Sermon, First Sunday after Christmas

Not unlike during Advent, the season of Christmas is a bit out of sorts with the world around us. In the secular world, Christmas is done, decorations stored, hopefully 11(ish) months without hearing more about Frosty and Rudolf.

         Yet here in churchland, Christmas is barely half over - in the song we're at the seven swans a-swimming, while Biblically the wise men have just reached the mid-way pit stop.

         Our scriptures today remind us that Christmas, this special time, extends beyond the one day. It's not a celebration of a fat stranger putting presents under a tree, it's a Holy Feast acknowledging the nativity and early years of the Saviour of the world. This is too big for one day. There is more praise than that amount of time can contain!

         But let's think for a few moments about the time - and timing - of praise.

         In the ancient world, there were two very distinct ways of understanding what we today call "time." This seems a fitting topic for New Year's Eve, where tonight we'll be watching in seconds-long increments to welcome 2018, emphasising the difference between just before midnight and just after midnight - even if nothing else has changed. This type of time is called chronos: it's the sequential ordering or series of events. It's the root of our word "chronological."

         But God's time is different. God doesn't wear a watch or carry a daytimer. Kairos, God's time, means the right or critical second; it's the opportune moment. But even more, it doesn't just pass like seconds on a clock -kairos is the divinely directed invitation into action. Rhetorically, it's the passing instant when an opening appears into which a certain and specific action must be taken for achievement or success. It's God's time - and God is not limited by human chronos.

         So today's scriptures give us a great way to consider the timing of things: they start to differentiate between the chronos and the kairos.

         In the reading from Isaiah, written in the post-exilic period, around 500-600 years before the birth of Jesus, people were waiting for the restoration of God's people. And what do they do? Praise. "For Zion's sake I will not keep silent!" they praise, confident that the restoration may not happen in their chronos, but will grow into the world like the earth brings for its shoots - in due season, beyond human control.

         Our psalmist brings, with a flourish, the message of praise. This praise is not limited to humans, or human control - all of creation is being invited into praise at the right time, the opportune time. Don't keep silent, it says to the weather and landscape and creatures and plants - for you too belong to God and will react in the kairosof redemption.

         The New Testament reading, though brief, is full of this connection of the kairos and the chronos coming into one. When the fullness of human time had come, the kairos happened where God's Son was delivered into the world. And that delivery came to and through a woman, and occurred under the human limitations and structure. Born of a woman, born under the law, this child would have the full human experience of chronos as part of their kairotic revelation of cosmic disclosure.

         This culminates in the gospel passage, as we hear of the very earthly, very human, realities of the chronology of Jesus; how his mother raised him according to the law, in the context of praise, and in the eternal hope of the redemption of God's people. She brought him to the temple for the ritual of purification. He would be circumcised, and named, and welcomed into the community of the faithful. It was a ritual for every firstborn son where the chronos and kairos danced with each other in an explosion of praise.

         Needless to say, Mary wanted this to be done properly. This is her firstborn Son, of whom she has heard much from many heavenly beings. She has borne God's child, therefore she will ensure that the requirements under the law are met to the best of her ability! It didn't matter to her that they were away from home and the nearest temple was full of strangers - it was still God's house for God's family. It didn't matter to her that they were a poor family, and could only afford the minimum sacrifice according to Levitical law; those turtle doves were to be offered.

         How delightful, then, that this solemn act of praise was interrupted even before it began, by two unlikely characters. First we get Simeon - an old man, who is led into the temple at that precise chronos - that day and that time - for a purpose. Having come to that chronos moment, he recognised the child, realised what it meant as the promise of redemption, and then praised God heartily! In doing this, Simeon also gave the blessing and the prophesy to Mary about the future of Jesus. Simeon, clearly, was guided through the chronos into the opportune moment, the kairos, to offer praise.

         Then we hear of Anna - the old widow, who has been patiently waiting in the temple for what seems like forever, depending entirely on the kindness of strangers. She too has spent her chronological life waiting for thekairos moment. And her faithfulness is rewarded by God, and she praises God for it. She too, was guided through the chronos into the kairos, to offer praise.

         Even as we learn that Mary and Joseph returned home and raised the child according to the law, we recognise that these are merely chronos events. And these folks were all aware of the kairos events. They knew - they understood. Like the people of Isaiah's poem before, or the community of Galatians afterwards, they knew. Time was different. Waiting through chronos was okay, no matter how long it took, because thekairos was here. And that is worthy of praise that transcends the law.

         There is much we can learn from these scriptures. We can pray to learn patience: to trust that God's perfection will permeate into this world, and our lives, at the right moments.

         We can pray to expect the unexpected: to discern how God's kairos will surprise us in our chronos, inviting and inspiring us into action.

         We can pray to have the courage to persevere: like Simeon and Anna prophesying in the temple, like Mary and Joseph through their commitment to the faith, like every community that waits expectantly for new possibilities in the name of God.

         And we can pray to have the wisdom to engage: that we might recognize those kairos moments as God discloses them to us, not to be mere witnesses to the miraculous but to realise the call to action in exciting ways as the earth more closely aligns itself to God's kingdom.

         And, we can pray to keep focus on praise: praise that we are God's children, praise that we are a part of this glorious creation, praise that God has promised us - and shown us - the salvation of the world through the person of Jesus.

         In all that we do, we strive to connect our time to God's time. May every moment of our chronos be time spent well, keeping eyes and ears open for the kairos, keeping hearts and minds oriented towards praise.