Kairos #2 - time after time
Last week Richard introduced our Kairos series and we began with a bit of a spiritual ‘health check’ to start helping us sense any invitations from God for particular areas of change and growth in our lives.
If you’ve done your homework already, or looked ahead, you’ll see that this week we are keeping a loose diary of our week and using it to ask ourselves some questions about how we are seeing God at work in the reality of our day to day lives.
Our reading today focusses on three practicalities of living a healthy life with God. Jesus talks about the practice of giving to charity, of praying, and of fasting. But Jesus is weaving a meta-theme through this section, which is about our motivations. Unlike today, when most of us have chosen to be in the room, religious practice in Jesus’ time was woven into the fabric of everybody’s day to day life. The fact that people he is talking to give to charity, that they pray, or they fast – that’s not up for question. The question is really about where their hearts lie, as Jesus goes on to say in verse 21:
“where your treasure is, there your heart is also”.
In the central part of today’s reading Jesus narrows in on how we pray. It’s not about having the most or the smartest words, it’s not worrying about what others might think of you – it’s just nurturing the relationship between you, and the one who made you.
“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”
The word for room here in the original Greek is ‘tamieon’ – literally a place where servants keep their provisions (in my head this looks like the office stationery cupboard or the cleaning cupboard in the Lion in the Meadow children’s book).
So, Jesus is asking: are we doing taking part in “things religious” to tick a box, or to be seen, or are we focusing most on being in a heart to heart relationship with our Creator God?
We’re going to come back to the framework that Jesus gives us to pray, the Lord’s Prayer, when we come to our time of collective prayer later on. But for now, we’re going to focus on one particular treasure that we all have which I think truly tells us where our heart lies:
our time. We’d all agree it’s precious and many of us feel like we don’t have enough of it – but what does how we use or think about our time tell us about what we prioritise in life?
A few weeks before Christmas, I was talking to a colleague about a particular clash of commitments that had the potential to cause some pressure to our family life. “Our kids” I said, “often gets the short end of the stick because of these commitments”. This colleague is particularly good at cutting through the proverbial to get to the root of situations and she pulled me up short. “Hang on,” she said. “Who’s driving your bus?”
What she meant by that was, “who really has control over your family dynamic? Are you correct to blame others, or the “system”, or do you have more agency that you think?” In that moment, I realized in that particular situation I had been going with the flow and ending up blaming others for my use of time.
In contrast, in Jesus’ life we see a deep intentionality in how he uses his very short time. He really is driving his bus, and his motivations are all about relationship with his Father God.
The Jewish religious life Jesus knew was marked by rhythms of time: of personal daily prayer, gathered learning, scripture reading, and worship in sabbath synagogue meetings, and big festival temple events. Sounds similar to us – and indeed many of our traditions have grown from that root.
These were the rhythms that Jesus still saw as important – we heard in the reading from last week how Jesus went to the synagogue on the sabbath “as was his custom”. Like everyone, he heads for the temple in Jerusalem at Passover. What’s also striking is how the gospels mention again and again how Jesus withdraws to a ‘solitary place’ – often early in the morning or late at night – to pray by himself. He prays in gardens, in the wilderness, up the mountainside, on the sea. He prays as he prepares for wonderful things like the Sermon on the Mount mic-drop, or awful things like the cross. Spending time in 1:1 relationship with his Father is the fuel and the heartbeat of his day, whether it's good or bad or mediocre.
We also see just how important Jesus felt prioritizing times for joy was. In John 3 Jesus talks about how the Spirit of God blows where it wants and turns up in unexpected places. Yes it’s important to keep rhythms, but just as important is waiting and expecting and keeping your eyes open to where God breaks through. I am deeply attracted to the God who parties, who considers the lilies, who noms corn from a field on a sabbath with his mates, who honours someone who unexpectedly breaks a jar of perfume on his head.
As he lives his short life, Jesus is driving his bus, prioritizing his relationship with his Creator, prioritizing rhythms of prayer, gathering, worship, meals, spontaneity - and in doing so is modelling a life of relationship, joy and freedom.
So with all that in mind, our spiritual exercise homework this week asks us to review a week of our lives in that time lens and to see what we learn from it.
To help you, I’m going to share mine from the week that’s been. I’m fully aware of the irony of this when Jesus advises us to keep things to ourselves – but there’s plenty in there that you shouldn’t imitate! But I share it with you as an example of what I noticed in the hope that you’ll also see the value in the exercise for yourself.
It's not easy to read so I’ll run you through it. I’ve broken my waking hours into a week, and then done a rough note of what I did in each slot. Then I colour-coded each section with a category, and calculated the hours spent on each.
As I reflected on the balance of things, two of the booklet questions stood out for me:
What surprised you? I was more encouraged than I thought I’d be – e.g. convinced I didn’t have that much family time in there, and likewise hangouts with God. But there’s definitely room for improvement, including about 5 hours worth of social media or news scrolling. I noticed that one of my problem areas is first thing in the morning when I struggle to put hanging out with God first before doom scrolling social media or the news cycle. I know from experience my day is better when I start with God, but NGL, the temptation not to is strong. Social media and news definitely has an unhealthy hold on me and there’s an invitation to do something about it.
What brought you life and joy?
a.Gathering with others to pray – back into that rhythm – how much I need it. Noting that while Jesus says ‘go into your room and shut your door’ – he’s not saying don’t gather with others! He’s saying: check your motivations.
b. the unexpected - one of those ‘Spirit of God in action moments’ was taking the dog for a walk that same day – usually a drudge – but playing my usual playlist whilst Pete sniffs every weed and pole by Tawa railway line and suddenly a song pops on and hits me right in the guts and lifted my soul:
“He Toka Tu Moana E: To Tonu, To Te Ao, To Te Po” / You are the rock that stands, in the day and the night – how can I stand without your spirit?” A realization that nothing makes sense without God in the picture.
So anyway – this week it’s your turn. On Saturday next week if you haven’t already, with your diary in front of you, spend some time talking to Jesus about your rhythms. Remember, we are invited into grace, not guilt! This is about noticing and taking invitations to greater wholeness and freedom.
If you want to take it further, have a look at The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer which you can borrow from the foyer.
Circling back to the Lord’s Prayer to close. One commentator I heard this week talked about how ultimately the Jesus’ Prayer re-shapes us and re-aligns us and is about relationship, not results. This is what all our spiritual practices are about. In Luke’s version of Jesus teaching the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus continues
“how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him”. God doesn’t give a tidy answer when we spend time with him, but instead, he gives – himself. God – presence, Spirit, love. May the closeness of that relationship be the joy of all of our hearts.
Finish with Kairos exercise.
Close up in prayer.
Oh Lord, you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. This week, may we be hungry for deeper relationship with you, our Daily Bread. Amen.
