120129 - It's Kairos Time!

Yr B ~ Epiphany 3 ~ Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mk 1:14-20 
If you believe in the symbolic importance of “firsts” then today’s gospel reading is one to really take notice of. Mark was the earliest written of the four gospels in the Bible – and a mere 15 verses in, we get to hear Jesus’ first recorded words. What does he say? Jesus’ first words in this gospel summarize his entire message: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” 
 
That’s it. That’s the gospel. That’s what Jesus was all about. Announcing that the kingdom of God isn’t some far away, imaginary place that you get to visit when you die – no, it’s come near – very near – and all you need to do is turn around and accept it – and believe that this is indeed very good news! All the rest is commentary.
 
But why then? What was so special about that particular time – other than Jesus was there? The answer lies in the Greek word used in his first sentence. We read, “The time is fulfilled” – but the word used there was special. There are two basic words for time in Greek – chronos and kairos.  Chronos is ordinary clock time – time for lunch, time for church – I’m out of time – time’s up – time out – time’s a wasting – no time like the present – time’s short – is it time yet?
 
But kairos time is different. Kairos means – a special, significantly critical point in human history when God’s will and purposes are carried out. Kairos is a decisive moment, a moment of truth – the opportune time. Jesus’ first words are “The Kairos is fulfilled”. We live our lives around clock time – chronos – but our deepest desires, the things that make our pulse race or our stomach turn in knots or our muscles all tense up or our passions burn are all kairos time – moments of truth.

 
Some say that time (as in chronos) is our most precious commodity today – and they may be right. But kairos time is a far more precious spiritual commodity. That kairos moments exist is not the issue – whether we recognize them, what we do with them, how we learn from them – that’s what’s important. Notice that when the moment of truth – the kairos moment – arrives, that it’s usually accompanied by a call. It’s a moment of decision – an opportune time that ideally is seized and acted upon.
 
So, the first thing Jesus says is a summary of the gospel – and the first thing Jesus says to a person explains what to do about it – he presents us with a kairos moment (his second words in Mark). The famous line is: “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” – which is really saying two things: (1) “Follow me!” And, (2) “Doing so will give you a mission and purpose in life.” It’s a kairos question – how will we respond?
 
I’d like to share with you 3 stories of people and their calls – people who sensed their “time” had come. The first story is about the disciples in Mark 1 verses 16-20. It’s such a bizarre story. Picture it – here are these guys working on their family fishing boat and this guy named Jesus – a total stranger possibly – just walks up and says “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” – Apparently, that’s all it took – their time had come. What an amazing presence Jesus must have had. The Holy Spirit must have just been oozing out of him for those guys to just drop everything and follow him. 
 
I cannot comprehend what that moment must have been like. It must’ve been utterly awesome and incredibly scary at the same time! (we talked about that last week!) Those first disciples were not “poor fishermen” – they owned the boats – they gave up much to follow Jesus. They weren’t just looking for someone to latch onto because they had no options. You’d think they would’ve needed to be pulled or dragged away – and yet they seemingly just turned and went. It was their kairos moment, their opportune time, and they seized it. Of course, they spend the rest of the time being completely clued out duh-sciples, but you gotta give them that moment – that leap of faith.
 
Then we have the story of Jonah – it’s a whale of a story! One of my favourite jokes is a Jonah joke: 
A lady on a plane trip pulled out her Bible to calm her during the flight. After a while the man next to her turned and asked, “You don’t really believe all that stuff in there do you?” The lady replied, “Of course I do, it’s the Bible”. 
He said, “Well what about that guy that was swallowed by that whale?” 
She replied, “Oh, Jonah – Yes, I believe that. It’s in the Bible.”
He asked, “Well, how do you suppose he survived all that time inside the whale?”
The lady said, “Well, I don’t really know. I guess when I get to heaven I’ll ask him.”
“What if he isn’t in heaven?” the man asked sarcastically.
 The lady answered, “Then you can ask him!”
 
Jonah is one of those stories that everyone kind of knows, but not really. He was a prophet of God – called to go to the great city of Nineveh (which would be in modern day Iraq). What you may not know is that the Ninevites were sworn enemies of the Jews – not unlike, say, an American being sent to preach in Iraq or Iran. So when God said “Hey Jonah – go and help Nineveh – go and help the ‘bad guys’,” Jonah promptly got on a ship and literally went the opposite direction.  But God didn’t like being blown off like that, so the story goes, and Jonah gets chucked into the sea and swallowed by a giant fish – where he prays for three days and reconsiders God’s generous offer! 
 
God hears Jonah, forgives him, and gives him a second chance – and Jonah gets puked up onto dry land – goes to Nineveh – walks a short way into this hostile city (doing the least he could to satisfy the letter of what God told him to do), he says one measly sentence – “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (in Hebrew it's only 5-words long!) – and then he turns and walks out. But instead of ignoring him, or arresting him, or just laughing this fool out of their city, the people apparently listened! Word got to the king about God’s impending judgment and the entire city repented – even the animals! – and God saved them – in fact, it reads “God changed God's mind” when God saw their conversion – (which brings up a really hopeful and profound theological discussion about how our actions matter to God – but we’ll save that for another day).
 
But Jonah wasn’t pleased – so he went off to sulk. His heart was hardened toward these people and he didn’t want them to be forgiven by God. Jonah wanted them punished – they were the enemy! So Jonah answered God’s call, but his heart clearly wasn’t in it. He had a kairos moment – and he blew it. But the will of God and the Word of God seemed to work pretty well despite Jonah’s reluctance. I’m not sure what that says to us about how willing we have to be or about how far we have to go – but it certainly does show that God’s work is done through incredibly imperfect people.
 
Which leads to the third call story – which is about me. I’ve been a church go-er my whole life. I sang in the choir, I sat on committees, I did my thing for the church like you do yours. But somewhere along the line God called me to something deeper – like Jesus walked up to me and said “Follow me and I will make you sing for people”. I’d love to tell you that I heard the call and dropped everything and followed – but I didn’t. Yes, I started the process toward ministry and began to study and all that, but I held onto my safe and secure life as long as I possibly could, until the chronos time of internship required a kairos time kind of decision. I relate way more to Jonah than to those first disciples. 
 
My story isn’t some model that everyone should follow. I don’t share it so you can all say “oh, what a nice man he is”. I share it because it’s a story of constant contradictions, wrestling and frustrations. 
 
Somewhere along the line we got this false sense of religion that equated faithfulness with some sort of holy perfection. If God only loved perfect people God would be awfully lonely. You want to know one of the things that first got me thinking about being a minister? I got to know one through teaching his kids – and he was an actual real person! He drank a little beer – and we even shared the odd blue word together! And sometimes he said things like “I’m not very happy with God right now”. 
 
You see, somehow I’d learned growing up that preachers were super-holy guys who were just like Jesus – and I knew I could never be that. I can’t count the times I felt God nudging me in one direction and I took off in the other – and all the days that I pick up the Bible and read some verses and think to myself “Yeah, right – whatever” – or close my eyes to pray and can’t think of anything except my grocery list – or think “Hey, I should really give that person a call,” and then don’t. 
 
And yet I have found a way to answer God’s call – and I am absolutely nourished and strengthened by the Bible – and I do pray a lot and feel a deep and profound connection with God. You see just about the best hour of my week on Sunday morning. It’s not the collar and the robe that have given me any measure of authority or right to stand up and speak – it’s not the letters before or after my name – if anything it’s that through all the contradictions and the wrestling and the frustrations in my life I’ve felt and trusted the presence of God – and at kairos time I guess I did ok.
 
How about you? – What’s your call story? Are you still waiting for that call to come? Are you listening? Are you running in the opposite direction like Jonah did? Are you dragging your heels like I did – like I do? But even then, like so many other things in life, even when you do answer the call and do what you know God is willing for your life, you know deep down that there’s always more you could do, more you could trust, more you could feel at peace. That’s why my benediction every week asks for blessings as we “journey ever deeper into the Way of Jesus” – because none of us are “there” yet. 
 
Maybe you’re thinking you don’t have a call story to share? But I beg to differ. Of all the hundreds of options you had to choose from this morning – from sleeping in, to cleaning your house, to going for a walk, to reading the newspaper, to just enjoying a quiet morning – you chose to be here. You seized this kairos time. That is a bold and faithful act in this day and age. 
 
Your presence here, whether by a conscious act of will or just because it’s your habit, is an answer to God’s call on your life. You aren’t somewhere else this morning – you’re here. Your presence in this place – in this community of faith – is your answer to God’s call to follow. It isn’t the whole answer – at least I hope not – but it is definitely an answer. Like Jonah you said yes, I’ll go. Like Peter and Andrew and James and John you said yes, I’ll follow.
 
The kairos is fulfilled. It’s the opportune time. What are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with this critical mass of crazy people who have answered God’s call this morning? Look around you – here we all are – called by God – trying to figure out what the heck that means for us personally – and what it means for us as a church. It’s kairos time – it’s decision time – it’s the moment of truth. How will this collection of called out followers of the Way of Jesus live out their call? 
 
There’s an energy here.  It’s palpable! It’s not because of any one thing, it’s because of kairos. “What are we called to be and do in this place at this unique moment in time?” – Why is it important that Faith United is here? Why do we bother?
 
Well, we bother for the same reasons that you’re here and not somewhere else this morning – because faith matters – because deepening your relationship with God brings light and love and hope and joy and peace into your life, and through your life into the lives of others – because God called you here and once you tune into that it’s tough to ignore – like a rock in your shoe, or a bit of food stuck in your teeth – only not quite as unpleasant we hope!
 
I think this year is a kairos time for this congregation. It’s a moment of truth – a time to look hard at what we’re all about – listen hard for the leading of the Holy Spirit – and get down to the business of being followers of the Way of Jesus. 
 
We are here together for a reason. The time is fulfilled – the kingdom of God has come near. How will we respond to this good news? What will we do in this kairos moment? May God’s Spirit fill us, strengthen us, empower us, and encourage us to answer the call to follow the Way of Jesus and to discern and embrace God’s mission and purpose for our life and our church. Amen.