The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for Sunday, October 28^th
Isaiah 2:1–5
Psalm 122
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” (Ps. 122:1)
Romans 13:11–14
Matthew 24:36–44

Do you know what time it is? Time is a tricky entity or unit to talk about. For some of us time seems to go fast and for others slow. For the next 15 minutes we are going to talk about God’s time, karios time versus mans time, chronos time.

Look at your watch, if you have one. What kind of time is this? It’s chronos time from which the word chronology comes. Both our epistle and gospel today talk about time.

Paul tells the Roman church in his letter, we read it earlier, ‘now’s the moment for you to wake from sleep, salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers.’ Obviously, time has passed, chronos. Paul says it’s later than we think. What kind of time is this? Chronos right…..

Where you aware that before the 1800s, time-keeping was a local event? In Medieval Europe the town’s clockmaker was a very important person. Often the official time would be set relative to whenever the sun reached its zenith each day.
Today we have taken time keeping to a new level with the atomic clock. An atomic clock is a clock that uses an electronic transition frequency in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum of atoms as a frequency standard for its timekeeping element. Atomic clocks are among the most accurate time and frequency standards known, and are used as primary standards for international time distribution services, to control the frequency of television broadcasts, and in global navigation satellite systems such as GPS.
It appears a great deal has changed in keeping chronos time since the early 1800’s. Recently, the world seems to be getting faster. We seem to live in a microwave world now, where if it takes longer than five minutes to cook something, it seems too long. My own sense of how time changes is that it is based on the inverse square of anticipation that we feel about the coming event. Anticipating something good makes time almost stand still.

Truth be told, if my wife is shopping for clothes, my anticipation to be finished is very high and therefore time, based on any clock time passes very s-l-ooow-ly. Even just a little bit of anticipation slows down our sense of time.
God however has another way of dealing with time. In the New Testament the word often used for God’s time, event time is kairos. Karios is time not based on a clock or wristwatch, or an atomic clock because it’s event oriented time.
Look at verse (Rom 13:11) where Paul says, “Besides this, you know what time it is. In the verses prior (V 8-10) Paul has just told the Roman church how to live together as a faith community, he says
“8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
When Paul uses the term ‘you know what time it is’ (Rom 13:11) the Greek word Paul is using here is karios, it’s event time. So what’s that event that Paul is referring to? Christ’s return, it’s Jesus coming, the advent of Christ into the world.
You don’t mark the coming of Christ on a watch, it’s bigger than time, at least chronos time or chronological time.
Paul says (Rom 13:11-12) “now is the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12the night is far gone, the day is near.” This is anticipatory language, its karios language. Karios is about the “fullness of time.”
Karios time conveys a sense of God’s unbounded time, endless time, infinite time. For some of us infinity is a hard concept to understand. Infinity has no end and no beginning.
Henry Ford once said, “I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done. Founder of the Ford Motor Company
It seems like God is looking for a lot of people who have an infinite capacity to NOT know what can’t be done. God’s purpose constantly intersects and at times overrules this finite world of chronological time with karios time.
What time is it when we talk about our eternal destiny? Let’s look at our gospel reading -

Matthew in our gospel lesson quotes Jesus with regards to His second coming, “36But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” This is an event NOT a date on a calendar.

Jesus said, “two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 42Keep awake.” How do you keep awake? How is chronos intersecting with Karios here?

In our own world if we think of it as two will be shopping at Khols, one will be taken and the other left. Two might be preparing Thanksgiving dinner, one will be taken and one will be left. What kind of time are we talking about? Do we need to worry about our time or God’s time?

Perhaps there’s a way we don’t have to worry about either time. Go back to what Paul wrote to the Roman church v12, “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” What is this armor and when are we to put on this armor of light?

We’ve heard about putting on the whole armor of God before. Remember Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesian church? (Eph 6:10-11) Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Paul’s words of encouragement carry a sense of urgency? Paul is worried about the time.
Last week we talked about forgiveness and how Jesus was the perfect example of forgiveness. This week we are being warned that time may be running out, not only for us, but for our family and friends.

Jesus told his disciples and he’s telling us now (v42), “42Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Is that something you worry about? Are you ready to meet your maker? (Romans 3:23) Scripture tells us we all sin and fall short of God’s glory, so it seems we should all worry about this in terms of God’s time.

The expectation for us is perfection, but we are flawed. Paul once again has an answer for our imperfection, we shouldn’t lose hope, he says v14, 14Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh.

As we enter this season of Advent, as we recognize time is passing by, both chronos and Karios may be running out, we cannot reach perfection on our own strength. The good news however is Christ comes to our rescue. Christ comes in the fullness of time and changes everything.

In Southern California we are very familiar with announcer legends like – Chick Hearn and Vince Scully. In chronos time, on September 30, 2009 Mitch Albom sat down with Ernie Harwell, one of the most beloved announcers the Detroit Tigers baseball team ever had. For the prior 50 years he had been the play-by-play man for the team.

Ernie was a kind, warm, and very humble broadcaster who always left an indelible impression on all the folks with whom he would meet. At the time of the interview Ernie was 91 years old, unfortunately he has just announced he had incurable cancer, but he wanted no one to feel sorry for him. Mitch thought Ernie would want to talk about his illustrious career as an announcer, but Ernie wanted to talk about something different.

Ernie said, in 1961he had a karios moment in his life. Someone back in 61’ took the time to talk to Ernie about Jesus Christ and it changed his life. This Hall of Fame announcer even after having a very distinguished career concluded the interview by saying, “I don’t know how many days I’ve got left…. But I can really know … whose arms I’m going to end up in, and what a great, great thing heaven is going to be.”

In this world we are so worried about time, chronos time, but God is always focused on karios time. The karios event of all time is about to happen, Christ is about to appear on the scene and we once again are reminded of how Christ can be our light.
It’s time our desperation is turned into hope, as we allow Christ to be our light.
It’s time our sadness is turned into joy, as we allow Christ to be our light.
It’s time our longing for peace is turned into expectation, as we allow Christ to be out light.

My watch seems to have stopped, does anyone have the time? Amen