Mark 1:14-20; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
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I started this sermon on Wednesday morning January 20, 2021 sitting in front of the television awaiting the swearing in of President Joseph R. Biden and Vice-President Kamala D. Harris. I could not help but feel a sense of “the time is fulfilled, complete, come to an end; something new is upon us.” And, “the appointed time has grown short”. There’s another way of translating that. It would go, “The appointed time has been wrapped up like a corpse.” (Both these time references are from our readings, in case you didn’t read them.) I reflected on how for the last four years I have been giving the now former President of the United States free rent to occupy space in my mind. I couldn’t help it. Open my computer, look at the news, and there he was. Go out and meet people, it didn’t take long for him to become the topic of conversation. There was just no escaping him. I think the reason he, the real estate mogul, ran for President was that he might have free rent to occupy space in our minds. The space he got from me was not a good space for me. As an American living abroad I daily felt shame, anger, disbelief, and disgust at the former President’s behaviour, his decisions, his lying. I feel like I’ve been bullied. I have that sense of traumatization that bullies leave us with that will take a while to get over. Unfortunately, due to the following he has amassed he will continue to appear in our lives like the flashbacks of traumatic events that plague those who suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But he’s gone now. He’s not our neighbour anymore. His time is over. It’s time to heal.
I wonder what tomorrow and the next day, week, month, year will be like in a world with a United States once again behaving like an adult, like a responsible world citizen. I’m cautious. Being an adult myself, I know we don’t always make good decisions and it sadly becomes our children who suffer for it. Just ask Greta Thunberg. She’ll tell it like it is. But at least I feel as if Uncle Joe and Sister Kamala are competent and listening. It is now time for some very prudent and decisive action bent towards compassion and empathy. This world, not just the U.S., needs a time of healing, a moment dedicated to healing, a moment that will shape the course of history.
I apologize for jumping right into a Greek lesson, but the word for time that popped up in our Scripture readings is an interesting one. Jesus says, “The time is fulfilled; the Reigning of God is at hand”. Paul writes, “The appointed time has grown short.” That word for “time” there in Greek is kairos. It has different meaning than another word in Greek for time which sounds familiar to us, which is chronos. We get our word chronology from that one. Chronos is the tick-tock of time; the putting of things into chronological order kind of time. Kairos is different. It means a decisive moment in time. It’s a time for something specific to happen; a time in which events have obviously come together in such a way that people need to rise to the occasion and do the right thing because the impact of the decisions made at this time will profoundly shape history.
As an example, marriages can have kairos times, difficult times or good times, where spouses can say that the way we handle this moment, these weeks, these months, even years will make or break us. We will either come out with a stronger relationship, a deeper friendship, or we’ll just set up boundaries we know not to cross. That’s kairos – a period of time in which important decisions need to be made and proactive actions taken.
With respect to God. Kairos is a decisive period of time when people of faith need to get off their laurels and be faithful. A period of time to stand up and be counted. In First Corinthians Paul was expecting the imminent return of Jesus to establish the Reign of God which would put an end to the world as we do it. So, he advises the Corinthians to put their allegiance to Jesus first, even before their marriage. Quit grieving, Quit rejoicing. Quit acting like possessions make any difference. Quit being so damned political for the way this world works will soon not be the way this world works anymore.
Kairos time is a period of time for people of faith to stand up and be faithful because faithful action during this time will affect the faith of others for generations. I’m reminded of an old Jewish scribe named Eleazer who lived about 160 years before Jesus. At that time, Israel was occupied by the Greeks. The head Greek in the area was Antiochus IV Epiphanes or Antiochus IV the Enlightenment (or Enlightened or Enlightener. His ego was beyond exaggerated). Antiochus wanted the people that he conquered and ruled to become Greek in culture and faith. Well. the Jews regarded Greek culture as being a bit randy and had their own God, thank you, and so they did not do well with Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The Jews’ refusal to worship any other God but their own eventually came to a head when Antiochus IV Epiphanes put a statue of Zeus in the Temple where the Ark of the Covenant stood and sacrificed a pig to it and demanded the Jews worship it. A revolt ensued, the Maccabean Revolt. Hanukkah originated from that revolt. As far as what became of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, he died a painful, disgusting, and humiliating death; some would say the God of the Jews smote him.
One year during the Festival of Dionysius, the most randy of the Greek festivals, Antiochus started forcing Jews to eat pork at the threat of flogging or worse. He had an old scribe Eleazer who was 90 years old brought before him and told him to eat the pork. Eleazer refused. His soldiers shoved it in Eleazer’s mouth and he spit it out. Antiochus then had the 90-year-old Eleazer flogged and brought back before him and privately offered Eleazer the option to eat some other form of meat and pretend it to be pork. This would at least allow Antiochus to appear to have broken the old man’s faith. Again, Eleazer refused and so Antiochus had him flogged to death – a 90-year-old man.
Eleazer didn’t stand silent through it all. His speech to Antiochus was a remarkable statement of “kairos” faith. After Antiochus made him the offer to eat some other kind of meat, Eleazer said: “Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life, for many of the young might suppose that Eleazer in his ninetieth year had gone over to an alien religion, and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age. Even if for the present I would avoid the punishment of mortals, yet whether I live or die I will not escape the hands of the Almighty. Therefore, by bravely giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws” (2 Mac. 6:24-28).
There is something to be said for those people who are in their elder years and continue to stand faithful, who continue to be involved in a congregation and who share their faith with the younger generation even though it seems like a royal waste of time. In this day and age when “the truth” is such a disputed matter, the wisdom encapsulated by the continued faith and faithfulness of the elder generation is a clear indicator of what Truth really is. When a 78-year-old Joe Biden (and I realize 78 is the new 58) takes the Oath of Office and says “and so help me God” and says it knowing what it is to have had God’s help in his darkest moments, in his kairos times, and actually want God’s help; that speaks volumes to a nation whose younger generations do not know what it is to bow their heads in prayer to a God who actually cares or sing “Amazing Grace” from the heart but have rather devoted their lives as per the example they’ve been shown to the idols of Wealth, Consumerism, Celebrity, Amusement, Politicians, Power, Sex, Technology…all those Greek gods that still persist yet with another name…and of course the unholy trinity of “me, myself, and I”. There can be no Truth found when God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not sought.
We are at a kairos time, a moment that calls for drastic action. As Paul wrote: “The kairos – the appointed moment to act decisively – is growing short.” We are about to wrap the shroud around it and bury it. The time is right now for us the people of planet Earth, particularly those who are in power to make the decisions and enact the legislation that will protect the climate, end racism, end sexism, end nationalism, end poverty, end corruption in governments and court systems and do it in the midst of a pandemic that demands immediate action or people will needlessly suffer and die. We are at a kairos time that is coming to an end and if the appropriate decisions are not made and the appropriate actions not taken the consequence will be grave.
What role do we people of faith have in this kairos time? Well, Jesus came in the midst of a kairos time bringing with him a kairos time. The office of Roman Emperor was just over 20 years old when Jesus was born. The known world was beginning to figure out what it was to bend the knee to one man and call him Lord and Saviour and Son of God. The Roman Emperors promised peace and prosperity all the while enforcing their whims with the most powerful military the world had ever known. The world we know would not be the world we know apart from the decisions made by these few powerful men and those surrounding them even though they lived 2,000 years ago. Imperial Rome is still with us. We might call it Democracy and have figured out how to limit the powers of want-to-be Emperors, but Western Culture is still Roman Culture. Like the movie Groundhog Day, we are stuck reliving Rome.
Jesus came into that kairos time bringing with him a moment of decision for each person to make. He was a Jew, one of those pesky people who wouldn’t bow the knee to any other god than their own God, the one true God. As truly being the Son of God, Jesus stood in opposition to everything the Roman Emperor stood for. The Spirit of God rested upon Jesus and empowered him. Everywhere Jesus went he proclaimed good news to the poor. He healed people. He cast out demons. He raised the dead. He called people to love God and neighbour. He called people to forgive each other. He called people to act peaceably. He called people to share their stuff. Invited the rich to give to the poor. He allowed himself to be “bothered” by children. He regarded women as equal to men. He listened. He cared. He prayed. He knew the Scriptures and taught them. He confronted religious hypocrisy. He fed over 15,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. He calmed a storm. He walked on water. He was crucified for treason, but God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead in vindication starting a New Creation that will come to its fullness when this time is fulfilled and Jesus returns.
Jesus came proclaiming the Gospel. Let me break it down for you, “The kairos is fulfilled.” Humanity’s ability to rule itself and solve its problems will never become anything more than a repeat of Imperial Rome. If you want to know everything Man can be when Man sings “I did it my way”, Imperial Rome and its pathologies is as good as it gets. The Kairos of Man is fulfilled. Come to its end. If humanity wants to move forward, then we truly have to take Jesus seriously.
“The Kingdom of God is at hand.” This makes more sense if we say the reigning or ruling of God is upon us. Everywhere Jesus went through everything he said and did, the ruling of God manifested. It continues today through those who follow him and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and love God and love neighbour.
“Repent and believe the Gospel.” The Greek word for repent literally means “Be with-minded.” Be with-minded with God. Think on the things of God not the things of Man. Want the things of God rather than indulge the compulsions of Man. Man has lived according to the lie that God is Almighty Power. Jesus, rather, has showed us the love of God, the true power of God, when he died on the cross and was raised. He did not inflict his power upon anyone in any kind of way that was not healing or freeing or empowering. God’s power is sacrificial, unconditional love that respects persons and heals them. It is not this survival of the fittest leading to domination by the fittest thing. The Greek word for believe does not mean “I think these ideas to be true.” It also goes beyond a simple matter of trusting God. It is loyalty that arises from love; loyalty which we demonstrate by faithfulness. To repent and believe the Gospel that the kairos is fulfilled and the Reign of God is at hand is to become a loyal disciple of Jesus. It is to gather together with a group of friends to prayerfully hash out the question, “Who are you, Lord Jesus?” He will show up where people gather in his Name in the fullness of the love of God in the power of the Holy Spirit to heal us and make new us.
If humanity wants to be anything more than what it was under Imperial Rome, we each need to take Jesus seriously. This kairos time that we are in is the same kairos time that humanity has been in. You, the elder church stand as a testimony to the faithfulness of God, of God’s love for you as God has proven himself faithful to you time after time after time after time after time throughout the many years of your lives. This is Truth. This God who has been true to you is pouring his reign in love upon the world through Jesus by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Have the courage to share this truth with your children and grandchildren pointing to Jesus as the Way forward. Teach not preach Jesus and his ways. Be disciples who disciple. In this kairos time, Jesus must become our primary loyalty, our primary devotion for he is the way forward for this world stuck in Rome. Amen.
