This weekend was amazing at First Pres! Over 100+ enjoyed Breakfast with Santa, the Stick with God ministry performed by the youth of Trinity United Methodist Church in Poquoson blew our socks off, and the choir’s beautiful rendition of Vivaldi’s Gloria brought lots of tears of joy. Then we topped that off good-heart-feels with a rousing dinner and Trivia Night to activate our Christmas brains! Full bellies + full hearts + full brains = Full joy.
In the midst of that, I preached a tiny little sermon about the Hope of Repentance (you can watch that, starting at 36:00 minutes in here). Like most of my sermons, but especially this one on this jam-packed weekend, I had to cut some additional material that would’ve been helpful to understand my point.
I was especially pointed about how dreadfully inaccurate the English word “Repent” is for the Greek word metanoia. That’s what Jesus says when he begins his public ministry in multiple gospels: “Metanoia, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
The meaning of metanoia is more about a U-turn, a changing of mind and action so dramatic that the old way is left in the dust. But how did we get to this place where the major of bibles on our shelves have such a poor English translation of this word?
Turns out, the problem goes back to… 1380! Even back then, when people were illegally translating the Bible into their preferred languages for the first time (and often getting burned or hanged for it), they struggled to find a good English equivalent word for this. 1380 saw the use of penance, which got turned into repent, which then had a short run as amend, but of course, the granddaddy of all Bible translations, the King James Version, said repent, and thus…. Here we are.
To read more about the history of this troubling word, check out this poignant sermon about the word and its history at Preaching Today.
We pray for the day when hearts and minds will truly undergo metanoia, transforming from the patterns of this world and into the Way of Jesus: peace, mercy, justice, grace, and neighbor-love.
Peace be with you,
Eric