Dear Friends,
First, let me say “Happy New Year”. It is my hope that 2012 will be a year of Kairos for all of us at Sparling United and indeed throughout the Inkster community to which we are called to serve as the Church, that is, the people of God.
Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. The ancient Greeks had two words for time: Chronos and Kairos. Chronos referred to chronological time, seconds passing away to minutes, passing away to hours, days, weeks, years, decades and so on. Kairos referred to time in between – a moment of time that is not fixed or defined in which something special happens.
Ancient philosophers used the word kairos to indicate a kind of learned wisdom where one was able to take advantage of changing circumstances. The great teacher/philosopher Aristotle used the word kairos to mean the “time and space” where a speaker was able to take advantage of the context in which he/she was speaking and deliver a profoundly convincing argument.
New Testament writers like Mark and Paul use kairos to mean the “appointed time in the purposes of God” – that is to say, the time when God acts. Consider Mark chapter 1 verse 15 where Jesus says: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (NRSV).
And so, I think it would be fair to say that as people of faith we can understand kairos to be decisive moments of divinely inspired change within the regular passage of days and years. The Old Testament story of the Exodus is a kairos moment when God’s purposes for Israel intersect with their time and place, leading them out of slavery and to the Promised Land. The Gospel narrative of the incarnation is a kairos moment as it was the right or opportune moment when God’s purposes for the world intersect with the lives of a young woman and her future husband, creating a home for the one who would be called Messiah. The marriage of two lovers, the birth of a baby, and the burial of a loved one are all examples of kairos moments in our lives. We might say they are moments of great meaning.
In a more cosmic context, we can see kairos intersecting with chromos all throughout history. These are all the right or opportune moments when God is decisively at work in and through the people of God. Here we speak of such moments as the death and resurrection of Jesus, Pentecost, the conversion of Saul on the road to Tarsus, the Reformation, and today’s reality of the emerging church. The condemnation of human rights violations by Archbishop Romero was a kairos moment; the publication of Gustavo Gutierrez’s book “A Theology of Liberation” was a kairos moment; and more recently, the “occupy” movement, which represents a portion of the voice of the 99%, has been a kairos moment. Truly, whenever the Gospel is proclaimed, hearts are changed, and human dignity is upheld, these are kairos moments – they are appointed times in the purposes of God.
With all of this as background, it is my hope that Sparling United Church will embrace 2012 as a year of Kairos – a year of appointed time in which God’s purposes for the Inkster community will be fulfilled through our work and prayer. Something is happening in the Church and many believe the Church is living into one of its greatest moments – a revolutionary time of newness which will be characterized by radical community. What this is to look like or how it is to come about is mystery but our participation is non-negotiable.
The world Jesus was born into was not that much unlike our own. North Korea is in a climate of change; the European economic crisis is leading to political instability; refugees continue to flee their homes; climate change is more than evident; the developing world is halted by the economic interests of the developed world and the Middle East continues to remain unsettled. Hard questions go unanswered by politicians and daily we see images of people dying at the hands of war, famine and disaster. The world of Jesus’ day was riddled with instability and threat also and yet that was a kairos moment.
Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Why then are governments, faith communities, and individuals continuing to do the same thing over and over again? Yes 2012 can be a year of kairos for us at Sparling and indeed for the community of Inkster. We can embrace this year of kairos by articulating our core values and beliefs as a faith community; responding to the needs of the community we serve; building up the gifts of our members; discerning how to use our human, physical and financial resources; and energizing our spirits through worship, study, community and prayer.
Let 2012 be a Kairos year and together we can create an unprecedented opportunity to respond to God’s will for our church and our community – an appointed time when the purposes of God can be fulfilled!
QUESTIONS TO PONDER IN THIS KAIROS YEAR OF 2012
1. Where do we experience God in our faith community?
2. Where do we experience God in the Inkster community?
3. Is God issuing Sparling a challenge to decisive action? What is that action?
4. Where or to whom does God draw closest in the Inkster community? Why?
5. How is God issuing Sparling a challenge to decisive action?
6. If God is a God of love, justice and liberation, who or what is in need of love, justice and liberation in the Inkster community? What can Sparling do to respond?
7. How can we bring the Gospel into the public square?
8. What does it mean for Sparling and for the Inkster community to make the theological statement that “God is on the side of the poor, the oppressed and the exploited.”?
9. What is God calling you to do?
