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Mark 1:14-20; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
A long time ago in a country not that far away a singer/songwriter by the name Bob Dylan wrote this little ditty about change:
Come gather ’round people wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide the chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon for the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’
Come senators, congressmen please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don’t criticize what you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’
Dylan wrote The Times They Are a-Changing in the Fall of 1963 just before American President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The song skyrocketed to popularity as the younger generation was rising up against the perceived crony-ism of the older, established generation. They were crying out for civil rights, an end to the Vietnam War. They wanted a world of peace, love, and understanding.
The Times They Are a-Changing is now sixty years old and we just might want to ask has anything really changed. The young people the song was meant to give voice to and to rally up, well, they were the front end of that demographic affectionately known as the Baby Boomers. Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964 and are the largest and wealthiest demographic in North America today. If you are between the of 62 and 80, well, “Hey, Boomer.” Did the Boomers change the things they so idealistically set out to change? I would answer that question by quoting Pete Townsend of classic Rock band The Who who in the last line of their iconic song “Won’t Get Fooled again” which is about Third World revolutions, he said, “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.” You hear the answer in the hurt and sarcasm of the voices of their children, the Gen X-ers, and their narcissistic grandchildren, the Millennials, when they affectionately say, “Thanks, Boomer.” Their great grandchildren, Gen Z’s, are as tuned out as tuned out gets due to device addiction, devices which are handed out in public schools where the focus of their education is “Be all you can be”.
As things stand today, the Climatic stability of this planet is in jeopardy. It’s nearly impossible to get young people involved in government mostly because it involves “politics”. Western democracies are facing a significant threat from populist authoritarian movements. The press, the Media, is so agenda-ed on all sides that one can’t expect them to serve the prophetic purpose Dylan imagined it should. But, the prophetic office is one that belongs to the church but let’s certainly not talk about what’s become of the church in the last 60 years (there’s brutal sarcasm in my voice for those who are reading rather than hearing this). The times they were a-changing but nothing really changed.
Well, I guess if we’re going to eat Dylan for breakfast maybe we should take a look at the Apostle Paul who roughly 1,970 years ago, “the appointed time has grown short” and “the present form of this world is passing away”. We could ask Paul what has changed and then come up with a myriad list of atrocities committed by the Church, the institution of which Paul could have and would have never imagined. I can only answer that line of thinking by saying that if attacking a Church that has merited quite a bit of the attack is the way you want to go, you’ve missed the point.
I apologize for jumping right into a Greek lesson, but the word for “appointed time” is an interesting one. Jesus says, “The time (Kairos) 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 is not the word for the tic-toc of time nor is it so much the word for meaning the times of the Old Testament of the times of the Middle Ages. Kairos is different. It means a decisive moment in time. It’s a time for something specific to happen; a time in which the events of history 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 from there on out.
As an example, marriages can have kairos times, be they difficult times or good times but usually difficult, 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. At the time Paul wrote this, he 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 advised the Corinthians to put their allegiance to Jesus first, even before their marriages. Quit grieving, Quit rejoicing. Quit acting like possessions make any difference. Quit being so businessy for the way this world works will soon not be the way this world works anymore. The form, the rubric, of this world is passing away. Obviously, Jesus hasn’t returned yet and life goes on. We cannot act in such an abrupt way as Paul is prescribing here that would cause the world to end. (To the reader that was meant to be humourous.)
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. There have been several moments in the history of the church that have been kairos times. The Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties, the abolition of slavery, the Reformation, to name a few. These were times when the disciples of Jesus need to act and people like Rosa Parks did and things changed.
Let me reframe Kairos time in a way not so literal as Paul did. 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 and react 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 on its own 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.
Jesus the said, “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 unconditionally and even sacrificially.
“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. Humanity has lived according to the lie that God is Almighty Power. Jesus showed us the love 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 being befriended and loved; 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 Jesus’ 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 us new.
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 don’t preach Jesus and his ways. Be disciples who disciple. To sound like Paul, in this kairos time, Jesus must become our primary loyalty, our primary devotion to him is the way forward for this world stuck in Rome. Amen.
