving glory to God,

the woman rejoiced.

The law is broken!

They protest: Six days for work,

don’t use the Sabbath!

You are hypocrites!

he answers. On the Sabbath

we do what we must.

It’s not the Sabbath

that stops you rejoicing, but

your hatred for me.

Get hung up on law,

ignore what God is doing;

how sad you all are!

© Ken Rookes 2019

Love your enemies

Impossible haiku

Love your enemies:

surely the most laughable

of all his commands.

Easily dismissed

when fear is cultivated

to harvest power.

The title, ‘Christian,’

becomes robbed of its meaning

by those who must hate.

Bless those who curse you,

pray for those who abuse you.

More futile commands.

Even bad people

love those who return their love;

be better than that.

Would you follow him;

this man who insists on love

ahead of all else?

Real love is one-way,

not a bargain or a deal,

expects no return.

Generous, like God,

love is extended to all;

you don’t pick and choose.

Don’t be judgmental,

don’t condemn those who fall short,

practice forgiveness.

When it comes to love,

aim high, and don’t be afraid

to fail, says Jesus.

© Ken Rookes 2019

Blessings, surprising and unexpected

Haiku for a revolution

The place was level,

a good site for straight talking.

Useful metaphor.

They sensed his power

to bring freedom and healing,

not to mention hope.

He pronounced blessings

surprising, unexpected,

to those without hope.

The poor are promised

entry into God’s kingdom :

what more could they ask?

Those who are hungry

will be filled, the ones who weep

will have cause to laugh.

Are all these blessings

to be made real in this life?

And why shouldn’t they??

Along with blessings,

a series of woes are dealt

to those who have, now.

More flammable words

of gospel revolution

to upend the world.

Words to discomfort

the rich and the powerful,

but they don’t listen.

Here too, a blessing

for those who would follow him:

you will be reviled.

© Ken Rookes 2019

Scribes and Pharisees

Haiku for servants

Scribes and Pharisees:

religious establishment,

power and bluster.

Religious heavies

still imagine that they rule,

brandishing their keys.

Creating burdens

is the thing they excel at;

they will weigh you down.

Telling the people

that they are not good enough

to make it with God.

Look how good we are!

Try your best to be like us;

we’re exemplary.

Measure our fringes,

see our wide phylacteries;

don’t we look the part!

Do not play their game.

Be humble, self-effacing,

a servant of all.

You are my students.

Don’t call yourself a teacher;

you have one teacher.

They still know better

than the rest of us; they still

tell us how to live.

© Ken Rookes 2017

Be in agreement

Haiku of the disappointing

Sinners in the church!

How could it be otherwise?

Flawed humanity.

Work through your issues;

quietly if possible.

Maintain fellowship.

Try to practise grace,

forgiving one another.

Sort things out with love.

Rules are enacted

to limit bad behaviour;

love doesn’t need rules.

Accept correction

from your sisters and brothers

as a caring gift.

Agree together

on your Father’s purposes;

advance God’s kingdom.

Where two, three gather

in my name, to seek my will,

I am with them there.

© Ken Rookes 2017

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

You have heard that it was said (1)

A haiku sequence,

Going beyond law.

You have heard that it was said;

but I say to you.

You shall not murder;

but anger with a brother

also is a sin.

Insult a sister

or call a brother “you fool,”

this will bring judgement.

Don't attend worship

if you have caused an offence;

first be reconciled.

If you are accused

don't wait 'til it gets to court,

sort it out before.

No adultery,

but even looking with lust

damages the heart.

If your hand or eye

leads you astray, discard it.

Live with truth and grace.

Do not swear falsely;

better still, don't swear at all.

Stick with 'yes' and 'no.'

He rewrote the law,

calling forth our better selves;

for the sake of love.

© Ken Rookes 2017

Matthew's Beatitudes

Haiku for malcontents.

The poor in spirit,

Matthew tells us, will be blessed;

God will be their king.

Those who weep and mourn

will receive divine comfort;

they will know God's peace.

Fairly straight-forward,

so far, these beatitudes.

Most reassuring.

The meek, we are told

will inherit the earth. But

it's hard to see how.

Those who are hungry

for righteousness and justice

will be filled. One day.

But if they dare act

against our wealth and power,

we will deal with them.

Those who show mercy

will be labelled 'bleeding hearts.'

(I made that one up.)

Those who have pure hearts

will see God. We will dismiss

them, call them naive.

The makers of peace

are God's children. They refuse

to abandon hope.

Their task is thankless.

Dismissed as fools, both their tears

and their smiles persist.

Blessed are the ones

who suffer for goodness' sake;

God will embrace them.

They may, however,

receive no justice on earth.

Should they be content?

What's a blessing worth?

Whether real or imagined,

can it compensate?

© Ken Rookes 2017

The sun will be darkned

In ancient writings

the sun, moon and stars

combine to herald the coming

of the new age.

The laws of physics are cast aside

as the sun draws its blinds,

the moon withholds its light from the earth,

and the stars are swept into glowing heaps,

having fallen from the sky.

Outrageous metaphors,

emblazoned in the heavens

to signal cosmic events

and to fanfare the advent of the Son of Man;

whatever that means.

Something to do with Jesus,

and what he came to do,

and be. Something to do with

defiant love, reckless compassion,

and a quixotic commitment to justice, peace

and hope.

It could happen.

© Ken Rookes 2014

Burdens great to bear

I worry and I fear,

I need and I want.

I am anxious;

I could lose everything.

I am free;

I am burdened.

Some burdens are my own creation;

I tell myself that I am dealing with them.

Others I have received,

unwelcome gifts weighing heavily

upon shrinking shoulders,

from Scribes and from Pharisees,

who, in every age,

know with certainty what is best for me

I am burdened;

I am free.

To feel, decide

to do, to don’t.

To open wide;

to will, to won’t

To bleed, to weep;

to give, to keep.

To rage, to rail;

to struggle, fail.

Listening to the silence

with eyes half-opened,

mind half-closed.

Seeing the ugly,

reaching after beauty,

coveting truth,

questioning.

I am free,

I am burdened.

Holding on to freedom,

letting go the burdens.

Holding on to burdens,

letting go the freedom.

© Ken Rookes 2014

But I say to you, love.

If we wear his name
and pretend to listen to his words,
then we know that we’re expected
to do a lot of loving.
The God he called Father?
Fair enough, once you get your mind around
the concept of an immanent Deity
whose nature is grace and compassion;
the loving becomes our response.
One another?
Would appear to be do-able,
but there are still occasions
when one’s capacity for loving is tested.
Your neighbour, (as yourself)?
Meaning the people you meet and deal with;
creating emotional commitment
where none previously existed;
this certainly makes heavier demands
upon our limited supplies of love and goodwill.
Your enemies?
Here we rule the line on loving.
We are not alone:
millennia of tradition in the church,
and the culture shaped by it,
have managed to set aside this teaching
as excessive, inappropriate and ill-considered.
Not to be taken literally.
But then, if you’ve really got a problem
with loving your enemies,
don’t have any.

© 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