Madeleine L’Engle introduced me to the concepts of Chronos and Kairos time when I first read her books as a preteen. Chronos is clock time, measurable time. But Kairos is God’s time. Kairos is where God can be both at the beginning of creation and with us in this moment at the same time. Kairos is…flexible…incomprehensible.
Our pandemic worship helps us live into Kairos time in new and meaningful ways. These days, we normally record worship on Thursday afternoons, then Kaye spends hours editing it, and then it is posted to watch together on Sunday morning, and also is watched by many later that day and later that week.
As we moved into this rhythm, I began to understand the profound truth of Kairos time. I came to believe that, in God’s time, the moments that we were recording together on Thursday were the SAME moments as we were watching together on Sunday morning and were the SAME moments that any person watched later. Our weekly worship happens at one single God Time, and each of us can dip into that time at various Chronos times.
The prayer I say for our worship leaders on Thursdays goes something like this:
Holy God, be with us and sanctify this worship. Thank you for your holy Kairos, your time-beyond-time, which allows us to really worship with you now in this moment, and also right now with those who watch on Sunday and also worship with those who watch later. May your love and your time-beyond-time continue to knit us together and strengthen us to do your work in the world. Amen.
stlukesdurham.org 
Thank you! Janelle
Sent from my iPad
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