Metanoia: to be perfect is to change often

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September 18, 2022
Rev. Patricia Wagner
Metanoia: To Be Perfect is to Change Often

Scripture:
Luke 15: 1-10

Luke 15: 1-10
15 All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. 2 The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose someone among you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them. Wouldn’t he leave the other ninety-nine in the pasture and search for the lost one until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he is thrilled and places it on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over the one who changes both heart and life than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to change their hearts and lives.
8 “Or what woman, if she owns ten silver coins and loses one of them, won’t light a lamp and sweep the house, searching her home carefully until she finds it? 9 When she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost coin.’ 10  In the same way, I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels over one who changes both heart and life.”
 
Two figures have dominated our news in recent days,
         Queen Elizabeth, the Second of Great Britain
                  and Vladimir Putin, the first, of Russia
 
One brought a sense of stability for generations
          the other profound instability to the world. 
 
One, who led as her nation moved beyond its
         conflictive, often tragic empirical past,
                  The other trying to recreate the past empire
                           by any means necessary.
 
As we consider what Jesus says today,
         about what God is hoping for in us
                  let’s see what he may have to say
                           about Elizabeth and Vladimir and us.    
 
Luke begins this passage by telling us that
         the Pharisees, the legal officials of the synagogue,
                  are grumbling that Jesus eats with sinners.
 
Pharisees declared that the reign of God was coming
                  and that people were to live as if that were so,
                  to live righteously, according to the Torah.  
 
Jesus believed this too,
   but, Pharisees also believed that
         that to stay pure,  
                  the righteous should distance themselves
                           from the unrighteous.
 
Indeed, the word Pharisee comes from Hebrew word
         parush – meaning the one who is separated. 
 
So, they are upset that Jesus mingles with those who aren’t
         Torah keepers, and so condoning them.
 
         It remind me of those in our own
                  denomination who are committed to
                           the purity laws
                                    that sat say who is
                                         righteous and who is not
                                             who may lead,
                                                 and who may not
 
         and have decided to separate from the UMC
                  rather than be tainted by those
                           who are mingle with the unrighteous.
                                    without condemning them.
 
Anyway, In response to the Pharisees,
     according to Luke,
         Jesus tells them stories: 
                   
First, don’t you love that instead of getting mad at them
         he tells stories
               He so wants to bring these brothers
                  into the story that is unfolding in him.
 
He tells them about a sheep who is lost
         and a coin which has been lost.
 
He reframes sin as lostness.
         Not as bad action or even as a bad person
                  neither a sheep nor a coin is bad
 
and that seems so right to me.
         Vladimir Putin, I believe, is lost.
                  but it does not make them without value
                          Indeed, they are of great value
                           not shunned, but sought by God
 
Who wants their lostness to end
         how does it end: 
                  Jesus says: 
I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels
         when the lost one has, and then comes our word
                  metanoeite
 
         Meta – which means to change, to shift,
                  and noia – which means the mind or thinking. 
 
         Metanoia - To shift or change one’s mind or way of thinking
                           or outlook.
 
I tell you, says Jesus,  joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels
         when the lost one changes their way of thinking
                  and living.
 
And, to me, it seems, Jesus’ story is really about the Pharisees        themselves, they are the lost ones
                  who are so sure that God is a punitive rule maker
                           so disappointed in us fallable humans,
                                 rather than one who created and delights in us
                                    and continuously invites us into a
                                             new ways of being for our own
                                                      and for God’s sake.
 
But, we got stuck in that moralism ourselves.
       when those in Rome translated the word “metanoia’      
          from Greek into Latin translators used the word,
                  paenitentia:
                           “to look back with regret and judgment of one’s self.”
 
You know the word from penitentiary –which we build to
         separate the righteous from the unrighteous
                  Which sounds a lot more like the Pharisees
                           way of thinking than Jesus’.
 
and so Metanoia was translated into English as repentance.
         which has a very different tone from “
                  changing your mind, shifting your understanding.
 
Throughout the centuries, starting in the second century,
         theologians have challenged this
              in the 1800’s a Boston scholar
                  wrote to those working on a new English translation,
                           how did such an extraordinary mistranslation
                                    get into our New Testament.
 
And, he found to his surprise, that everyone agreed
         with his scholarship,
                  but said that such a modification was impossible
                           since the committee felt that the word
                                    repentance had become so much part of our
                                             Christian language
                                                      to that it had to be retained.
                           and it was up to preachers and teacher to explain it.
 
So, here we are, in 2022,
         two thousand years after Jesus told this story
                  invited into a metananoia
a new way of thinking,
         like the Pharisees, invited to a change of mind and heart
                  that allows us to
                           to see the fuller reality within us and around us
         to open our minds to the Kingdom Jesus proclaims
                  not because we are coerced          
                       by the fear of a retributive God,
                           but loved into this change
                                  by a God who is love itself
 
        
John Henry Newman,  an English priest in the 1800s
         He sensed this call to metanoia deeply in the church
                  that the church
                           needed to remain open to the continuing
                                    revelation of God
He said, growth is the only evidence of life, he said.
         and
                  to live is to change, and to be perfect
                           is to have changed often.
 
I think this is so helpful –
         because the changes that Jesus speaks of
                  he metanoia he longs form
                           comes, usually, in small shifts
                                    that that over a lifetime,
                                    transform us into new beings.
 
I have seen this in persons I love
         as they age, hold their truths less tightly
                  more open to the reality unfolding before them.
 
I believe this happened in Elizabeth Winsor
         and I believe that God is working on Vladimir
 
And God is working on us,
         for we are all a little lost,
                  and God is seeking us all out, 
                      for we are of great value to God. 
 
And God rejoices when we are open
         open to the shifts of mind and heart and life
                  open to the good news of unconditional
                           love and acceptance
                           by a God who is love
         and who rejoices us in
                  and all who are willing to fully and freely
                           live their lives in that truth.
 
May we so do. 
Amen.
​