Kissing the Face of God - Morgan Weistling

Let's get married

Let’s get married

The nightmares of recent weeks
did not retreat with the decision
to allow his betrothed
to leave quietly, and have the child
in a far place among distant relatives.
There the shame
would not be so bitter.
the girl was young and pretty,
and would soon find a new husband,
and a father for her child.
The pain of her apparent rejection
was sharpened by the love
still twisting the stomach
of the gentle carpenter,
who had toiled with mallet
and chisel for many years
so that he might take a wife.
He had not seen it coming;
refused to believe it
until the swelling evidence
could no longer be denied.
So, when, in a dream, the angel
spoke of the strange purposes
of an even stranger God,
Joseph grabbed the offered straw.
Copping the nudges and the sneers,
he took Mary home to be his wife.

© Ken Rookes

How many?

How many?

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.

In a similar manner

do messiahs,

heroes, battlers,

has-beens and failures

begin their living.

A young woman,

barely pubescent,

finds herself expecting a child.

The man is surprised;

the man is always surprised.

A decision is needed.

The responsible thing,

the correct thing.

The ennobling thing,

the loving thing.

How many?

How many angels

will be needed

for the man to be persuaded

to do the right thing?

And how many tears,

Both of joy and sorrow,

will be shed on the journey

to marriage, the birthing place,

and beyond.

© Ken Rookes 2013

Are you the one?

Are you the one?

When John spoke,
his words fell to drench dry earth
and the desert was filled with long-forgotten flowers;
the purple trumpets of repentance
and the blue-bells of earnest intent.
Imprisoned, and presumed silent,
he summoned some friends
to report on the state of the garden.

Returning, they told of wilderness beauty:
the sprouting green of new life,
the golden flowering of good news,
the pink and white flourish
of restored skin and bone,
and the red blossoming glorious song
and rainbow array awaiting newly opened ear and eye.

Then the Baptiser knew
that the long-expected one
truly had come.

© Ken Rookes

Streams in the desert

Streams in the Desert.

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom… Isa 35:1

Raise your voices, faithful people
as you tread with determination
the kingdom road.
The journey is long and uncertain,
some say foolish,
but it is the way of promise;
with glorious Zion the destination,
and its Lord as our home.
Journey with those whose ears have been unstopped,
that they might hear the songs of the faithful.
Walk with those whose eyes have been opened
to see the surprising defiance of desert blooms.
Travel in company with leg-leaping comrades,
no longer accepting the sad label
that declares them lame.
You shall not lose your way.
Formerly this was a land of despair,
despondently arid and dust dry desert.
Now, with newly opened eyes of faith
we see the joyful springs;
water flowing among green reeds and rushes;
sparkling with life
and filled with hope.

© Ken Rookes

John knew already

"John already knew what Jesus was doing; that’s precisely what had provoked his doubts in the first place. Nor, I imagine, would John take much comfort in the rest of Jesus’ answer. “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

What kind of answer was that? Certainly it’s not what John expected from Jesus. What John most likely looked for -- and, if truth be told, what most of the time we look for too -- is a strong Messiah for a strong people, a Messiah who helps those who help themselves, a Messiah who knows how to stand up for himself, a Messiah, in short, that you can be proud of.

What he gets instead is Jesus. And measured against John’s hopes and expectations, Jesus probably falls disappointingly short of the mark. I mean, let’s face it. The people Jesus seems preoccupied with -- the lame, the deaf, the poor, the ill, and the dead, for heaven’s sake -- these folks aren’t exactly the movers and shakers of the world, rather they are those who are moved and shaken by every whim of the rich and powerful. These people weren’t going to change things. My word, but they’re the social outcasts and economic losers of John’s day, the kind of people who can barely fend for themselves let alone help anyone else.

Why in the world, then, does Jesus make such a fuss about these folks when John, apparently at the end of his rope, asks for some sign, just some little indication, that Jesus is the One for whom John was waiting? Well … maybe it’s that all these folks do share one thing in common with John the Baptist, and that is their need.

Think about it. There’s John, pacing and pondering in his cell, who suddenly, despite his earlier fame, despite his charismatic personality, despite all his followers, despite even his mighty faith, nonetheless finds himself in a position of absolute need. And in this way he discovers that he is in complete solidarity with all those in need, with the poor and lame and outcast and all others who can boast of nothing except their dependence on God’s own grace and mercy and protection."

http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2911

Are you the one we've been waiting for?

"As John sat in prison facing a possible beheading on the say so of King Herod, you can’t blame him for thinking that the Messiah doesn’t seem to have sent the arrogant and corrupt fleeing quite fast enough. No wonder he’s asking the question: “Are you the one we’ve been waiting for or should we be looking out for someone else?”

I don’t know about you, but despite the fact that I’m not sitting in a detention centre fearing for my life, I can relate to the agonised uncertainty of John’s question. I can relate to it when I see greed, callousness and corruption continuing to hold sway over the lives of ordinary people in this country and around the world. I can relate to it when I wonder why the love of Christ hasn’t so transformed a nation like ours that it would be unthinkable for us to go on imprisoning men, women and children whose only crime is to try to flee even more brutal regimes in other parts of the world. I can relate to it when I read visions of world peace with swords being turned into plowshares and lions lying down with lambs, and then I turn on the news and hear of people who are willing to blow themselves to pieces in order to kill a handful of innocent people. “Jesus, are you the one we’ve been waiting for or should we be looking out for someone who can make a bigger difference?”"

http://laughingbird.net/

Jesus Prophet

a hopeful imagination

Each one of us is a prophet. There is a prophet within, and it is not the part of us that tends to say, you have been bad and you need to beat your self up. It is a part of us which can leave us feeling uncomfortable if we are spending our lives living only for our own profit, with no reaching out to others, especially the poor; it is a part of us which we tend to try to squash/repress if we are too comfortable. The prophet is the part of you who longs for change, (in us and around us) and sees its possibilities. The prophet has a vision of how things could be and urges us on to that sacred place. They have what a theologian called Brugemann called, a hopeful imagination. God calls us to have just such a hopeful imagination. God sends you and me as prophets to witness to hope and God's unfailing love. Like the prophets before us, may we never be silenced.

El Greco, john the Baptist

I love the earthiness and depth in this painting. He is not depicted as mad but reflective and sincere.

Che Jesus

Che Jesus,

They told me that you came back to be born every Christmas. Man, you're crazy!

... with this stubborn gesture of coming back every Christmas you are trying to tell us something:

That the revolution that all proclaim begins first of all in each one's heart,

That it doesn't mean only changing structures but changing selfishness for love,

That we have to stop being wolves and return to being brothers and sisters,

That we ... begin to work seriously for individual conversion and social change that will give to all the possibility of having bread, education, freedom, and dignity.

That you have a message that's called the Gospel,

And a Church, and that's us­

A Church that wants to be servant of all,

A Church that knows that because God became human one Christmas

there is no other way to love God but to love all people.

If that's the way it is, Jesus, come to my house this Christmas, Come to my country,

Come to the world of men and women. And first of all, come to my heart.

Anonymous, Cordoba, Argentina, at Christmas, 1970