While it may not always show in what I produce, I have always cared about the way words fit together. As a result, I have resisted any thought I’ve ever had to enter the world of blogging. Blogging, after all, is not exactly known as an arena for literary precision. And yet, as the church’s task of living together as a community of faith becomes more difficult with each passing day, I have come to believe that this form of communication might enable us to say and hear some things that aren’t always spoken in the crush of congregational life. And so, trusting that you will read with grace-filled eyes, I hereby open Kairos Corner.
My blog’s title in fact reveals its aim. The Greek language has two words for time: The first is chronos, which is a word that describes the ordinary passing of time, from which we get our word chronology. The second word for time in the Greek language is kairos. This is a time that is teeming with possibililty. It is used to describe times that are alive to what God is up to around us, where the curtain pulls back and you catch a glimpse of God’s dreams for this world that God loves. The hope, you see, is to train our hearts to comprehend when chronos time becomes a kairos moment–a time pregnant with opportunity.
Just a few Sundays ago, in the midst of an unusually complicated serving of the Lord’s Supper, I noticed such a moment. No, that’s not quite right. It wasn’t so much that I noticed the shift from chronos to kairos as much as it was that I happened to be in the right place to receive an amazing blessing from God.
The last two times we have come to the table, Brandon, a second grader who is not yet partaking of the bread and cup, has come to me for a blessing. And so I have done for him what I have done countless times to my own children or others from the congregation. I have traced the sign of the cross on his forehead and have reminded him that he belongs to God and have blessed him in the name of Christ. Though incredibly significant on one level, it was also just chronos time playing itself out. That’s just one of the things that pastors do in the church.
Suddenly, however, the time shifted. It dawned as me as I reached for Brandon’s forehead that he was doing the same to me. This child of God traced the cross on my head and reminded me that I belonged to God too. And in the twinkling of an eye, that ordinary time broke open and became kairos time and I was overwhelmed yet again by God’s power to bestow life through the blessing of child.
Those are the things that I will be writing about here–those amazing moments when ordinary time becomes kairos time. I invite you to share your own discoveries of such times in your life, even as I give thanks for our God of abundant blessings. Of course, I suspect I will also throw in a lot of “ordinary” reflections to strengthen our congregation’s life together as well, since there are always more things to say than opportunities to say them.
With prayers for your deepening joy in Christ’s service.
Pastor John
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