Tough words

Haiku for disciples

He began to teach:

The Son of Man must suffer.

His friends are appalled!

Religious leaders,

take issue with his message,

are out to get him.

He will be silenced

one way or another. They

will do what it takes.

They will reject me,

I must be put to death. Don’t

say these things! They cry.

Time for plain speaking.

Would you be my disciples?

You must bear your cross.

Follow in my way.

Only by letting it go

can you save your life.

The gospel’s demands

must come ahead of all else.

Lose you life for me.

What is the world worth,

its pleasure, fame and fortune,

if you lose your soul?

(Hear this, O blind guides,

proclaiming your fake gospel

of prosperity!)

© Ken Rookes 2021

Testing Time

Haiku for the start of Lent

Immediately:

baptism to temptation.

Mark gives no details.

In the wilderness,

tempted; forty days, Satan,

wild beasts, and angels.

Satan the tester,

doing what God asks of him;

checking out Jesus.

How was he tested?

Mark has no answers, leaving

us to speculate.

Jesus commences;

he will not be diverted

from his Father’s will.

Comes to Galilee

with God’s message of good news:

The day has arrived!

The kingdom is near,

the age of love is revealed;

believe it and live!

© Ken Rookes 2021

Dazzling White

 

Surprising haiku

Transfiguration,

that’s what we call the event;

filled with wonder, light.

Peter, James and John;

mates of Jesus, went with him

up a high mountain.

Some sort of vision,

collective experience

shared by one and all.

Jesus was glowing,

dazzling white like bleached cloth

shining in the sun.

Moses, Elijah;

law-giver, prophet; join him

in conversation.

Perhaps they talk death;

the two long buried, and one

still facing his own.

His mates are flummoxed,

don’t know what to say. Better

not to have spoken.

A cloud and a voice

bring the scene to its climax:

My Son: Hear his words!

© Ken Rookes 2021

At Capernaum

 

Haiku for making a start

Jesus hung out with

Simon, Andrew, James and John;

his first disciples.

The Capernaum

sermon completed, Jesus

entered Simon’s house.

His mother-in-law

being crook, Simon informed

Jesus, who healed her.

Quick recovery;

being a woman she got

straight back to serving.

With dusk the Sabbath

ended; the townsfolk came out

seeking to be healed.

Before dawn he left

to find a deserted place,

so that he might pray.

They went and found him.

Ev’ryone’s looking for you,

wants your healing touch!

There are other towns

where my message is needed;

I must go there, too.

© Ken Rookes 2021

Whose authority

Haiku of astonishment

The unclean spirit:

a useful explanation

for much illnesses.

At Capernaum

he taught in the synagogue.

It was the Sabbath.

He taught and he healed.

The question on all lips: by

whose authority?

The unclean spirit

was noisy, challenging him.

Jesus rebuked him.

As the story goes

the spirit came out of him,

crying out loudly.

They were astounded

by Jesus and his teaching:

Where did this come from?

The news spread quickly:

Even the unclean spirits

do what he commands!

What authority?

That of the kingdom of God

of truth, grace and hope.

© Ken Rookes 2021

Come

Haiku for the ready

First, John the Baptist.

Mark moves him from centre-stage,

has him arrested.

Proclaiming good news

Jesus came to Galilee:

The time is fulfilled!

The Kingdom of God

comes nearer with every word

that I speak to you.

Simon and Andrew,

fishing brothers casting nets;

Jesus calls to them.

Come and follow me,

together we will call folk

into God’s kingdom.

We’ll share divine life,

filled with love, shaped by mercy,

transfigured through hope.

Brothers James and John

mending nets on board their boat,

Jesus calls them, too.

So Simon, Andrew,

James and John, hearing the call,

leave their nets behind.

© Ken Rookes 2021

He's from Nazareth!

 

Haiku for beginning

John knows how to tell

a good yarn; no half-measures.

Jesus starts his work.

Jesus meets Andrew,

is introduced to Simon,

comes to Galilee.

Jesus found Philip,

put the hard word on him: Come,

follow me, he said.

Philip is convinced,

goes off to find his brother;

one Nathanael.

He’s from Nazareth!

Nathan is bemused. No-one

worthwhile comes from there!

Jesus laughs. Philip,

I see you’re an Israelite,

honest and true blue!

How do you know me?

I saw you in my mind’s eye,

under the fig tree.

Nathan is amazed,

exclaims: You must be God’s Son,

and Israel’s King!

Jesus answers him:

You’ve not seen anything yet!

(He exaggerates.)

Heaven will open,

angels will descend upon

God’s Son. What wonder!

© Ken Rookes 2021

Baptism

 

Haiku for a calling

In the wilderness,

beyond the civil, polite,

and respectable.

Camel-hair jacket,

belt of leather, dining on

locusts, wild honey.

John the enigma,

known as baptiser, calling

people to repent.

I am nobody,

John declared. One is coming

far greater than I.

Jesus came to John

from Nazareth in the North;

Baptise me, he said.

Jesus emerges

from the Jordan to the dove

and to heaven’s voice.

Jesus is baptised

in God’s Spirit, and confirmed

in his ministry.

Baptised in water,

he will baptise his friends with

the Holy Spirit

This is the moment

and this is the man, says John.

He of whom I spoke.

© Ken Rookes 2020

The Word

 

Haiku of the Light.

In the beginning.

John carries us back in time:

God and the Big Bang.

Pushing back beyond

Miriam, Sarah and Eve

to Creation One.

An over-all plan

from the beginning of time:

hope for humankind.

He said, Let Light shine!

And life, light for all people

breaks through the darkness.

John came voicing hope,

to announce the one true light.

He was not the light.

The Light-Hope-Logos,

seed found at creation’s core,

becomes one of us.

Those who receive him,

who take his word deep within,

are made God’s children.

The law has limits.

Jesus brings grace, truth and love;

life comes from these things.

Many speak of God.

Only Jesus, called God’s Son,

truly makes God known.

© Ken Rookes 2020

Birth Stories

Haiku for underscoring

Luke tells his stories;

birth stories to underline

Jesus’ importance.

Righteous and devout,

Simeon had been promised

he would see the Christ.

Old man Simeon

came timely to the Temple,

led by the Spirit.

Met the family,

took the child, lifted his voice:

Let me go now, God.

You have promised me,

I have seen your salvation:

light and life for all.

This child is destined

to upset the privileged

and confront the smug.

There will be much pain.

Always there is pain when God’s

new order breaks through.

Anna, the prophet,

also very old, joins in,

to speak words of hope.

© Ken Rookes 2020

Annunciation

 

Improbable Haiku

Annunciation;

a big word for an event

cloaked in mystery.

What really happened?

Only sceptics such as me

would ask that question.

Greetings, favoured one!

The angel addresses her,

claims her attention.

The girl, young, awestruck

by news of a pregnancy.

How would I respond?

How can these things be?

The girl has not known a man;

it’s not possible.

Ah, the story goes;

you will be overshadowed

by the Most High God.

You’ll have a baby.

You will call the child Jesus;

he will be God’s Son.

© Ken Rookes 2020