Podcast of "Time and Time Again" (MP3)
Podcast Powered By Podbean
Acts 1:6-14
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
John 17:1-11
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Time, we lose it, we bide it, we spend it, we run out of it. We can’t buy it, not even one second, though time management experts work to make us more efficient so that we can find more of it. Somehow they tend to find it so the company store can have it, that doesn’t seem right. At that, you’re not finding time, you’re finding work. Someone is trying to pull the wool over our eyes with that one.
There’s central time and daylight savings time. There’s Greenwich Mean Time and Zulu time. There’s time for school and right now there’s summertime. We have all kinds of clocks and watches so we can measure it too. We measure time with sand that falls and with crystals that discharge electricity. But there are some who can’t leave well enough alone.
Since 1999 some internet fans and the Swiss watchmaker Swatch have tried to get the “beat” to replace the second when measuring the time of day around the globe. Popular Science magazine reported the new timekeeping standard called Internet Time is winning converts, even if it has not yet been formally proposed to the Bureau International des Poids et Measures (BIPM) which coordinates time standards globally.
Here’s the way beats correspond to time of day. With 86,400 seconds in every 24 hour day, Internet Time divides days into 1,000 beats of 86.4 seconds each. Cybertime would use Biel , Switzerland Biel
Internet types find the appeal of Internet Time is that it is absolute. When the time is @500 in Biel it’s also @500 here in Marshall Biel and 4:00 am here in Marshall
The proponents of Internet time say eliminating time zones simplifies scheduling online meetings, though whoever schedules the meeting must consider whether everyone is likely to be awake at any given time. Also, because it uses base-10 rather than the current base-12 system, Internet Time may be easier to calculate, even if it does take some getting used to.[1]
So for a local example, in internet time our worship service began at @791.66 and the sermon began at around @812.50. On a creepier note, our 10:00 Sunday School time begins at @666.66 beats Internet Time. Since 10:00 Central is also 11:00 Eastern, churchs on the East Coast that begin at 11:00 AM would also begin at @666.66 beats Internet time. Yeah, I can see that going over well.
Because that’s what we need, a new not uncomplicated way to measure time that would make us get new clocks, redo cookbooks, and start Sunday School at the time which bears the number of the beast. It would take work, but I’d convert to military Zulu time before Internet time.
Time is complicated enough, and John’s gospel gives us one more example of how complicated time can be. Jesus begins by saying “the time has come.” His time is upon us. One of the problems with our lectionary[2] is that we can lose our place in the grand narrative of the scripture, the Gospel in particular.
The time has truly come for Jesus. Our reading is from the beginning of the high Priestly Prayer which ends the Lord’s Supper. What we began reading on Maundy Thursday is coming to a close on this seventh Sunday of Easter, so it’s been a while getting here and the time truly has come.
Other translations of this verse have Jesus saying that “the hour has come.” As much as this is more technically correct, the New International Version’s rendering of “the time” captures the spirit of what Jesus is trying to say much better. Jesus is not trying to say that “the 60 minutes” has come, or worse “the @41.66 beats” has come. Jesus is telling his disciples that the most important turning point of history since his birth is upon them. It’s time. Judas is coming with the guard and the Passion is about to begin.
The time is now, but as Augustine asks, what is time? Who can easily and briefly explain the nature of time? Who can comprehend time in thought, much less in a word? Surely, we understand it when we talk about it, and also understand it when we hear others talk about it. What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I want to explain it to someone who asks me, I do not know.”[3]
While St. Augustine
The disciples ask the risen Lord if this is the time when he will restore the kingdom to Israel . The disciples are asking if this is the specific moment in the history of the world when he will vanquish Rome and all others who have conquered or would want to conquer the Holy Land and establish the Kingdom of God in the kingdom of Israel
Jesus’ answer is not so cut and dry. He tells them that it is not for them to know “the times or the dates” the father has set.
To gauge how slippery Jesus’ answer is; the history of translation renders it several different ways. In the New Revised Standard Version Jesus says it is not for them to know “the times or periods.” The King James says “the times or the seasons.” The New American Standard says “the times or epochs.” The New Living Translation uses the phrase “those dates and times.” The history of biblical interpretation is varied because the words used are very specific and very special. I imagine Augustine saying, “Now you get my point.”
The difference is that Jesus is using two different words to mean time. One is chronos and the other is kairos; and as usual, nuance is the first thing lost in the translation. Chronos is where we get the words chronological and chronometer (which is a five dollar word for watch or clock). Chronos is the time that marches on; ever forward, never back. Chronos time is also found in the answer to the questions “what time is lunch?” and “how long is the pastor going to talk before we can get to lunch?” Kairos is not.
Kairos has the connotation of a very special very specific moment of time. One author says kairos time is the “appropriate or decisive moment or period of time.”[4] Another calls kairos time “God-moments.”[5] The hint here is that kairos is a decisive moment when something happens. It’s a moment when God enters into our world like a lightning bolt and changes everything. The inbreaking of a kairos moment is in its way more of an event within time than it is a specific time.
In telling the disciples that it is not for them to know the times or dates, the chronos or the kairos, he tells them that they won’t know when on the calendar nor will they be able to figure out when by events.
Jesus said that his hour has come. This is the time, his moment. It is the time when the events will occur. You could then say that the Passion is a kairos moment, it’s the event of God being made known once and for all in the person of Jesus Christ.
Each event within the Passion, from Judas’ decision to betray the Lord to the guard saying “surely this was a righteous man” is a kairos moment of its own. Dozens of little decisions are made and events happen which lead toward the ultimate kairos moment, the Resurrection.
In chronos time, you can say it all happened in a weekend.
So the hour has come and we will not know the times or the dates. I would say that the words of Jesus are confusing, but this is surely because I do not see the whole picture. This is surely because there is no humanly way I could see the whole picture. Our reading from acts says that by the power of the Holy Spirit we will be able to know, but then again Harold Camping of “We Can Know” ministries proves that this is also easy to get wrong.
It also says that Jesus has come, and the victory over death and sin has been won. It also says that there is still suffering, there is still work for us to do in the name and by the power of Jesus Christ.
A man was seated on a park bench when a small lad about 5 years old sat down and started winding what appeared to be a prized possession-a Mickey Mouse watch. “What a neat watch! Does it tell you the time?” The stranger asked. “No,” the boy answered, “you gotta look at it,”[6]
It’s time to check our watches. We won’t know what time it is unless we look at our watches. But to measure kairos time, we need different tools. We need humility. Our reading from 1Peter says “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.” Another way to say this is “So that he may exalt you in kairos.”
Our reading from acts tells us how to seek kairos moments. We need to pray for these moments to come and that we may recognize them. The reading from Acts ends reports “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.” There is still work for us to and that work must begin with prayer.
Above all, we need to pray hopefully. There is no room for despair in prayer. Lament yes, despair no. The difference between lament and despair, at least in my eyes, is that lament carries hope in the faithfulness of God. God is faithful. His faithfulness is our only source of hope.
So when we pray in humility seeking God’s work in our lives, our friends’ lives, and our congregational life; we pray to be a part of those kairos moments. We pray to be a part of God’s work in the world.
In these things we know that now is the time. Now is the time for hope in the church. Now is time for hope in the name and by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. The hour is here. The hour, the chronos, the kairos; the time is here. Time and time again, the time of the inbreaking of Christ is now.
[1] Gail Dutton, “Clocking the Web,” Popular Science, March 1999, 47. Found at Homiletics Online, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=936, retrieved June 2, 2011.
[2] We use the Revised Common Lectionary for scripture in worship. For more information see http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/.
[3] Paraphrase of Augustine, Confessions, Book xi, Chapter 14.Ibid Homiletics Online
[4] Morisada Rietz, Henry W, “New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible.” Vol. 5.Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2009, page 598.
[5] Ibid Homiletics Online
[6] Ibid Homiletics Online
No comments:
Post a Comment