Catching a glimpse of Kairos time

Monday in the Octave of Easter, April 18, 2022                  

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Catching a glimpse of Kairos time

Easter Sunday – Resurrection Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection, and then forty days. Jesus appeared over and over to his friends and disciples, once to five hundred of them at one time, perhaps in Galilee, where much of his ministry took place.

Jesus told them to be ready for the coming of the Holy Spirit. He told them to stay in Jerusalem and wait “for the gift my Father promised.”

On the fiftieth day comes the rushing wind of Pentecost, a moveable feast just as Easter is, day of the tongues of fire, breaking of the curse of Babel, the sudden ability of Jesus’ followers to speak in the tongues of their foreign brothers and sisters.

Pentecost was an established Jewish feast, often attended by 100,000 or more travelers. What Pastor Matt calls our “certain hope,” born on Easter morning, blessed thousands of pilgrims on that fiftieth day.

You who are children of Israel, let this be known to you, and listen to my words.

Peter was no longer Simon the Fisherman, but Peter the Apostle. His words flew across the square, carried by the power of God. Peter spoke of his master Jesus, ascended into heaven just these last ten days, but really not gone at all.

God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. Exalted at the right hand of God, he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit, as you both see and hear.

During Easter the lectionary tells two stories at one time, fifty days apart. There is more than simple symmetry here. The spirit of God hovers over the face of the earth. There was morning, and there was evening, and it was the first day … it was the fortieth day … it was the fiftieth day. And God saw that it was very good. We live on earth caught in and tamed by chronos time. Since our exile from the eternity of Eden, we’ve lived this way, uncertain even of our next breath, watching our family and friends live, and live, and then die, and die. “Graveyard dead,” as Pastor Matt said about Jesus on Calvary.

We breathe and sometimes count our heartbeats. We keep track of time in minutes and hours and use those times and dates to make appointments with others. We set alarms and timers and use our weekly allotment of 168 hours in one way or another, sometimes satisfied and sometimes not. And then we die.

But the lectionary reminds me of Kairos time.

In our time we also know the presence of others. We enter their chronos and share ours with them, but even then we hold tight together in a warm web of Kairos eternity. Outside Eden Jesus calls our names and binds us together. And here’s the thing: Jesus is there with us, as he is whenever two or three are gathered in his name.

Willa Cather wrote as best she could about this in Death Comes for the Archbishop. Father Latour had a bit of luxury at the end of his life, a few weeks to reflect on his life. At last, after decades of difficult travel on horseback through the desert, he could lie down for awhile. He had what we might call “margin.”

He thought little about death; it was the Past he was leaving. The future would take care of itself … he noticed that now the mistakes of his life seemed unimportant; only accidents that occurred en route … and there was no longer any perspective on his memories – winters with his cousins when he was a little boy, moments as a student in the Holy City, the building of his Cathedral.

So many men and women, Indians and Mexicans, Frenchmen and Americans, made up his life.

He was soon to have done with the calendared time, and it had already ceased to count for him. He sat in the middle of his own consciousness; none of his former states of mind were lost or outgrown. They were all within reach of his hand, and all comprehensible. (p. 126)

I may not have weeks at the end of my time on earth to do this reflecting, so I suppose it’s a good idea to get started now. While “all is in reach of my hand, and all comprehensible.”

Thanks to the lectionary for getting me started.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.

(Acts 2, Psalm 16, Psalm 118, Matthew 28)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)

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