Time and Timelessness
Reflections on Luke 2.22-40
Presentation of the Lord
3 February 2019
Holy Trinity Cathedral
New Westminster BC
Luke 2.22-40
2.22When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), 24and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
25Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 26It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, 28Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, 29“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; 30for my eyes have seen your salvation, 31which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
33And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. 34Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed — and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
36There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 38At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
39When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.
One of the deepest mysteries we encounter in our lives is the mystery of time. We are aware of time both as something that can be measured and as something that transcends measurement. Even as we calculate seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades and centuries, we area aware that certain moments of our lives are timeless, moments when it seems the earth stops spinning on its axis and pauses in its journey around the sun.
The writers of the New Testament scriptures used two different words to describe our experience of time. Chronoswas used to describe measurable time. This word lives on when we speak of chronologyor chronometersor chronic. The other word they used was kairos. Kairosmeans the ‘right time’ or ‘kingdom time’ or ‘a quality of time’. Jesus uses this word many times in the gospels when he is speaking about the coming of the reign of God at the ‘right’ time or in ‘God’s’ good time.’
These two aspects of time come to the fore in today’s gospel. Mary and Joseph come to the Temple at the ‘appointed’ time, forty days after Jesus’ birth --- chronos. Simeon and Anna come to the Temple to participate in the appointed times for prayer and sacrifice --- chronos. But all four are soon to have an experience of kairos, a moment when God’s promised reign, long-awaited by the Jewish people, will break in upon them. Time will stand still and ‘the dawn from on high will break upon [them]’.
For Simeon and Anna their patience in waiting to see the fulfillment of God’s promise to send the Messiah will be rewarded. They will hold in their arms the living, breathing embodiment of God’s covenant with the people of Israel. In this child the promises God made to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham and to Moses are honoured and the future secured.
For Mary and Joseph their faithfulness and courage in saying ‘yes’ to God’s heavenly messengers is affirmed. Their child will be ‘a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to [God’s] people Israel’. In this child ancient walls of prejudice will be torn down and all of humanity will have the opportunity to know the Holy One of Israel, the Author of creation, the Source of all life and love. At the same time God speaks through Simeon to warn Mary and Joseph --- and to you and me --- that believing that Jesus is the Messiah will bring sorrow and conflict as well as joy and reconciliation. Time stands still, if only for a moment, and then chronospulls the Holy Family and the disciples of Jesus away to follow a path that will lead to the cross and the resurrection.
Today we join Simeon and Anna, Mary and Joseph, in the mystery of God’s kairosrevealed in our chronos. Sunday has come again and forty days have past since our Christmas celebrations. The pages of our calendars, whether digital or print, have turned to follow the rhythm of chronos, some might even say the tyranny of chronos. By noon today most if not all of us will be gone and doing whatever our diaries tell us needs to be done. It will be just another Sunday in Metro Vancouver.
Or will it be just another Sunday? Is it possible that in the midst of our chronosGod’s kairosmight slip in to surprise us? Perhaps there will be someone here among us for the first time to be a light to us. Perhaps some word or phrase in a prayer or a hymn or a reading from the scriptures will catch our attention and be glory to us. All we have done before today, all our regularity in worship, all our familiarity with the faces and the customs of this community, so measured, so predictable, have prepared us to be surprised by grace, to be drawn out of earthly time into the timelessness of God’s reign.
The candles we bless today are tokens, reminders that the Light that enlightens the whole creation comes unexpectedly. Like Simeon and Anna, like Mary and Joseph, we do what is appointedin the hope that the ordinary chronosof our lives will be disrupted and transformed by the extraordinary kairosof God.
So be ready. Be prepared. For the time may just be a-changing into the timelessness of God.
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