While returning to Newark on a 6am flight from Tulsa, the pilot woke up the passengers to alert us to an an astronomical sight not to be missed. I looked out the window and sure enough, the Moon over Tulsa was full and bright and larger than life, with no clouds obscuring the view. The softer lunar light directly opposed the more radiant light of the Sun which was just starting to rise. In this strange twilight, I beheld that final phase of the lunar eclipse after the moon had turned red at its midpoint.
Since I teach apocalyptic eschatology at Drew (where I discuss biblical texts where the “moon turns to blood”), I could not help but wonder what this astronomical/astrological sign may mean at such a time as this? Perhaps this natural phenomenon, like all solar and lunar eclipses, at least in retrospect, portents or points to important human events of crisis and opportunity, or sometimes to the need for relief and re-balancing—as the ancients believed.
But for now, I simply delight in the marvel of a lunar eclipse in the shadow of planet earth while cruising 3000 feet in the air on my early morning flight from Tulsa, and wonder what time it is (in kronos and kairos).
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| "Look around and see what Time is it?" (Ken Medema song) |