A few words of preamble before launching into the sermon: the preaching focus for this second Sunday of Easter tends to be on Thomas (unfairly known through the ages as “doubting Thomas”) who was absent on Easter evening when Jesus appeared to the other disciples and then, one week later, demanded tangible proof that this is truly Jesus. He’s a fascinating character who deserves his own sermon, but I’m going to politely ask Thomas to step aside for now as we consider other aspects of that first Easter evening.
Some moments in time are
significant in ways we cannot comprehend as they are happening. It may be a
positive moment, like when you met your significant other for the first time,
or when you apply for a job which turns out to be your life’s work. It may be a terrible moment, when a mistake
in judgment has life-altering effects or when a bad choice of words permanently
fractures a relationship. Or it may be a
big, shared moment of elation or worry, such as when Paul Henderson scored that
goal in 1972, or when 9/11 was unfolding.
As they went around the
countryside with Jesus, I wonder if the disciples had any real sense of the
immensity of what they were doing. For here
we are, 2,000 years later and 10,000 km away and the words and deeds of Jesus
are still alive in our midst. Clearly,
the disciples – the twelve named and many more that traveled with them - were
convinced that the spiritual renewal, healing power and political activism of Jesus
were important enough for them to set aside their life’s work to follow him,
but how would they have known that their stories would live on as they have,
that they were living in a special fullness of time?
I cannot know what was in
their hearts in those heady days of village-to-village ministry by the Sea of
Galilee, but in today’s reading from the 20th chapter of John, the
gospel writer describes a moment in time when the disciples touched eternity.
Before going any further, some
terminology might be helpful. In the Greek language of the New Testament, there
are two words for time: Chronos and Kairos. Chronos signifies the linear passage
of time, while ‘Kairos’ signifies a moment of clarity, something happening “at
the right time.” Chronos is the formal passage of measured time,
related to the word, “chronological”, but Kairos implies a fullness of time –
“God-time” if you will. Chronos time we can measure by a
stopwatch, clock or calendar, while Kairos time we determine by our heart, soul,
instincts, feelings. And the writer of John’s gospel is a masterful author,
playing with this distinction between Chronos and Kairos as he weaves his
version of the Jesus story in his retelling of things in such a manner as to
inspire faith.
In terms of Chronos time, today’s gospel reading begins at the end of
Easter day. The disciples, excited, awestruck,
dubious and terrified all at once by the news from Mary Magdalene that Jesus
Christ had risen, found a safe place to come together, and locked the doors. Imagine their head space and their heart
space: traumatized by the crucifixion of their beloved leader, Jesus, who had
been betrayed by their trusted friend Judas. This no doubt left them wondering
if Judas had sold out all of them, furnishing personal details to the
authorities so they could be tracked down one by one, an experience far too
common in our day as well as theirs. In that Chronos time, with these worries about
their survival, the room was vibrating with Kairos significance.
For three years, the disciples were with Jesus virtually 24/7, but in
the 20th chapter of John, when they are joined in their locked room
by the risen Christ, they have a new experience. They were used to sharing every day with
Jesus, but this was the Christ, arisen.
By contrast, none of us believers 2,000 years later experienced even one
of those in-the-flesh walkabouts with Jesus around the Sea of Gailee, but we are
well familiar with the risen Christ walking alongside us. In moments of sorrow when you recognize a
sacred presence with you, the risen Christ is there; in moments of courage or
insight beyond your own, the risen Christ is there; in perfect moments when we
are overwhelmed with contentment, the risen Christ is there. Gathered in a room, the disciples were so
worried about what would happen to them, and then suddenly Christ, arisen, is
with them, recognizing their fear, assuring them of his peace, and bestowing
upon them the breath of the Spirit which would fill their lives - and ours - from
that moment forward.
And when Jesus does these two things – greeting them with peace and
breathing the Spirit on them – it is as if time stands still, as we hear
familiar words found earlier in scripture spoken again.
In today’s reading from John, when Christ appears in their midst, the
disciples are filled with fear and the Holy One speaks a word of peace. Where have we heard this before? To me, it takes me back to the birth legend
of Jesus, in which Matthew and Luke speak of angels appearing – to Mary, to
Joseph, to the shepherds – and each time, the angels speak a word of peace to
their fears, culminating in the choir of the heavenly hosts proclaiming to the
shepherds (Luke 2: 16) “Glory to God in
the highest heaven, and on earth peace, goodwill among all people.”
In that birth narrative, fear
is overcome, and peace is spoken from the heavens, repeatedly. There here, in the 20th chapter of
John, Jesus speaks peace to a room full of fear. And each Sunday, at the end of our worship
time we hear and share that same reassurance: the Peace of Christ is given, one
to another.
And then: in today’s reading from John, the risen Christ breathes the
Spirit on the disciples. What might that
remind you of in the Bible? This time,
we go allllll the way back, to the origins of all that is. In the second story
of creation in the book of Genesis (Gen. 2:7), God formed the earth-creature A’dam out the dust of the
ground and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life, and
A’dam became a living being. That breath
of life, referred to in Hebrew as ru’ah, is God’s own breath, the breath of
Divine Spirit that makes us well, alive.
In Genesis, God breathes life
into the human story… and then, in this morning’s reading from the 20th
chapter of John, Jesus breathes new life into the disciples. In the ultimate Kairos moment, God formed and
enlivened the earth, and aeons later Christ Jesus, the Word made Flesh, finds
another Kairos moment when his promise of new life is breathed on all the
disciples. Well, almost all the disciples – Thomas, like us, had to receive the
gift of the spirit from other believers who had it before him.
In that room of disciples –
our ancestors in the faith – Kairos, God’s time, was fully present. The peace that announced the birth of Jesus
now announced re-birth, the new life of Christ carried by all who live his path
of love arisen. The creative breath of the spirit in Genesis that filled the
lungs of the first human now inspired the disciples to carry the life-force of
the Divine into every situation they encountered, even the drab, everyday ones. Time stood still as the disciples gathered
with the risen Christ, with echoes of those first stories of the birth experienced
in their rebirth to new life.
By now, I expect that some of
you may be thinking, “cool, Greg. Neat connections with those earlier stories.
Chronos and Kairos, got it. But what does this have to do with me?”
Well… it struck me in
preparing for this Sunday, that we and I have been overwhelmed these past few
weeks with the consequences of the horrid behaviour of one world leader in
particular. That being the case, it
seemed that the time – the Kairos - was right, to be reminded that every aspect
of our lives unfold within God’s big, wondrous story of life. To be
fully alive is so much more than just reacting to one attention-grabbing thing
at a time; to be alive is to luxuriate in the ebb and flow of this amazing,
timeless, worldwide gift called life, and we recall God’s commitment to have
all our siblings experience the fullness of that gift. That’s one of the things that makes it
particularly heartbreaking to hear of a car rammed into a group in Vancouver
who had gathered for a celebration of their culture – they were celebrating the
gift of life, only to be targeted.
As we sense the unfolding of
God’s story, from the origins of this precious planet to the birth of Jesus to his
resurrection and appearance to the disciples, we also know that the story
didn’t stop there. The unfolding story
of God’s love for the world is still being written: In your life, in my life,
in the life of these congregations, in the life of the Church. As we see our Roman Catholic siblings in the
faith seek God’s guidance to choose a new Pope, we are reminded of this ebb and
flow of our interaction with the Divine across the ages, as one generation of
believers gives way to another. As we
come up to the 100th anniversary of The United Church of Canada, and
bring to mind everyone who instilled Christian faith in us, we are again
reminded that the story of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is a story that
was passed on to us and still lives in us.
My Mom, who died eleven years ago, was born the same month as The United
Church of Canada – June of 1925 – so she’s been on my mind a lot lately, and
I’m sure there are folks in your faith history, family members or Church
mentors or recent spiritual influences, who you can easily bring to mind as
well.
My hope, then, in taking time
this morning to ponder the holy gift of time – especially the gift of Kairos -
is that in these days when the moment is often so harsh and so weird and so
divisive, we need to be reminded that the big story of God’s love, ancient and
eternal and constantly renewed, is
something we can lean into: when we are afraid, unsettled, or tempted to lock
ourselves away behind closed doors. What
we do here on Sundays, the choices we make each day of the week, are part of
God’s Kairos time, which connects us with what has been, what will be, and the
lives of others throughout the world at this very moment. Our lives, our Chronos is lived are part of God’s
great big Kairos expression of life, and as we celebrate the gift of a life
founded on love, we touch eternity.
Thanks be to God, Amen!
References cited:
Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/world/what-happens-now-after-death-pope-francis-2025-04-21/
The United Church of Canada. https://united-church.ca/100years
Wikipedia. “Kairos” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos#:~:text=Kairos%20(used%2086%20times%20in,18%20and%2027%3A9).
© 2025 Rev Greg Wooley,
Osoyoos-Oliver United Church Pastoral Charge
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