Haiku Perspective on Today's Scriptures

Haiku Perspective for 18 Pentecost

(Sept. 21, 2013)

Overview:

Not anxious versus

giving up things of the earth:

Proper perspective

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

God cares profoundly

Tears prove God will not give up

No tears means no hope*

Psalm 79:1-9

Compost Heap

In despair we cry

God's compassion works on us,

Turns garbage to food

Our cry to God

Us: Wipe out heathens!

God: Why do they not know me?

Us: It's our neglect!

Deliver & Forgive

We shovel garbage

for compost that can nourish

God's garden we work

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Our prayers are mighty

to transform bad into good

As Jesus does us

Luke 16:1-13

Series of Gospel Haikus

Why commend the cheat?

He's a thief, yet serves to show

Devotion's virtue

Manager honest

with self; creates back-up plan

shrewd in his own world

What does this teach us?

Know your own virtues, vices

Commit how to live

* No hope/no tears inspired by Thomas G. Long's G. What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith. P. 147, where he quotes Jean Vanier's experience of a visit to the children’s ward of a psychiatric hospital, quoting from Vanier’s Becoming Human. Toronto: House of Anansi Press. 1998. P. 9.