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Will You Dance the Metanoia with Me? Acts 2: 32-41 John 14:6 KJ (ERV)
Want to dance? Do you know The “Twist”, The “Hokey Pokey”, The “Funky Chicken”, The “Macarena”? Every generation lives with its own “Dorky Dance”. What about The “Metanoia”? It’s a three step dance. The Macarena has a repetitive set of hand motions and the dance simply continues to repeat. On the other hand, when you jump and turn to a new direction during The Metanoia — you should most definitely NOT just begin to do the same things all over again. Don’t take the same actions, make the same choices, or think the same thoughts. During The Metanoia dance, you turn away from one direction in order to turn your life towards a new reality. Metanoia is a classical Greek word meaning: change one’s mind about someone or something. Repent!
This morning’s scripture is sharing Peter preaching to the crowds following Jesus’ ascension. Letting them know they can’t be indifferent to that man that rose from the dead. You were witnesses. In verse 36, Peter is telling the crowd who Jesus is - both Lord and God! When the crowd heard this they were cut to the heart. When we experience the emotions of Holy Week past, when we see the pictures, the movies - the pain that Jesus suffered and died, can you hear St Peter’s raised voice over the crowd saying to US— the man is Jesus — both Lord and God! YOU WERE WITNESSES. Wow! Are we cut to the heart? In verse 38, the Bible gives us the one word answer that releases us from the pain of indifference to Christ resurrection: Repent! - Time to do The “Metanoia/Repent” dance. I mentioned The “Metanoia” is a three-step dance. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” When we start to turn our lives around in the act of “metanoia,” when we genuinely repent and do an about-face, as in the dance, we discover that Jesus changes our way of Belonging (the Way), Believing (the Truth), and Behaving (the Life).
Our world doesn’t embrace “belonging” - The Way. Instead it has a death-grip on “belongings.” It goes against our self-centered nature to consider “belonging” to something greater than ourselves. To make Jesus’ Way, our Way takes us off the path of selfishness and self-absorption, away from our “belongings” and toward true “belonging” - Jesus as Believing (the Truth). When we see a world where everything is wrong and nothing and no one is right, we have no hope of ever knowing a “truth.” We are used to thinking about “truth” as a moral general rule. The solution to our problem is this: Do a “metanoia”. Take the second step to our 3 step dance and turn your back on truth as a general rule. Instead, face a new reality where truth is a person, Jesus Christ as Believing -.Jesus as Behaving (The Life). Jesus was seen as a troublemaker. During the years of his earthly ministry, Jesus was often in trouble with the authorities because of his “bad behavior.” Jesus didn’t act the accepted part of a teacher, preacher, or rabbi. He called fishermen, Galilean peasants, tax guys, hot heads, and blowhards. Jesus didn’t keep the Sabbath as strictly as he could have. He walked too far, He healed some sick folk, He did some things the religious authorities considered work. Jesus’ “bad behavior” was the fulfillment of the mission He had been given in this world. Jesus as “the Life” offered a vision of a life lived in alignment with God’s ultimate vision for creation. Jesus did not live in obedience to the rules of some fatally flawed world order. If we (do an) about face from the rules for Life according to this world in order to embrace the behaviors mandated by Jesus as “the Life,” there will be conflict.
The world does not like it when we choose compassion over coercion.
The world does not like it when we opt for mercy over revenge.
The world does not like when we offer forgiveness instead of judgment.
The world does not like it when we give second chances instead of “first dibs.”
But turning our back to the world’s “likes” opens us up to how God would like us to live out the mission each one of us has been given. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The rest of the verse, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” It’s time to dance The “Metanoia” - Time to REPENT.
Pastor Dorothy Hotchkiss of Webster’s Crossing UMC and Groveland Federated Parish.
dhotch2@frontiernet.net 585/406-7030 cell/text
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