Communion Meditation - TINE -
January 2, 1972
Ephesians §:15=17
John HM. Buchanan

i have read this morning two portions of the Bible that refer to time:
that well known passage from Ecclesiastes and Paul's advice to the Ephesians that
instructs the early christians to “use the present opportunity to the full" the
e. S$. ¥. translates it, “Make the most of the time".

There are essentially two different ways of talking about time; the Biblical
way and our way. In Greek the two ways are expressed in two different words =
both of which are translated ttime “ dn English. KATROS ~ refers to time with
specific content; time that is defined by what 4s happening in it. In the full-
ness of time’ - that is Kairos. CHRONOS - from which we get “chronological”.
means simply the quantity of time elapsed, 4s apposed to the quality of time in
Kairos.

duly 4, 1776 - that's a statement of Chronos, chronological time.

Independence Day = that's 2 statement of Kairos; an andicater of a signigicant
event in history, even though both refer to the same day in the story of America.

All things considered, the Bible is just not too interested in Chrones - the
quantitate ones Or ry time. To be sure, the ancients recorded days and months

lealne id
and years. The Psalinist asks God to “teach us to number our days". But the con-
tinuing and Tmportane Biblical emphasis on time is always in terms of Kairos -
Zsraeli tes

the significant events that are happening or are about to happen. The Psrailets
were concerned primarily with time in terms of planting, harvest, the gay of attonment,
the day of sacrifice, the day of the Lord's coming

They saw their nistory moving toward one central “ha?roes” event; the coming
of God in the Messiah. And in the New Testament. the early Christians were very
much aware that they lived in a new day = a hew time ~ a whole new era, because of
what God had done in Jesus Christ.

How that may sound rather acadethic, and if ever there is a time to avoid dry
academics it is daduary 2. Except for the fact that you and I, and the rest of

western Civilivation are obsessed with chrones - with the chronological measurement

of tine, at the expense of Kairos. And 4f you aren't ready to buy that statencnt,
consider the fact that nearly everyone of us wears a mechanical device Gah which

to measure chronological tine, ang tuat those devices vould be very much in evidence,
along with a lot of shuffling and tareat clearinn , snoul? T extend this particular
saraon, say to an nour or so - cven though it just may be 4 siunificant event in che
life of tne congregation. Thac is to say, we are much mare concerned with chronos
than Xairos. with the quantity of tine elapsing ratner than the quality of whatever
js happening in the ttinc.

In a recent book, @ yours theologian {To a vancing God, 5. Keen) suggests that

wore beri
the industrial revatution and western civilizaton-with symbolically learn with the
invention of the portable steck. Before that invention time was measure. by the
organic rhytinui of desire and satisfaction. planting and haryoSt.«..e++ “That 1s to
say. Kairos GOVOrnes life, rather than Chrongs. But today, The clock is now
srafced into the asyche and replaces the rhytha of the bouy and nature with the
prefabricated cadence of the metrononc. We march to the beat of an alien pacemaker,
eatiug wien the clock atrikes G, 12, and 6. working five ties eight hours por week,
and retiring fron labret at age sixty-five. » (P.92-53) The clock and the calendar,
che tools of Chronos - govern our living, almost compietely-

In fact, if we are rot using our energy to keep pace with our watches and cal-
endars we are using it 2 Fight the passage of time. Think, for instance qpout the
anount of money, iugenuity and creativity invested in the effort to deny the Fact
that we are getting sider. Tne fev. Ernest Campbell calls it "The Ponce de Leon
Ansiety". (The Protestant Hour danuary 3976) Pance, you will recall. ‘was 4

iv'ls ik?
Spanish Conquistador who discovered Florida. but wat he was really looking for was
a legendary spring whose waters could make old men young again. Ponca was $2 when
se set out to find tir: fountain of youth, uhich fact prompts campbell to remark that
'tiose of us who lave knows that neat of forty summcrs or orc Call readily identify
with this avest. We fight the catendar the vay a loosims fpoiball team fignts tae

etfock.'

el.

Consider our cultural fetish with youth. We are possessed with a passion to
remain young, that is, to deny the passage of time) we tift’oray hair back again, we
invoke the skills of cosmetician and plastic surgeon; our eye 4s caught by advertis~-

ng that excludes anyone over thiry ; and we quaf the drink "for those who think
young" even though they aren't.
hao
low, that's not idad, in my opinion, On balance there is probably something
very healthy about refusing to give in to the changes time brings: youth is great,

although “wasted on the young’. bere is no reason any man ought to roll over and
play dead.

But there is a point at which the effort becames an obsession ~- a sickness: @
point at which we want to deny reality.5 to avoid the Kairos. At that point we are
slayes to the calendar and very foolish.

The theologian I cited earlier suggest that the foolish man is one “who ts
always holding on to the past or grasping at the future: whose entire life becomes

vain
a na in effort to run from death by using the energies of life to create a monumen ¢
or a memory.”

“Wisdom comes, usually with age, wien a Gan can look back on his years and
realize that there is an econory to the seasons of life. He sees that the times of
strife, suffering and waiting which seemed so difficult to endure were as necessary
to the formation of persona |i ¥ as the times of love,joy and ecstacy. To Jove and
accept the self at it is is to accept all the moments thet » formed it. “(Apology for
Wonder P 196-197)

That sounds very much Tike that ancient wisdom that instructed: “For erything there
4s a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time
to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; etc."

The Bible teaches us to think about time in terms of Kairos - to think about the
significance of time and not dts duration: in personal terms to regard time as a

qift given to be used, and not an advisary to be fodght.

«he

So we come to tlew Years, that event in the secular calendar that indicates

Chronos = the movement of time. Ana yet, even as we say the words that indicate
what time it is, we make a tremendous theological affirmation - A Katros statement.
For, it is the year of our Lord, 1972.

It is the era of Jesus Christ: it is a year of God's continuing activity.
It is time made significant by the birth of Jesus Christ, 1,972 years ago. That
event, by which we measure time, means that life is not just a progression toward
death: in fact, the coming of Jesus Christ means that death ig not the end of time
and no longer to be feared. It means that we are free of any need to resist tine,
to be enslaved by it; free to regard time as a gift, te live in narmony with it,
and to expend our energies, not denying it, but using it to its fullest.

All of that is bound up in the affirmation, “The Year cf our Lord, 1972."
And we observe it in a ritual which celebrates the same truth. At the communion

table we are attesting to the prasence of God in our midst, the continuity of his

o

love, the timeless nature cf hds concern for us.
Time. Wouldn't it be nice to know how to live with time: to use responsibly

the time we have: to have the grace to regard aery moment of time given us aS a

woke

precious gift, an opportunity, a possibility?
I would like to share with you a prayer written by a French priest, Michel

Quoist, under the title, Lerd, I Have Tim

P 96-98 ~- Prayers -

Father, we are grateful fur the time you have given us. Give us grace, to accept
the movement and rhytha of time, and help us to use every day responsibly ana

gratefully: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen