Sermon for 6-20-10 "Kairos Joy" Ecclesiastes 3 Favorite Things Summer Worship Series

Favorite Things Summer Worship Series

"Kairos Joy"

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15; Luke 6:6-11

6-20-10 

This summer we are on a sabbatical journey together as a community.  We are all part of a grand gift of rest and renewal, and have been given a wonderful opportunity to seek a different rhythm of living together as a church community.  As I am journeying through this summer, I have become more aware of Iona, an island off the western coast of Scotland.  This past week I encountered a new book, entitled Celtic Prayers from Iona that is a wonderful daily devotional used in Iona by the community who resides there.  Craig and Anna will be visiting Iona this August as part of this Sabbatical summer, so we will all, I'm sure, hear more about Iona when he returns from Sabbatical!

Iona is considered a sacred, holy island and has been since the time of the Celts.  A Christian mission was established there in the 6th century, and is considered the "Cradle of Christianity for much of Scotland and northern Europe."[1] Today there is a thriving Christian community that lives there, and they welcome guests to come and live with them for weeks and months at a time.  The Community in Iona lives and works together in a rhythm of life that is devoted to prayer, Scripture reading, worship, and work.  Iona is regarded as a "'thin place' in which the material realm is only thinly separated from the spiritual."[2] It is where "the eternal is 'seeping' through the physical."[3] Iona is a thin place that serves as a "sign of what is most deeply true of every place and every time." [4]

How many of us would like more time in our day?  How many of us find we often need more days in our weeks?  How many of us find time rushing faster and faster along?  Our favorite passage for today takes a look at time.  How do we keep time?  Where do we use our time for good and for ill?  Where do we use our time productively and restfully?  Where do we use our time for giving life and sharing peace?  This famous passage from Ecclesiastes 3 gives example after example of ways we use our time.  Now, if you're like me, it's hard to hear this passage without the Byrds' voices singing in the background.  "To everything, Turn, Turn, Turn.  There is a season, Turn, Turn, Turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven." [5] This hit from Pete Seeger in 1959 was released in 1965 by The Byrds, and comes almost exclusively from this passage in Ecclesiastes.[6]  The song, like the passage, reminds us of the rhythm and cycle of time and the seasons.  The seasons turn, and the hands of the clock turn, and we live in a rhythm of life and time.

Ecclesiastes, most scholars believe, was written by a wise teacher.  The author is often referred to by the Hebrew name Qohelet (or Koheleth), translated as "Teacher".  This book is written in the form of Wisdom Literature.  The Teacher is reminding us that there is a quote "alternative view of time, proceeding from the remarkable assurance that there is in fact an adequate and appropriate time for every necessary element of life." [7] This idea runs completely counter to our "highly time-conscious culture." [8]

Our passage is clear that God wants us to enjoy our time and that there is enough time for everything to happen.  It is not God who wants us to do more, be more, produce more, work more.  It is our culture that is putting this unhealthy pressure on is.  A time for work and a time for rest. We see this rhythm from the very beginning of creation.  In Genesis, the author illustrates how creation took place on the first six days, and then God rested on the seventh.  God begins by setting up a pattern of work and rest.  A time for work and a time for rest.  We see this pattern of work and rest explained to the Israelites in Exodus.  Exodus 20 details the 10 Commandments, which include: "⁸Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁰But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work...¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it." (Exodus 20:8-11 NRSV) This command is recounted in Deuteronomy as well, with a different reason.  This time the people are to keep the Sabbath to remember their release from captivity. [9] Deuteronomy 5 states, "¹²Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁴But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.... ¹⁵Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day." (Deuteronomy 5:12-15 NRSV) 

Keeping Sabbath is a practice that reminds us that there is enough time for every purpose under heaven.  Keeping Sabbath also reminds us that God had time to rest, and thus we have time to rest.  Keeping Sabbath reminds us that God's time is different than the time our culture tries to keep up with.  We even have two different words to describe time.  Chronos is the time of our culture and world.  It is chronology.  It is days, weeks, and years.  It is what our culture makes us think we need more of just to keep up.  It's what makes us exhausted, exacerbated, and empty. 

Kairos is the other type of time. [10] Kairos is God's time.  Kairos is what the teacher is referring to in Ecclesiastes and what the 10 Commandments are referring to in Sabbath. Kairos time is heaven-time.  It's time when we experience in those thin places in life.  Kairos moments are joy-filled, God-is-here, take-your-breath away moments when heaven and earth collide and you know something special is happening. 

Kairos moments often come through play, through being in community, and through taking time away from our regular routines.  They are often found when we are leaning into Sabbath and living a different rhythm to what our culture tells us is necessary.  Kairos moments bring healing, peace, and joy.  The man in our Gospel lesson this morning experienced a kairos moment during the sabbath.  I'm sure his JOY was palpable when Jesus healed his withered hand and brought peace and wholeness to his life.  Jesus was keeping the sabbath, but it was counter to what his culture expected.  Jesus' whole life was made up of kairos moments as he demonstrated what heaven and earth colliding looked like.  These moments brought joy for many he encountered, and through his life, he helped to redefine what Sabbath looked like in his culture. 

Sabbath is time out of our normal routines that bring healing, wholeness, and peace to us and those we encounter.  Sabbath is time when we seek to see the thin places where heaven is visible on earth.  Sabbath is when our time is lived in God's kairos rhythm, when there is time for everything and rest is valued and enjoyed. 

So what does Sabbath look like in our 21st Century?  How do we seek to live into God's kairos time and search for the thin places among us?  As Christians, our starting place for Sabbath is weekly worship.  Gathering as a community to celebrate sabbath together goes back thousands of years in history, and is as important today as ever.  Given our culture today, and the decrease in blue laws that limited Sunday activity, gathering for worship as a community of faith is more and more difficult, and more and more counter-cultural.  It is certainly my hope that everyone who associates with this church community makes every effort to attend weekly worship.  But I also recognize that it is harder and harder to do, especially given the sacrifices that are often required.  Our times for work and rest don't always correspond to the worship schedule, thus we have to be more intentional to set aside Sabbath time.

Sabbath takes on other forms as well as we look for ways to rest and live into Kairos moments.  While kairos moments can happen at work, and I hope they do for all of us, I believe it's easier for them to happen when we are not working and when our mind is free from work to intentionally look for the thin places around us.  In looking for Sabbath opportunities, think for a moment about what brings you joy?  What makes your heart sing?  Where have you gone or what have you done that allowed you to experience a kairos joy moment or see a thin place? Maybe it was in an art class, babysitting for a neighbor in need, or serving on a mission trip? Those are certainly work in one form, but they become sabbath with intentionality.  Maybe it was while at camp or on vacation?  Maybe it was playing board games with the family or playing Frisbee at the park? Where have you laughed, found joy, and been refreshed and renewed?  Those are sabbath moments. These sabbath moments remind us of God and help us live in God's rhythm of time.  If we keep our eyes open, we can see thin places in these moments. 

This weekend I saw a thin place around a track—a Kairos moment of Joy that was Sabbath amid activity.  Raleigh Moravian participated with the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life on the track at Leesville Road High School.  This was our first time entering a team, and we worked hard to beat our fundraising goal--which is wonderful and will help many who need healing.  But there was something else that I think was more exciting for me to see.  During the closing ceremonies yesterday morning, as most of us were packing up and getting ready to head home for rest to relax our tired feet, we found out we won the Best Team Spirit award.  This award represents a thin place for me.  It's a kairos-joy moment.  We may not have raised the most money, or had the biggest team, but we had at least one participant from Raleigh Moravian compete in every silly game, every middle-of-the-night event, and every activity they hosted during the Relay.  We had folks show up to walk with us who were not on the official team roster.  We had an impressive group of 15 band members wake up early on a Saturday to provide walking-music.  Our team gave it their all... and celebrated being a community of Christ together.  We laughed together in our team space, walked together on the track, and worked together to raise money that will bring healing and wholeness to those in need.   It was work on one hand, but it was sabbath because it was breaking out of the normal routine.  It was an opportunity to live into God's kairos time, and be a part of something bigger than just ourselves, or even our one team.  It was an opportunity to celebrate the best of community and see heaven and earth collide on a track under the stars and bring joy to so many. We are Kairos Joy-kinda people...As Kristina said afterward, "Thanks to you guys, Raleigh Moravian is now known to Relay Folk as a place with upbeat, spirited, good hearted people."[11]  What a great way to show others what God’s spirit and way of living looks like!

As we all continue in our sabbatical summer, I hope and pray you will continue to take the opportunity this time provides to seek to live into God's time, seek the thin places around us, and find those kairos joy moments where heaven and earth collide.  And when this sabbatical summer comes to a close, I hope we continue seeking the kairos joy moments together with renewed hearts and minds.

Please pray with me:

O God who comes to us through the thin places in every day life, help us to seek you in each moment of our day.  Be with us as we live, and love, and laugh.  Help make every moment we have a time when we see your love for us and help us to use each moment, whether it is work or sabbath, to bring wholeness, peace, and healing to a world in need.  Help us to live into your rhythm, a rhythm or work and rest, that brings us joy, thus bringing you joy. In your holy name we pray, Amen.

[1] J. Philip Newell, Celtic Prayers From Iona (New York: Paulist Press, 1997) 7.

[2] J. Philip Newell, Celtic Prayers From Iona (New York: Paulist Press, 1997) 7.

[3] J. Philip Newell, Celtic Prayers From Iona (New York: Paulist Press, 1997) 7.

[4] J. Philip Newell, Celtic Prayers From Iona (New York: Paulist Press, 1997) 7.

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn!_Turn!_Turn!

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn!_Turn!_Turn!_%28album%29

[7] Ellen Davis, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and The Song of Songs.  Westminster Bible Companion Series (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000) 183.

[8] Ellen Davis, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and The Song of Songs.  Westminster Bible Companion Series (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000) 183.

[9] Dorothy C. Bass, "Keeping Sabbath" in Practicing Our Faith: A Way Of life For A Searching People, Dorothy Bass, ed.  (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1997) 77-79.

[10] William P. Brown, Ecclesiastes.  Interpretation Series (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 2000) 44.

[11] Email from Kristina Leighton, Team Captain, to Relay Participants, 6/19/10.