About Time

Since December 2, a part of me has been keenly aware of time growing short.

My grandma used to be an avid watcher of the American Soap Opera “Days of Our Lives,” and recently, it feels like I can hear the show’s theme song overlayed upon the sand-filled, hourglass—or the soaring sounds of Pink Floyd’s classic from Dark Side of the Moon radiating from the fringes of my life.

The linear time—or the chronos—of our journey together here at St. Paul’s is coming to an end, and with that fact in mind, over this last month I’ve felt called to share with you all some of my deepest held convictions about faith, church, and God.

Today’s reading from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians is all about our approach to time as people who have been drawn into the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.

Our patron saint is so convinced that the second coming is imminent—that Christ is returning to deliver all creation into the birth of the new age—that he tells his listeners to put all their energy into preparation.

Forget the daily routines, the shape of your normal relationships, anything you might have on your “to-do” list, and prepare for the end of the age by living according to its parameters right now.

Drop any secondary concerns and focus on what is primary—leave the worries of chronos/hourglass time and embrace the eternal now of kairos time.

It may be hard for us to understand this kind of expectant mentality for Christ’s imminent return after almost 2 millenia of faithful waiting.

And I often wonder what it felt like in the early church after generations had passed and our forebears had to wrestle with the reality of engaging life fully in their days, while also holding on to this kairos-based hope.

In many ways, the church and the faithful have been called to a new relationship with time ever since Jesus rose on the third day, flinging open the door to eternal life and folding the timelines of our lives into Kairos-based circles and spirals that stretch into infinity.

We understand that there are seasons for everything, and we know that the work of reconciling the world in Christ’s name is ongoing and beyond the scope of our individual lives.

Like matriarchs and patriarchs and medieval cathedral builders – who laid a foundation for others to improve upon, and still others to complete—disciples of the Risen Lord are always aware of the difference between human time and God’s time.

The challenge is how to live within the tension of chronos and Kairos—how to know and behave as if the time is always ripe to witness the inbreaking of the reign of God, and how to respect the days that are given us and the seasonality of our lives.

Paul was firmly convinced that in Christ, chronos was coming to an end, and God’s appointed time was at hand.

In our age, we may often feel the opposite—that chronos time keeps marching on, and Kairos can be illusive or non-existent.

In my own life of discipleship, I’ve found the most joy and meaning in holding the two in creative tension.

I do believe in the reality and truth of Christ’s return, and I wake up each day with an expectation that, if I pay enough attention, I just may witness an inbreaking of the reign of God in the midst of the ordinary stuff and interactions of life.

My personal prayer practices, as well as the shape of the communal prayers in which we participate, are designed to open my senses to God’s presence in my neighbors, in strangers, in the fabric of creation, in work, in play, and in rest.

Each moment of the day bears markings of the divine, even if my sense of chronos concerns might threaten to eclipse my experience of them.

Holding space for Kairos time means letting God train us, through prayer, to become more aware, more attuned, and more accepting of the sometimes inconvenient, yet always revelatory, inbreaking of the reign of God in our lives.

Does this mean chronos is nothing, and that the timelines by which we order our lives should be discarded the way Paul suggests?

My suspicion is that 2000 years of waiting for the final consummation of the Bridegroom have both taught us patience, and given us the gift of many saintly examples of living Kairos time within the reality of chronos time.

We can learn from such faithful forebears the steps of this delicate yet holy dance.

None of us know the length of days before us, nor can we see fully into the future, but we CAN choose to engage in projects and efforts that take planning, vision, and generations of effort.

We can use the years, months, and days of our lives to build something for future generations, and we can apply our collective effort to transmitting love and truth beyond the length of our lifespans.

Such generational ministry and work is like adding a thin sheet of paper for each day of effort until, over many days and years of chronos time, a large stack appears.

In my experience, the challenging work of being an authentic, diverse, church community falls into this category of time.

It takes many days and years of faithful members living according to the values we hold dear in Christ—actually putting flesh onto the vision and mission of being welcoming to all and rejecting none—years of building up trust with one another to say the hard things and the true things and the healing things—years of harvesting the fruit of these sacrifices and commitments in order for us to be convinced that our long-range efforts in chronos time are worth it.

And these days, such long-range commitments are rare—as we contemplate the actual end of existence due to our unwillingness to confront climate change, and as the world runs from institutions and generational efforts to search for solace in immediate gratifications that often prove woefully ephemeral.

Anyone who has searched for life answers in these commodified  wastelands and exited their barren expanses hungrier and thirstier than when they arrived knows that tending the mustard seeds, the vines, and the acorns of God’s reign is where truly satisfying life can be found.

And that tending takes thought, planning, and intentionality in chronos time, with a daily approach that infuses the attitude and orientation of Kairos time, so we remember that ultimately this is God’s work through us as a people, and not merely our work alone.

This week, I encourage you to reflect on how you are balancing chronos and Kairos in your own life and ministry.

What prayer practices might help you increase your awareness and attention for Christ’s presence and accompaniment in each moment and experience of your days?

Who might you work with in this community, and beyond it, to make sure the good news we know in Christ is shared far off and near?

How might you allow the triune God to use the gift of the timeline of your life to draw the larger world into the ever-present Kairos moment of resurrection?

Dear siblings in Christ, our shared chronos time may be coming to an end, but rather than mourning over what is passing away, let us instead give thanks for the way God has infused the time we had with goodness, with faithfulness, and with love.

The same faithful God who has filled this chronos season with Kairos joy, will yet accompany us in the days ahead, and bind us into one body across space, time, and even the great veil of death itself.

To this God be the power and the glory, now and forever.