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since the beginning of the pandemic. I have felt time moving in unfamiliar ways. It has become amorphous harder to grasp and difficult to understand. Suddenly time would move slowly and just as sudden it will move

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quickly. It will work with me and then work against me. Last week will feel like months ago and at moments time would just stand still. This summer time stood still. It stood still while eight

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minutes And 46 seconds of George Floyd's life slowly left his body. As the knee of Minneapolis police officer pressed against his neck, Time stood still as we waited and prayed and hoped for justice for Brianna Taylor

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, who was killed by Louisville police officers during a botched raid at her apartment. Time stood still. A civil uprisings and movements for racial justice filled our city streets and our news feeds. And just last

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month, time stood still as hundreds of angry white people stormed the U. S. Capitol to overturn the most fair and Democratic election in US presidential history because their candidate lost in time. Time stands still

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today as were gripped by the fact that half a million people, more than half of 500,000 people died of Covid 19. That's 500,000 families. That will never be the same time stands still as we find

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a way forward through all the collateral damage our societies and communities are enduring because folks didn't want to believe that the disease is real, that mask and social distancing work or that families would be and are devastated

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by grief, eviction, hunger, and even the decline of their Children's mental health. One could call this time a Kairos moment. I know typically we use the term Cairo's to refer to a period or

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time especially fitting and it's usually a word that is hopeful or one that is describing a happy occasion. Sometimes we even call Cairo's God moments. An entomologist of ancient greek also observed its meeting as a period

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characterized by some aspect of a special crisis. We are in a period of crisis, a time of intense difficulty, trouble and danger, a time of when difficult or important decisions must be made In Mark

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, Chapter one, verses 9 through 15, we find Jesus entering a Kairos characterized by a time of intense difficulty, trouble and danger. He is living in 1st century Palestine during constant unrest for justice and

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liberation from roman colonial oppression. That is also sustained and perpetuated by local rule. Jesus is a galilean in that place was known for being a hotbed of revolutionary activity as a response of frustrated poor communities who

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were sick and tired of being sick and tired under roman rule. The region experienced massive taxes and land confiscations that devastated rural communities. The people suffer ruthless attacks from local rulers and roman prefects over the most

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minor potential threats against the oppressors definition of social order at the time. Mark was written, The constant political, economic and social oppression led to the violent wars in Palestine that have come to be known as

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the jewish revolts or jewish wars. Those same wars that ended with the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem. Now, 21st century United States is nothing like 1st century Palestine, but many communities suffer deeply

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grippingly and fatally by the politics and policies of our time. The high rates of COVID-19 infections, especially among communities of color, particularly around the black and the brown communities. They're not having these high rates

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because of the color of their skin, but because of our country's legacy of genocide against indigenous populations, slave ocracy and white supremacist politics that ruthlessly kept generations of people of into unjust unequal and highly discriminatory policies

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on immigration, employment housing, health care, access , food, and even public education. The pandemic only brought into new focus and brighter light the dark activities of oppression that have burdened so many people here

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for so long. And in this pandemic, our countries populations are living in poverty of every race, creed and color are being so devastated and so decimated that most of us and sadly that includes me,

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have no real idea. In the midst of this , we are all affected by a planet and crisis that brings violent weather conditions of climate changes in these . Climate changes are indiscriminate with its destruction, but

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its most debilitating to vulnerable communities who are already weary While we're not living in first century Palestine, many of us can understand or at bare minimum empathize with the plight of the people among whom jesus was the

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bliss. In Mark's narrative, the Kairos that Jesus enters, and the Kairos in which we live, They are intense. Mark makes sure his readers know that Jesus is in an intense time. The author

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goes from one story to the next, with words like immediately and an so that the audience to is dizzy by the sense of urgency, of the moment , the moment of crisis for the people and the

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moment of the need of God's in breaking Kingdom. In this particular passage, Jesus moves from being baptized by john, anointed by the Holy Spirit, declared God's son, driven into the desert, tempted by

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satan, befriended by wild beasts and waited upon by angels. And then Jesus begins his preaching ministry when john the baptize er is handed over to the authorities and we all know what happens to him, Jesus

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is called to preach the good news, the Gospel of God. When people are in an intense time of difficulty, danger and trouble. But this is a time not only full apparel but also equipped for

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promise and jesus timing couldn't be more perfect. The poor people of galilee are suffering, They're dying of sickness and hunger. Only about 5% of the people live above the poverty line. And then you have

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evil spirits preying on people's soul controlling their minds, taking over their bodies. You have economic and political systems that disenfranchise them from their rights of self determination that exploit their labor and shame them for not being

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educated or wealthy or well employed like their oppressors. Local leaders refuse to use taxes, money and provisions collected by the masses to fund public education or to pay living wages or to establish just markets for housing

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, healthcare and human services. People needed justice. They needed salvation. They need the kingdom of God . Their world, our world needs God, their world, our world and each jesus. And so

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jesus comes and proclaims the good news of God's saying the Kairos is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is near and this Kairos is one that moves creation from crisis to reconciliation, from injustice to justice, from

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oppression to salvation. The gospel is about God who has never stopped acting, moving, working, hearing our cries and requiring justice and care as true worship . The gospel is of God as witness and the

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teachings, actions and characteristics of jesus and continued by his disciples and the healing of the sick, feeding the hungry, releasing the captives and restoring people's relationship with God and with one another, the kingdom of

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God is manifesting and human existence with this in breaking at the advent of jesus ministry and the world needed God and God's good news and it needed jesus then , and the world needs God in God's good news

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and it needs jesus now. So as the King of God is near an imminent among us, we are called into Cairo's a different type of special crisis . This is a moment when difficult or important decisions

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must be made and while the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is near and here with us , Jesus says, repent and believe in the good news. Repenting though requires confession and change and to

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get there, we must do difficult work of introspection and self analysis. It's a task that requires time in the desert to be tested by our own vanity and ego, to sit still with God, to

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connect with God's angels and to commune with the spirit via scriptures and songs, prayers, meditations, education , an honest conversation today, we call it a season of lent and jesus also calls us to believe

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to believe though, is to entrust ourselves and the good news about God and the good news of God and this level of belief is deep and transformative, it evokes us to act. You see martin makes

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this very clear in the structure of the story, because immediately after saying, repent and believe the good news, the story goes into action and we find ourselves with the disciples, jesus goes up to Peter

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and his brother and he says to follow him after we repent and believe we are to follow jesus to proclaim the good news of God to be a witness to God's kingdom presence, Jesus, invitation to discipleship

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is God's call to all of us. God chooses to have God's gospel proclaimed in the words and actions of communities through us and therefore God has made it , that the world needs us one another to step

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up and to step out. The world needs us to be the foot soldiers of justice. Because God told us in Isaiah 58 that we are to be the repairs of the breach and the restores of the

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streets we live in Kairos is a more fous, it's hard to grasp and sometimes it's difficult to understand its non linear, it's imprecise, especially fit crisis inducing, imperfectly timed, but most importantly, Cairo's

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belongs to God and God invites us to participate in that moment. So this season of lent, when isolation is the norm and time seems to stand still . It has me thinking about fasting and prayer and

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repentance a little bit differently. Unlike other occasions, I'm not preoccupied about what I'm going to quit doing these next 40 days or with feeling around a new discipline to cultivate. Instead, I will spend time

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in the kind of desert, engaging in deep introspection and self analysis along with my prayer, an education to discern how God calls me, how God calls us to participate in the holy fast that loosens the

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bonds of justice that unjust the things of the youth though thongs of the yoke that lets the oppressed go free and break every yoke. The video of the boston latin school Gospel Choir, which was part of

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the opening of our service. It underscores our need to feel in no God's presence, the nearness of God's Kingdom in the midst of this tumultuous time and after the benediction and are sending you will hear them

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again, seeing my world needs you right now. But connecting it to the prophetic lyrics of the song we shall overcome is through this video, I've witnessed their faith and our collective fast to manifest God's justice

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because the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God