It’s Saturday morning. As you amble into the kitchen you look at your watch. It is 7:45. You know the only thing on your schedule for the entire day is to take place at 5:00. You have nearly nine hours. You eat your breakfast and read the paper. It is now 8:30. Not much in the Saturday paper.

You go outside and do a little yard work. The next time you look it is 10:00. At noon it is time to eat again. This goes on all afternoon. Time passes. Tick tock. The Greeks call this chronos. The word chronology comes from it. One minute follows another. One event follows the other, in sequence.

There is another kind of time. It is a strategic time, a key moment. You decided to ask this really neat girl to the homecoming dance which takes place in four weeks. You check it out with a friend of hers. If you ask, she’ll say yes. Still, you are very nervous. Nearly a week passes. You tried to call her once, but you dialed six numbers and hung up. You saw her in the hall at school, but you can’t ask a girl to homecoming walking down the hall. Then you hear that another guy is going to ask her during chemistry, which is fifth hour. Suddenly you see her. She is alone at her locker and you know it is time to ask her. This is not chronos. This is the key moment. The Greeks call this, Kairos.

Someone started a new business…at a good location. Problem, she was slightly ahead of the time…people weren’t ready. The business failed.

Someone else started a business…similar location…a year later. Business soared. We say, "The timing was just right." Kairos.

Kairos is when you had to make a decision – you are offered two jobs, one in Madison, the other near Chicago. You’d love to live near Chicago, but you decide to take the job in Madison. Thirty years later you look back and smile. It was a kairos moment.

Kairos is sitting by the phone waiting for the call that says the baby, your first grandchild, is born and your daughter is healthy. Kairos is the just right moment, the key piece of time.

When Jesus came into Galilee he announced: The kairos is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Time? Kairos.

You who have been tutored by Pastor Harley Swiggum through the Bethel Series know that he suggests that Jesus came in the fullness of time. The world was at peace…the Romans had just built a new road system…people were hungry…and Jesus was born. Kairos.

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." (Isaiah 2:3) The moment we choose to do this is a kairos moment.

Today is the first day of Advent. Advent is about time. We are not talking chronos. We are talking about a new beginning, a very important moment. We are running out of opportunities. "Choose this day whom you will serve," Joshua thundered to the people. In other words, you don’t have forever. You are running out of time. Make your decision now.

Whether you are a fan of Al Gore or not you realize we need to make up our minds soon about global warming. Is he prophetic or not? I’m not sure he is totally correct, but I figure we have more to lose by holding onto the status quo than we do by changing. Even if he isn’t 100% right does it make sense to buy that Hummer for Christmas? Even if the world is heating up without our help cutting back on our use of oil makes a lot of political sense. As surely as we need a little Christmas, right this very minute, we need to re-evaluate the way we use energy, right this very minute. We need both a personal and a national energy policy, now. Christian friends, let us do something to take care of the earth. This is a kairos moment.

Energy is not the only crisis we are facing. On the first Sunday in Advent in 1986 I said from a pulpit, "We have yet to begin to pay the price for our drug habit. When the crack babies begin to fill our schools with unmanageable behavior and our prisons with unacceptable rebellions, it will be clearer that recreational drug use is destroying our lives.

We’ve got serious work to do, all of us. Living in a condo in the south playing bingo is not a worthy retirement goal for God’s people. Healthy Christians with time ought to invest that time by doing things that matter.

We need to live toward a vision. We need to live with deep purpose. We need to do so now. Again, the words of Isaiah, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths."

While the politicians in Madison debate the Freedom From Religion group about the proper name for that gorgeous tree standing in the rotunda of the state capital we have work to do. (Hint: it is not a holiday tree.) It is not enough to march through this season to the tune of Frosty the Snowman, or be entertained by a Garfield Christmas. The birth of the Son of God forces us to ask deeper questions of life.

On the national level it is time for us to look closely at our need to solve our disputes with military might. Isaiah’s vision is that we will "beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks." Christians have long declared that the burden of proof for participating in a war always rests on the shoulders of those who first enter the battle. Religious thinkers developed something called "Just War Criteria," centuries ago. For a war to be declared "just" several things need to happen: There must be a just cause (such as repelling an invader). The war must be declared by a proper authority (it cannot be launched by a vindictive king or president). It must possess a right intention. It must have a reasonable chance of success (people are not to die in vain). The end must be proportional to the means used. (You can’t destroy entire villages to open a road.) Finally, force may be used only after all peaceful and viable alternatives have been seriously tried and exhausted.

After one examines the criteria for a just war they realize that 99% of our wars cannot meet the test, including the war we are now involved in. Thus I say again, we should remain skeptical about war and our participation in it.

Advent begins with this prayer: Stir up your power, O Lord and come. Save us from the threatening power of our sin. Our sin blinds us to the needs of those around us. Sin makes us worry about getting ours, and not worrying about others.

Advent and its companion, Christmas, make us long for justice, not just for ourselves, but for everyone. It makes us want to live in a just society. It leads us to "go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths."

Whatever your moral code I hope this is true: Your hunger for justice ought to begin with your hunger for God. Your cry for justice ought to be a part of your cry for God. Listen to the prayers of Advent: "Stir up your power, O Lord and come. Protect us by your strength." "Savior of the nations, come; Show the glory of the Son. Not of human seed or worth, but from God’s own mystic breath." Finally, this one from the poet G. Lewis, "Alleluia, welcome Advent! Lord, we wait, our hearts prepare. Help us hear the prophet’s message, hope for people everywhere. God will bring the Savior promised, He will come our sins to bear. We will call him Christ, Messiah. He will come God’s love to share."

These are cries to have God in our lives. We want to live in harmony with the creator. We want to live a life that reflects the love of Jesus. We want to be blessed by God. We want to be loved by God. That is what this season is about. Now we need people who will live toward that vision.. Amen. © 2007