作者Revd Dr Samuel Wells 聖馬田堂主任牧師 亞伯拉罕、撒拉和三位訪客的故事描述了一種笑聲如何從一種轉變為另一種。故事的開始,訪客告訴亞伯拉罕,他的妻子將生一個兒子。撒拉笑了。這是一種苦笑──一種忍耐的笑聲,一種自我保護的笑聲,一種不是因為一件事有趣而笑的笑聲,一種說著:“唔好玩我啦。”的笑聲。但過了一段時間,她從苦澀、諷刺的忍耐的笑轉變為充滿活力、愉快的喜悅的笑。“撒拉說:‘神給我帶來了笑聲;凡聽見的都要與我一同笑。’” 訪客問亞伯拉罕的問題總結了今日整個故事:“耶和華有難成的事嗎?”我想告訴你,這個問題不僅總結了亞伯拉罕的故事,也總結了整本聖經和整個信仰的故事。等我解釋一下。 我想為你勾勒出一條連接一系列畫面的線,這些畫面共同構成了聖經故事。最初什麼都沒有。神說話,宇宙萬物應運而生。如果沒有神的話語,就什麼都不會有:沒有宇宙、沒有地球、沒有人類、沒有你和我。請記住這一點。神來到亞伯拉罕那裡,三位三位一體的形象造訪了疲憊,不育的撒拉和她的丈夫。神說話,生命在她的子宮中誕生。如果沒有神,就什麼都不會有。一千年後,以色列人在巴比倫流散流亡:情況絕望。神說:“我的百姓啊,你們要得安慰,我在曠野為你們預備道路,使你們回家。”如果沒有神,以色列仍然會留在巴比倫。什麼都不會有。五百年後,馬利亞是處女。然而,加百列告訴她,她將懷孕生子。如果沒有神,就什麼都不會有。然而,耶穌來到。三十三年後,耶穌躺在墳墓裡。看起來故事已經結束。然而,聖靈召喚他,有了復活。如果沒有神,就什麼都不會有。 你明白嗎?耶和華有事難成的嗎?聖經是一系列故事,其中情況看似絕望,但在絕望的極點,神卻帶來喜悅。耶和華有事難成的嗎?一次又一次,神將忍耐的苦澀笑聲轉化為充滿歡樂的笑聲。每一次都是出乎意料的。但看看聖經是什麼:它不是一連串的審判,為了讓我們全都成為失敗者,將我們定性為罪人;它是一句耳語、一句謠言、一個迷因,一個潛在的反抗之詞,逐漸聚集起來,大聲地說:“有一個比你所認為的故事更大的故事。當你陷入絕對絕望之際,它將包容你,抬升你。即使你已經沉浸於它的模式和奧秘之中,它仍然會讓你驚訝。無論你有多少哭泣和悲傷,總有一天你會笑。沒有什麼事對耶和華來說太難成,太奇妙。無論是亞伯拉罕的時代,還是耶穌的故事。無論是現在,在大流行病中。不論何時。” 基督教不是一種陰郁的忍耐,一種延長的諷刺幽默,旨在在面對令人無法承受的悲傷時使我們的精神分散。基督教是對神應許的信仰,這些應許一次又一次地從虛無中帶來奇妙,從不育中帶來新生,從流散中帶來歸家,從絕望中帶來希望,從死亡中帶來復活。有時當一切似乎都失去時,我們會在壓迫和使我們沮喪的環境中以反抗的方式發出笑聲。但那種笑聲只是預示著超越它的笑聲,一種創造群體的笑聲,如同撒拉所發現,「凡聽見的都要與我一同笑。」。這種笑聲不僅僅是一種忍耐的笑聲,也不僅僅是一種抵抗的笑聲。它似乎最常出現在漫長的不孕、流亡、孤立、悲慘、失敗或被拋棄的時期結束的時候。但最終它是一種永無止境的喜樂之笑。。 在我們的生命中,我們每個人都必須面對一個關於我們所處故事的選擇。我們可以像亞伯拉罕和撒拉在故事一開始時那樣說,這個故事是關於我們的:生活太難了,有些事情永遠不會發生,信仰是一種苦澀、諷刺的忍耐形式,在諷刺中找到幽默,在浮華中看出荒謬。但我們每個人收到一個邀請,就像亞伯拉罕和撒拉在故事結束時一樣,看得見這世界不是關於我們的故事;我們被賜予了恩典,能夠在一個關乎上帝的故事中扮演角色──一個在我們最絕望的時刻上,上帝最為顯現的故事; 當我們無法想像有一個好結局,但卻發現沒有什麼事對耶和華來說是難成的事。然後,笑聲就完全不同了。基督徒就是撒拉所說的那些人,她說:“神為我制造了笑聲。凡聽見的都要與我一同笑。” The story of Abraham, Sarah and the three visitors describes how one kind of laughter changes into another. In the first part of the story, the visitors tell Abraham his wife will bear a son. And Sarah laughs. It’s a bitter laugh – a laugh of endurance, of self-protection, a laugh that isn’t about something being funny, a chuckle that says, ‘Don’t make me laugh.’ But some while later, she’s transformed from the bitter, ironic laughter of endurance to the effervescent, gregarious laughter of joy. ‘Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”’
The question that sums up the whole story is the one the visitors ask Abraham: ‘Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?’ I want to suggest to you that this question not only sums up the whole of the Abraham story; it also sums up the whole Bible, and the whole experience of faith. Let me explain. I want to trace for you a line that connects a series of moments that together constitute the biblical story. Originally there’s nothing. God speaks, and creation comes into being. Without God speaking, there would be nothing: no universe, no earth, no people, no you and me. Hold that thought. God comes to Abraham, the three figures of the Trinity visiting to the tired and barren Sarah and her husband. God speaks, and life comes into her womb. Without God, there would be nothing. A millennium later, Israel’s in exile in Babylon: the situation’s hopeless. God says, ‘Comfort ye my people, I’m preparing in the desert a highway for you to go home.’ Without God, Israel would still be in Babylon. There would be nothing. Five hundred years later, Mary’s a virgin. Yet Gabriel tells her she will bear the Lord. Without God, there would be nothing. Yet Jesus is here. Thirty-three years later Jesus lies in the tomb. It looks like the end of the story. Yet the Holy Spirit calls him out and there is resurrection. Without God, there would be nothing. D’you get the idea? Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? The Bible’s a series of stories in which things seem to be utterly hopeless, but right at the very utmost point of despair God gives birth to joy. Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? Over and over, God turns the bitter laughter of defence and endurance into the overflowing laughter of convivial joy. Every single time it comes as a surprise. But see what the Bible is: it’s not a concatenation of judgements designed to make us all failures and catch us out as miserable sinners; it’s a whisper, a rumour, a meme, a subversive word of resistance that gathers into a crescendo saying, ‘There’s a story bigger than the story you think you’re in. It’ll embrace you and lift you up when you are at your moment of despondent despair. It’ll surprise you even if you’ve immersed yourself in its patterns and mysteries. However much you weep and mourn, one day you will laugh. Nothing’s too wonderful for the Lord. Not back then with Abraham. Not in the story of Jesus. Not now, in the midst of the pandemic. Not ever.’ Christianity isn’t a bleak form of endurance, an extended form of mordant humour designed to keep our spirits distracted in the face of grief too devastating to face. Christianity is, instead, faith in God’s promises, which time and again have brought wonder out of nothing, birth out of barrenness, homecoming out of exile, hope out of despair, resurrection out of death. Sometimes when all seems lost, we laugh subversively in the face of our persecutor, resisting the circumstance that oppresses and depresses us. But that laughter’s just the foretaste of a laughter that transcends it, a laughter that creates a community, as Sarah discovers when she says, ‘Everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ It’s not merely a laughter of endurance, and it’s not limited to a laugh of resistance. It seems most often to come at the end of a long period of barrenness, exile, isolation, misery, failure or abandonment. But in the end it’s a laughter of never-ending joy. At some point in our lives we each have to face a choice about which story we’re living in. Well may we say, like Abraham and Sarah at the start of this story, this story’s about us: life’s too hard, some things will never happen, faith is a bitter, sarcastic form of endurance that finds humour in irony and spots absurdity in pomposity. But we each have an invitation to see things like Abraham and Sarah at the end of this story: it’s not a story about us; we’re given the grace to play a role in a story that’s fundamentally about God – a God who becomes most visible at our times of greatest despair, when we can’t imagine a good outcome, but discover nothing is too wonderful for the Lord. Then the joke’s a very different one. Christians are those about whom Sarah spoke when she said, ‘God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.’
0 評論
發表回覆。 |
講道分享輯錄在聖馬田中文堂分享和講道的文字稿,讓弟兄姊妹能在日常重溫,咀嚼講員所分享的話。 類別
全部
過往分享
五月 2024
封存檔
五月 2024
|