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

This Gospel Treasure

Haiku for earthen vessels

God’s grace brings us here;

though all should come against us

we will not lose heart.

Embarrassing things,

things that are best kept secret;

we put them aside.

Children of the truth,

rejoicing in the gospel

shining with its light.

Some refuse to see.

For them the light is fearful,

there is no knowledge.

This gospel treasure;

we hold it in the clay pots

of our earthly lives.

What treasure we hold,

what honour God has bestowed!

How shall we use it?

We are afflicted

but not crushed or despairing,

we bear Jesus’ life.

So death is at work

in us. But life, full and free

is at work in you.

Our outer being

falls away, our inner life

is renewed each day.

What can be seen, fades,

gives way to the eternal;

look upon these things.

© Ken Rookes 2020

Posted in response to the Narrative Lectionary for the 26th July 2020

In earthen vessels

Haiku for the humble

We have this treasure,

the apostle asserted,

in earthen vessels.

These common clay pots,

plain and undecorated,

hold the light of Christ.

Humble followers,

nothing special about us;

yet he shines within.

Proclaim him as Lord,

for truly he is the one

God has sent to us.

The light that we bear

is knowledge of God’s Glory

seen in Jesus’ face.

We are afflicted,

persecuted and struck down,

but we are not crushed.

We have been perplexed

but not driven to despair,

nor are we alone.

Bearers of the death

of Jesus in our bodies,

his life is here, too.

As long as we live

his death is at work in us;

to shape and renew.

© 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

The Good news

The way we see God, others and ourselves is through the lenses of our culture, how we have been taught to see. Someone once asked God why God had sent a son, not a daughter to show God to us. God’s reply seemed to be that God’s daughter has come a million times only no one has ever recognised her because she was a woman.

In the Gospel reading set for today, we have a number of small illustrations of the kingdom of heaven. The final one in Mat 13:52 says, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” Have we in the church been guilty of just going along with the old and been too reluctant to use the new? Could this be why some many of the younger generations no longer have time for the church? We are too attached to the old?

The Good News is that this passage suggests there is new available for our use, new ways of seeing and valuing every person, daughters and women as well as sons and men. People without children as well as those with them are blessed by God in different ways. We have the assurance in Romans that all things work together for good and that nothing can separate us for the love of God which is ours in Christ Jesus. We can encourage our scribes to bring out the new for us to embrace as part of the kingdom of heaven for us all.

Rev Julianne Parker

(see sermons page for full sermon)

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

sometimes the treasure is the field

Sometimes the treasure is the field and is hidden in plain sight.