MONDAY MORNING BLOG

Chapter 18

Good Monday Morning to this week 18 of 2022

Let us rehearse the various scenarios of the tale of these two Kingdoms of what it means to be on either side of the equation. The self-narrated role we play in our own story creates for us the illusion we’ve chosen correctly, leading us to assume we’re on the right side of history because we imagine we’ve chosen to serve a greater good.

Greg Doles writes this beautiful piece I quote the middle of a text and article;

The Kingdom of Man believes that the greater good is a matter of seizing power, so that control and lockstep conformity, to whatever the latest iteration of the greater good the ruling authorities say it is, can be achieved. Therefore it is a kingdom best served by intimidation, coercion, and violence and conformity.

But for the Kingdom of God, the greater good is best understood relationally – that only the humble servant of all will have prominence in God’s Kingdom (Mark 10:42-45). Therefore it is a kingdom best served by, forgiveness, redemption, and love.

In short, God doesn’t bully people into conformity – He lovingly entreats them to reconciliation – to be reconciled to God . . . and to one another.

Wishing you a blessed start to this week!

Philemon

Chapter 17

Good Morning Moring to this week 17 of 2022

Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Thomas Aquinas

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. (Rom. 12:3).

God cares about how you think, not just what you think. … No walk of life is without the need for insight, discretion and love of truth.”

How do we know what we know? What have wisdom, prudence and studiousness to do with justifying our beliefs?

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.
Marilyn vos Savant

I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess. Martin Luther

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. Charles Spurgeon

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
Edith Wharton

Careful oversight of our intellectual lives is imperative if we are to think well, and thinking well is an indispensable ingredient in living well. J Wood

The global theater of information coming towards us on social media means our need for intellectual virtue is at present especially acute. Wood wrote more than two decades ago, but his suggestion of three key virtues—studiousness, intellectual honesty, and wisdom—is just as needful now. Bonnie Kristian explains as follows;

Studiousness means seeking truth well, steering between the excesses of vicious curiosity on the one hand and credulousness and oblivion on the other.

Intellectual honesty concerns how we respond to knowledge while acquiring it. It’s the virtuous mean between intellectual dishonesty and willful naiveté, and it requires us to deal in sincerity and good faith

Last, wisdom is the virtue we need to put knowledge we’ve sought and gained to good use. The wise person’s life will be “marked by deep and abiding meaningfulness, anchored in beliefs and purposes that offer lasting contentment,”

Thomas Aquinas says “love follows knowledge” so as our knowledge increases our ability to love God and others should also increase. He explains that those who have had the deepest and most intimate relationship with God, pursued God with everything they were – including their minds. In fact he claims that ‘the earnest pursuit of truth and a commitment to being the best stewards of our minds as we can be, are authentic acts of worship in themselves’ and should be assessed by the extent to which it helps us honour God and serve our neighbours.

Wishing you a blessed and good start to this new week!

Philemon

Chapter 16

Good Monday Morning to this week 16 of 2022

This Easter I am a bit behind with the days and the events. Somehow
I’m still wrestling with Good Friday. I then stumbled over this article
written a year ago in the midst of the pandemic, but relevant to today
as well as we wake to other new and harsh realities.

Written by David Ruis

Strangely, I’ve been reflecting of late on what must’ve been going through the mind of the convicted felon who hung beside Jesus during the Crucifixion and would later be called the Penitent Thief, known as Saint Dismas.

I then stumbled onto a poem about this man written by spoken word artist, Michael Mark, called “Just Hangin’. It begins like this:

I tell you the truth

I’m scared

Full of fear

The end is near

I’m just hanging here

I couldn’t shake this image. “Just hanging here.” Stuck. Unable to move.

Of course, this poor bloke’s lot was of his own making, although we do not know his back story at all. Given his rebuke of another criminal who was deriding the crucified Jesus, and his uncanny ability to recognize Jesus’ kingship even though Christ was hanging there too, there must’ve been more than meets the eye going on. He discerns the disdain for Jesus as something to be reprimanded and he also sees Jesus for who he truly was. Though Christ was marred, beaten – and as foreseen in the stunning, upside down Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53 – battered beyond human recognition, this future Saint, recognizes a king. The King.

This perception of Jesus seemed to stir something deep within him and he cries out. Unable to do anything about his condition, and most certainly afraid of deaths threshold imminently before him, it seems that now he has hope. One translation captures it this way, “Jesus, … remember me when you finally become king.” Although Dismas has had an epiphany of Christ, he has only gotten it partly right. And, it sounds like a lot of our prayers when we are stuck, whether of our own making or because of things beyond our control. When we’re just hanging there.

“One day, Jesus – when you finally get this all sorted out – don’t forget about me. Would you send back some help? Please don’t forget!”

Yet as NT Wright notes, Jesus’ answer is quite startling. “… Jesus surprises us, as he surprised the brigand, by his response. He is becoming king, here and now. No more waiting.

His presence – His face – His position – may not be what we expected or imagined a King to look, or be, like. Hanging on a cross? Scandalous at best – moronic at worst. We may be tempted to think, like the ‘other brigand’, that Jesus is just as stuck as we are. He won’t rescue us. He can’t even rescue himself. Yet if we can see with eyes of faith, we’ll see not only his kingdom coming, but his kingdom come. Today. Though we may be stuck, yes, on a cross even, for we all have one to bear, we may taste paradise in even this dangling moment for he is with us. The kingdom is within our reach. Though we may be locked down by a relentless virus that has upended so much of our lives in such rapid fashion, Jesus is King. Jesus is present. So, this basileia, the present rule of the reign of Christ, is upon us. Now. Repent. Look again. He has not left us. He has not forsaken us.

As we are currently pinned down by forces beyond our control, imposed upon us and we feel like we are “just hanging”, ignore the taunting voices and look to Jesus. See Him hanging on the cross and the love revealed there. It is a sweet balm in even the most hellish of circumstances – when we are hanging too. We will see paradise. We can taste it now. “Taste and see that He is good.” Today. Let the kingdom come.

Wishing you a good start to this new week!
Philemon

Chapter 15

Good Monday Morning to this week 15 of 2022

In 2016 I started writing this blog – I started the first few weeks
with a few quotes and a few notes, thought I’d do that once again.

Sticking to the current events and crises I will stay in the region of the conflicts.
Here a few Eastern Orthodox quotes to think about.

Ponder the fact that God has made you a gardener, to root out vice
and to plant virtue. St. Catherine of Siena

The most beautiful act of faith is the one made in darkness,
in sacrifice, and with extreme effort. St. Padre Pio

You don’t become holy by fighting evil. Let evil be. Look towards
Christ and that will save you. What makes a person saintly is love.
St. Porphyrios

If God is love, he who has love has God within himself.
St. Maximus

To God, love is not an emotion but a self-offering.
Matta El Meskeen

Acquire a peaceful spirit and thousands around you will
be saved. St Seraphim of Sarov

To be a good servant of God means having patience with yourself in
your daily failings and peacefully tolerating your neighbor with all his
or her imperfections. St. Francis de Sales

If the intention is unclean the deed that follows from it will also
be evil, even if it seems it is good. St. Gregory the Great

The deeds you do may be the only sermon some person will hear today.
St Francis

Conquer men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous
men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of justice to shame with your
compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men,
but keep distant from all men. St Isaac the Syrian

I saw the snares that the enemy spreads in the world and I said
groaning. What can I get through such snares?
Then I heard a voice saying to me, Humility! St. Anthony the Great

And I saw the river over which every soul must pass to reach the
Kingdom of heaven and the name of that river was suffering. And I
saw a boat which carries souls across the river and the name of
that boat was love. St John of the Cross.

Wishing you a good start to this new week.

Philemon

Chapter 14

Good Monday Morning to this 14th week of 2022

A prayer

O God,

The news of again another war I haunts us.

The stories are passed on daily even hourly

and the suffering and sorrow and senseless horror

fills the pit of our stomach and paralyses.

The earth cries out for blood spilt

of one brother, one mother, one sister and one child.

How cries the earth over thousands!

O God,

Today, we bow our heads and weep

For what is lost

And unlearned lessons

And humanity’s continued loss.

Breathe peace into the horror chamber of the heart

Breathe peace into perverse minds

Breathe peace into hands which violate.

Teach us to respect and celebrate life

And life wrought through a wooden cross

Whereon shame is named

And Love’s Power released.

Peace to nations.

Peace to man, woman and child.

Peace to all, O God!

For your Love’s sake. Amen.

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

 Christ, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

 Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

May the God of all healing and forgiveness
draw us to himself and cleanse us from our transgression,
that we may behold the glory of his Son,
the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen

Trust and Mistrust

Chapter 13

Good Monday Morning to this week 13 of 2022

Trust is quite an interesting thing. On the one hand, it is something very individual; my trust in life, my trust in others. In regard to those that are particularly important to me, the mistrust is especially strong after the abuse of trust has been experienced. We don’t only trust individually, therefore trust has social, political or even spiritual components.

Both trust and distrust are self-reinforcing: If I trust, more and more trust is created; if I mistrust, the skepticism I show others tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy and creates new mistrust. If I think “this person doesn’t like me” and confront him accordingly in an unfriendly manner, he will confirm my judgment.

In communication we currently have a problem of trust. What source can we trust, who is feeding the information we read or even pass on? Can we trust what we are seeing or reading?

In the development of a child; The trust versus mistrust stage is the first stage of psychosocial development. This stage begins at birth and lasts until your child is around 18 months old. it is one of the most important periods of your child’s life, as it shapes their view of the world as well as their overall personality.

Trust:
Believing in caregivers, trusting that the world is safe, knowing that needs will be met

Mistrust
Distrusting caregivers, fearing the world, unsure that needs will be met

Isaiah 31 shows us the challenge of Egypt and Assyrians while placing the Messianic kingdom alongside the downfall of Assyria 

Doom to those who go off to Egypt thinking that horses can help them, impressed by military mathematics, awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders. And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance, not so much as a prayer to God. Still, he must be reckoned with, a most wise God who knows what he’s doing. He can call down catastrophe. He’s a God who does what he says. He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong, stands up against interfering evildoers. Egyptians are mortal, not God and their horses are flesh, not Spirit.

Isaiah. 31:1 is the fifth of six “woes” that Isaiah pronounces in this section of his book. Israel would experience woe, writes Isaiah, not just because they looked to Egypt for help, but because they “did not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord”. Indeed, it is not inherently wrong to prudently prepare for trials. However, it is sinful to not recognize, as Solomon wrote, “The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the Lord” (Prov. 21:31). This is helpful advice coming from Solomon, who himself had erred in accumulating many, many horses from Egypt, contrary to God’s instructions at Deut. 17:16, “But the king shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’”

In Isaiah 31:4–5; God promises to defend His people with the idea that they would repent of their sins and rely solely on Him for deliverance. God’s care for and over His people can be seen in the two illustrations Isaiah uses, that is, a lion and a bird. First, Isaiah notes that God’s care for Israel is like a young lion circling its prey who will not be distracted or deterred by shepherds summoned against it. Second, Isaiah writes that God’s concern for His own people is like that of a mother bird hovering over her fledglings.

Trust needs courage! Because trust is even something that will change. Yes, it adapts dynamically – depending on whether the trust placed in others is confirmed or disappointed. There is always the possibility that trust will be violated; that is a risk, and that is why trust requires courage.

Faith at its heart is about trust. It’s one thing to believe in God; it’s quite something else to trust him. R. Perry

A tremendous amount of trust and faith is required to go through a spiritual crisis. L Penner

Trust is the tie that binds any and all relationships with God, our spouses, our friends, and our community.  B. Williams

One day I believe we will understand, but in the meantime, we have to trust and have faith in the fact that God knows what he is going to do. Hope

Wishing you a blessed week full of trust, hope and faith!

Philemon

Chapter 12

Good Monday Morning to this new Week 12 of 2022

The current crisis and conflicts here in the West have caused quite some discussion,
especially in light of the fact that so much is shared out of the western worldview.

I stumbled over a blog and post at “citychurchlongbeach.org” and it spoke out of my heart. How often do we just see things out of only one or only “our own” view or perspective?

How do you listen to God’s word? Which persons in the story do you identify with? Today, ponder the insights from a Native Christian leader about the dominant Christian culture – and then read through the passage from 2 Samuel 12 with an open heart. Ask God to speak to you.

“White Christianity suffers from a bad case of Disney Princess theology. As each individual reads Scripture, they see themselves as the princess in every story. They are Esther, never Xerxes or Haman. They are Peter, but never Judas. They are the woman anointing Jesus, never the Pharisees. They are the Jews escaping slavery, never Egypt. For the citizens of the most powerful country in the world, who enslaved both Native and Black people, to see itself as Israel and not Egypt when it is studying Scripture, is a perfect example of Disney princess theology. And it means that as people in power, they have no lens for locating themselves rightly in Scripture or society — and it has made them blind and utterly ill equipped to engage issues of power and injustice. It is some very weak Bible work.” Erna Kim Hackett

The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over because he did such a thing and had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” 2. Samual 12: 1-7

Julia Kristeva also takes a view at this sotry.
Revisiting Bathsheba and David by Julia Kristeva

How about focussing a bit in regard to Bathsheba, not only as the imagined enticement of an illicit romantic encounter, but that of the symbolic system. In this context we could see Bathsheba as metaphorical maternal element of the symbolic order and drives, versus the metaphorical paternal element of the Law and its order. We could then understand Bathsheba as seductive with her imagined power to lead aside, to lead astray, away from
the symbolic of the law of the Father. Perhaps then the idea and mention of her seductiveness is a representational image of the danger of the temptation to act contrary to the laws and principles by which one normally abides, to deviate from the way things are and are to be done in one’s culture and society. Bathsheba is then representative of
the danger to trespass this patriarchal paradigm and its symbolic system, to go beyond its
boundaries, to be seduced to a new paradigm for ethical and equitable living. Then in a
parabolic manner, that is, by taking her story as a parable, Bathsheba is a metaphor for all that seduces us to a disruption of the status quo. We could then see the story as a parabol
that will bring about a revolution of a new otherness in a new paradigm.

When a woman is not given a voice in her own life-story, that is, when her story is told about her but not with her or by her, this is one way of silencing a woman. However, this silencing of her voice in her own story does not mean that she is therefore unprotesting, with the implicit accusation that she is therefore complicit when she is acted upon.

Bathsheba’s story also tells us what happened when David forgot about love. Denise
Lardner Carmody writes that, “to divorce the beauty of a lover from her or his total personality, and then suborn that beauty into the services of one’s own satisffaction is to pervert the interaction. David perverted his first encounter with Bathsheba, and because of it and the consequences that followed he became abject and felt rejected by God. David wept in his abjection and prayed for a religious ritual so that he could come to accept forgiveness and feel once more that he was loved by God. For “love is the most divine, transforming force in the human experience the best evidence that the Spirit of God moves in our spirits, often with sighs too deep for words” There came a transforming force in David, an unwonted, that is, an unaccustomed and unusual generosity as the power of love took him out of himself and into an ability to give comfort to Bathsheba in vers 24 we read;
then David comforted his wife Bathsheba.

It is in the between of our relationships, in the transformation of our interactions with each other that we discover love as healing the traces of our inscription and the experiences which mark us. Although at times filled with “fear of crossing and desire to cross the boundaries of the self … . if we can cross that with our thinking and our tradition we will undergo a revolution, and we will see things in a new light based on an ancient biblical commandment of love also shown in so many stories and parables.

Wishing you a good start to this week as you try to bring order into some of the many thoughts of this very turbulent time.

Philemon

Chapter 11

Good Monday Morning to this week 11 of 2022

A few years ago an astonishing story hit the world news.

Samaritans number about 800, roughly split between Mount Gerizim and Holon. Thanks in part to the six Ukrainian women who have moved to the mountain, as well as several Israeli, Ukrainian, and Azerbaijani women who married men in Holon, their population is slowly growing again.

Or another more current story. During the second intifada, a 56-year-old Samaritan, was driving home from the Palestinian town of Nablus. “When I was almost home, I came across two Palestinian boys and they shot me,” he says. “The blood ran from me like water.” He lost control of his car and drove into an Israeli roadblock. The Israeli soldiers shouted at him to stop. “But I couldn’t stop the car. And so they also shot me. There are probably few people in the world who have been shot by both Palestinians and Israelis within minutes of each other.

The Samaritans in Jesus’ day began as a race of people in the Old Testament, formed after the Assyrian King took most of the nation of Israel into exile. He repopulated what was then Israel’s capital city, Samaria, with foreigners who eventually intermarried with the Jews who remained in the land. As a result, their offspring was only half Jewish. These half-Jews became known as Samaritans.

This parable is found in Luke 10:25-37. A pharisee of the law questioned Jesus and asked what he must do to receive eternal life. When Jesus turned the question back to him, he had to say that the law stated that a person was to love God and love his neighbor as himself. However, the agitated pharisee wanted to excuse himself, so he asked, “And who is my neighbor?” But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have’”

Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’ The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise. Jesus had a different attitude toward Samaritans than most Jews. He didn’t hold them in contempt; instead, he reached out to them. He healed a Samaritan leper. When a Samaritan village refused to welcome him, Jesus didn’t allow his disciples to order its destruction. One of his most famous parables tells the story of a good Samaritan, who helped a Jew in need. Jesus once went out of his way to travel through Samaria so he could speak with the woman at the well. As a result, she and many people in the town believed in him as the Messiah.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus asked her for a drink. The woman was shocked. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (John 4:9). In response, Jesus said that if she asked Him, He could give her living water. She asked for the water! Jesus continued, yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’ The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you — I am he.

The story and parable couldn’t be more up-to-date as hatred keeps being promoted in so many areas of the world. Healing of wounds and relationships between people, tribes and nations, or just the daily living by ordinary people. The call of this parable is; acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God forgiving those who hurt and constantly letting our hearts being converted to loving instead of hating.

Wishing you a good start to this new week.

Philemon

Chapter 10

Good Monday Morning to this week 10 of 2022

St Andrew’s Church is an Orthodox church in Kyiv, constructed between 1747 and 1754. Situated on a steep hill, where Andrew the Apostle is believed to have foretold the great future of the place as the cradle of Christianity in the Slavic lands, the church overlooks the historic Podil neighborhood. The church was consecrated in honor of Andrew the Apostle who is recognized as the “Apostle of Rus′. According to the chronicle The Tale of Bygone Years, Saint Andrew came to the Dnipro River’s slopes in the 1st century AD and erected a cross on the current location of the church. He prophesied that the sparsely inhabited area would become a great city.

Andrew the Apostle was born between 5 and 10 AD in Bethsaida, in Galilee. The New Testament states that Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, and likewise a son of Jonah. “The first striking characteristic of Andrew is his name: it is not Hebrew, as might have been expected, but Greek, indicative of a certain cultural openness in his family that cannot be ignored. Both he and his brother Peter were fishermen by trade, hence the tradition that Jesus called them to be his disciples by saying that he will make them “fishers of men”. At the beginning of Jesus’ public life, they were said to have occupied the same house at Capernaum.

The Byzantine Church honours him with the name Protokletos, which means “the first called”. In the gospels, Andrew is referred to as being present on some important occasions as one of the disciples more closely attached to Jesus. Andrew told Jesus about the boy with the loaves and fishes,and when Philip wanted to tell Jesus about certain Greeks seeking Him, he told Andrew first. Andrew was present at the Last Supper. Andrew was one of the four disciples who came to Jesus on the Mount of Olives to ask about the signs of Jesus return at the “end of the age”.

The Chronicle of Nestor adds that he preached along the Black Sea and the Dnieper river as far as Kiev, and from there he travelled to Novgorod. This is how , he became a saint in the Ukraine and other nations around. The Primary Chronicle reports that, in the year 986, Vladimir met with representatives from several religions. The result is amusingly described in the following apocryphal anecdote. Upon the meeting with Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga, Vladimir found their religion unsuitable due to its requirement to circumcise and taboos against alcoholic beverages and pork; supposedly, Vladimir said on that occasion: “Drinking is the joy of the Rus.” He also consulted with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), questioned them about Judaism but ultimately rejected it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God.
Returning to Kiev in triumph, Vladimir exhorted the residents of his capital to the Dnieper river for baptism. This mass baptism became the iconic inaugural event in the Christianization of the state of Kievan Rus’. At first, Vladimir baptized his twelve sons and many boyars. He destroyed the wooden statues of Slavic pagan gods (which he had himself raised just eight years earlier). Then Vladimir sent a message to all residents of Kiev, “rich, and poor, and beggars, and slaves”, to come to the river on the following day, lest they risk becoming the “prince’s enemies”. Large numbers of people came; some even brought infants with them. They were sent into the water while priests prayed. To remember the event, Vladimir built the first stone church of Kievan Rus’, called the Church of the Tithes.

Though we know more about his brother Peter, it was Andrew who first met Jesus. At least three times Andrew is shown as one who introduced others to Jesus. First he introduced his borther Simon to Jesus second, he introduced a small boy to Jesus and third, he introduced a delegation of foreigners to Jesus. Andrew showed a global outlook by ushering many to meet Jesus. Andrew realized that the good news of Jesus was for the every man, woman, and child from every tribe and nation around the world. He wanted to be first, not for himself, but for the sake of others meeting the one he follows.

Praying for many “Andrews” in this time great distress, pain, death and war. Praying for many to be Andrew, to have the desire to be first for the sake of others!

Wishing a blessed, protected and safe start to this week.

Philemon

Chapter 9

Good Monday morning to this week 9 of 2022

Little Jonah’s godfather telephones and Jonah picks up. “Jonah, let me speak to your Dad!” Jonah whispers softly, somewhat agitated: “I can’t.” “Why not?” “He’s busy.” “Then get your Mom for me!” Jonah, still whispering: “I can’t do that either.” “Why can’t you?” Jonah says very softly: “She is busy too. The police are here.” The godfather, increasingly worried, asks: “What is going on there? Then put one of the police officers on the phone!” “I can’t.” “Why?” “They are busy, too, and the firefighters are here.” The godfather is really agitated now: “For heaven’s sake what are they all so busy about?” Jonah: “Shh, not so loud. I’m hiding under the sofa with the telephone and they are all looking for me.”

A kairos moment for little Jonah!

The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” ( Luke 12:16-20 )

What Jesus describes here is a great deal more: a human being who is completely self-absorbed. The linguistic signal of this is that he is presented entirely through internal monologues. This man knows no one but himself. He doesn’t ask about anyone else. He presents an image of absolute egocentricity. The moment in which he sees that his fields are producing an abundant harvest could become a kairos for him, an occasion to think of others—maybe even to think of God. But his orbit is only himself.

So our parable shows us that it is not only profound self-fixation that makes it impossible to perceive the coming of the reign of God—no, even a full concentration on the necessities, plans, forces, and cares of everyday life does the same. The wheat farmer wants to avoid those forces once and for all. But he cannot escape his own orbit!

In the New Testament, kairos means “the appointed time in the purpose of God,” the time when God acts, the kairos is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Kairos used 86 times in the New Testament refers to an opportune time, a “moment” or a “season” such as “harvest time”. I refers to a specific amount of time, such as a day or an hour or as Jesus did, he makes a distinction between “His” time and “His brothers'” time. There are times in hisotry, the kairoi crisis time which create an opportunity for and indeed demand, an existential decision by the human subject, the coming of Christ as prime example or in in liberation theology of South Africa, the appointed time, the crucial time.

In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, before the Divine Liturgy begins, the Deacon exclaims to the Priest, Kairos tou poiēsai tō Kyriō. It is time [kairos] for the Lord to act’, indicating that the time of the Liturgy is an intersection with Eternity.

This past week started with a kairos moment of a very powerful, dangerous and foolish leader. Yet, this can call forth another kairos moment an “It is time” moment.

It is time for the Lord to act!

Wishing you a blessed start to this new week!

Philemon