It is Time…
Some of my all time favorite movies are: “The Gods Must be Crazy” and “Back to the Future.” In the first movie, a Coke bottle is dropped from an airplane onto an unsuspecting Bushmen tribe in Southern Africa. The Coke bottle caused such trouble that one of the leaders decided to embark on a journey to throw this bottle off the end of the earth. In his mind the earth was flat and if he walked far enough he would get to a place where he could look over an abyss of nothingness and get rid of the Coke bottle. In “Back to the Future,” one of our most favorite actors gets into a time machine that goes back in time to revisit the past. It gets him in the awkward position where he is present when his dad dated his mom, and he realizes his dad was a total nerd. These movies had a way of grabbing our imaginations in a very powerful way. Even now, I imagine the mind-boggling possibility of time-travel. It is fun to play around with this idea… The mystery of the beyond beckons us. It is the mystery of time.
In our house, the Christmas tree is up and beautiful ornaments adorn our space and welcome us to Christmas time. This time it is the year 2018. I have to admit, with the recent passing of my Mother-in-law and my Dad last year, “time” as a concept has become very intriguing to me. “Time” — what is it? Does time in the past exist only in my memory? Does time in the future exist or can it only be anticipated in my mind? What about the “present?” Can time experienced as the “present” be an enduring reality or just a line in the sand that separates the past from the present? It is amazing that our minds can think about times gone by. Memories of loved ones around the Christmas tree or, as in my case, running on the beach in Cape Town on the other side of the world on Christmas day.
In Steven Hawking’s provocative and enlightening book, A Brief History of Time, I got a perspective of time from one of the best physicists of our time. This mind-boggling book gave me an idea of the complexity of Chronos, one of the two Greek words for time. I learned that there was a time when people thought that the sun and stars rotated around the earth. I learned about Copernicus, a polish priest, who in 1514 discovered that the earth actually revolves around the sun. I was introduced to philosophers like Aristotle who thought that the universe existed forever, while theologians such as St. Augustine believed it was created at a specific time. I learned about Edwin Hubble’s discovery that galaxies were moving away from each other. Hawking helped me to understand that, because of Hubble’s discovery, one could hypothesize that there was a time, about twenty billion years ago; that all galaxies were together in one singular very dense place, thus reaching the startling conclusion that the universe had a beginning. Hawking took me into his magical world of astrophysics where I was barely able to wrap my mind around Einstein’s theory of relativity, quantum physics, string theory, quarks, black holes, and the possibility that time can slow down around black holes.
Reading about these advances in science brought me to the realization that the field of astrophysics seriously considered the idea that time had a beginning and that there was a time when “time” was not. Having my theological convictions affirmed by science made me smile. I started to wonder about all the dimensions that exist and God’s dimension that is simultaneous to ours. My mind considered the possibility that God is outside of time and yet is able to come and go between our time dimension and his space where time may not exist. I learned that “real time” as we observe and experience it, seems to have a certain direction, notably from the past towards the future. Described as the arrows of time, Hawking advanced the theory that time flows in one direction, from the past to the future. According to Hawking, this is why we never see the broken pieces of a cup gather themselves together to form a whole cup. Wow… Besides all these earth-shuttering ideas about time, I stand in awe of how magnificent our everyday world is. Think of it the predictable laws of physics and mathematics have helped us to put a man on the moon, research vehicles on Mars, satellites in the sky, map directions on smartphones, and through airwaves watch the Chiefs on TV. And yet, along with all these advances and certainties, a spirit of apprehension hovers over the scientific world. As great as the theory is, with the quantum theory came the uncertainty principle, which sets limits to the predictive accuracy of laws and left an aura of mystery over the reason things are the way they are.
Kairos time – “to create a perfect moment to deliver a particular message”
This is where I started to think about the intersection of the sequential, Chronos time with kairos time. We all feel the tug of Chronos time on our cheeks and bones. And yet we must not forget about kairos time, meaning: “to create a perfect moment to deliver a particular message.” It is this perfect moment that I claim for Christmas time. It is about that perfect moment when the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and nine months later, the cry of the Jesus baby signaling the intersection of Chronos time with kairos time. Kairos moments, then—and now—allow us to get a glimpse of the “other side.” We get to pull back the curtain to see what God is up to. God is up to loving us and restoring us and wanting a relationship with us. To me, it brings a sense of wonder and awe. It tells me that God’s world is simultaneous to my world and God’s dimension is mysteriously always now. God’s kairos time is not bound by our past, present, and future. It was a powerful “aha” moment in my faith journey when I came to realize that God’s Kingdom world has a present time orientation.
Unfortunately, here in America, we are more shaped by a future-orientation of time. Under the banner of progress, we put forth the idea that history moves in a ceaseless advance toward a better future. With this mindset, we believe that it is in the future that our present problems will be resolved. The future drives what is present. In kairos time, however, change is understood as possible because what might happen is already in the process of happening. The present drives what is forthcoming. This idea of the forthcoming as already present is also expressed in the Gospels. For example, in John, Jesus says: “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (4: 23; cf. 5: 25). The followers of Jesus are able to have victory because the Lamb has already conquered and is already on the throne (Rev. 5: 9-10). Here we see that kairos time is not bound to hopes for a remote resolution of a current crisis. Salvation begins in the present, not the future. This brings me much joy this Christmas time. In Christ, in kairos time, the future is brought to the present. So, this Christmas, it is about the “certainty principle” in kairos time. It is about Emmanuel, God with us! It is a time of Joy for the world. Why, because of the in breaking of kairos time… the Lord has come! We are talking about the one who is, the one who was and the one who is to come. First present, then past and out of the present and the past the future. It is time… it is back to the future in Kingdom time!