DELIBERATELY DIVERSE | by The Rev. Terry Pierce Human time, God's time
Editor’s note: Deliberately Diverse represents the thoughts and opinions of a group of Taylor friends who almost never completely agree about anything but enjoy diverse discussions in their community.
Chronos and kairos are two words that describe time.
Sometimes we say that chronos is human time: The day-by-day, month-by-month, yearby- year sequences marking our lives.
Kairos is sometimes described as God’s time. It might be defined as the appointed time. It is about seasons flowing into one another, about hope coming to fruition, about the repeating cycle of birth, death and resurrection that marks our lives.
In Matthew, when Jesus instructs the disciples to tell a man the teacher said, “My time is near,” the Greek word used is kairos. One might interpret that as the appointed time is near or the time we have been waiting for is near.
As we begin the new year, I am marking time in a chronos fashion. This is the year of my 72nd birthday. It is the year that marks my 10th anniversary as an ordained priest in the Episcopal church.
But there is another way to mark time that comes from ancient Christendom and reflects kairos time.
We call it the liturgical year.
The new liturgical year began Dec. 1 with the first Sunday of Advent, rather than on New Year’s Day.
The liturgical year is an annual cycle that starts with Advent, as we anticipate the coming of Christ, and takes us through Christmas.
The 12 days of Christmas end with Twelfth Night, a time of feasting and celebration, followed by Epiphany on Jan. 6, which marks the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles in the visit of the Magi, the wise men from the East.
Next comes Lent as we prepare for the revelation of the empty tomb on Easter morning marking the promise of ever-renewing life in the resurrection. Then follows Pentecost when we celebrate the inflowing of the Holy Spirit and the transmission of the Gospel, the Good News, in all the languages and corners of the world.
After Pentecost, we have a growing time when we are called to live out with daily, faithful attention what we say we believe as followers of Jesus. It is the time during which we focus on the daily habits that identify us as followers.
Joan Chittister said, “The liturgical year is the year that sets out to attune the life of the Christian to the life of Jesus, the Christ. It proposes, year after year, to immerse us over and over again into the sense and substance of the Christian life until, eventually, we become who we say we are — followers of Jesus all the way to the heart of God.”
It is in these patterns of community worship and service that we are being continually formed into the body of Christ.
Pierce is the vicar of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Taylor.
For more, visit www. stjamestaylor.org/ or facebook.com/ StJamesTaylorTx.
