作者Revd Dr Samuel Wells 聖馬田堂主任牧師 曠野天降嗎哪的故事向我們展示了四件事。 第一,故事展示了我們對神一致的依靠:我們在生命和自由等大事上依賴神,在下一餐等小事上也依賴神。神會供應。今天我們一起分享聖餐,正體現到這一點。聖餐是集體向神一切慈愛感恩的表現神的慈愛不但存在於創造中,也存在於耶穌中。聖餐同時是簡單的一餐,提醒我們,無論是重大的事情還是簡單的事情,我們都依賴神。聖餐是種慶祝活動,慶祝所有我們無法控制的事物都安然掌握在神手中。 第二,這個故事向我們展示了休息的重要性。當我們忙到七彩時,這通常表示我們正試圖控制時間。一想起聖靈在我睡覺時也在工作,我就常常感到安慰。這提醒我,我並非不可或缺的;倘若出現危機,我不應該假設自己總是解決危機的最佳人選;我衝動行事可能會令事情變得更差而不是更好;還有每當我參與行善時,我只不過是聖靈的夥伴。當我想在安息日工作時,我總要問自己是否忘了以上任何一點。我朋友有個難忘的說法:他談到當個有實無名的無神論者。有實無名的無神論者是這樣的人:他們樂於宣讀信經並參與崇拜,但在生活中的大小事上,卻表現得像神不存在一樣。在嗎哪的故事中,神考驗以色列人,要他們不要在安息日收集嗎哪,這是找出他們是否有實無名的無神論者的方法。 第三,這個故事告訴我們關於順從的重要道理。嗎哪的故事全關乎順從。以色列人認為摩西判斷失誤,神並不可靠,並認為他們死在埃及,會比在曠野捱餓有更大的控制權。在這三千五百年當中,人們沒有一絲改變。順從令人感到強人所難,因它主張別人的意志高於自己的意志,同時也令人感到受侮辱,因它用別人的愚蠢取代自己的智慧。但實情是,順從是種表態,表明我們接受自己並不總是對的,故事也不全然關乎自己。 除了日用的飲食、安息日和順從外,這個故事還告訴我們比任何這些東西都更基本的特質,那就是信靠。最重要的是,嗎哪的故事是關於信靠的故事。出埃及記的上半部向我們顯明,神聽到我們的呼求,即使敵意和反對聲音實在而強烈,神也會帶領我們脫離奴役,走向自由。現在神和我們都知道一切慈愛是否皆從信靠而出。從某種意義上,整本聖經,無論是舊約還是新約,都可歸結為這個問題:神在創造和出埃及、道成肉身和復活中,都大行奇事,與我們同在;我們是否相信,神會在我們的生活和其他地方中,都時刻繼續與我們同在?在卑微//平凡的日常生活和嚴酷的艱難決定中的每個信實舉動,都可歸結為這個問題,並作為我們對其的答案。 基督故事中的關鍵時刻不是控制的故事,不是科技的故事,也不是神征服、支配、壓制或遙距操控的故事,現在我們可以明白為甚麼這點如此重要了。這個故事關乎神如何以耶穌基督的形態,放下一切控制,被交出,被判決,面對皮鞭的折磨、赤身露體的羞辱、釘子的煎熬和群眾的誹謗,並讓自己的身體被釘在十字架上。這全因神把與我們同在、託付自己給我們放在控制之上。在生命的關鍵時刻,當我們面對自己的死亡時,我們被呼召把自己交給神,把自己託付給神,並明白到:我們不懈追求控制,最終只會徒勞無功,也只是有實無名的無神論。 The story of the manna in the wilderness shows us four things.
First it shows us the unity of our dependence on God for great things, such as life and liberty, and our reliance on God for small things, like our next meal. God will provide. The way we embody this today is in sharing the Eucharist together. The Eucharist is a collective thanksgiving for all the mercies of God, in creation but also in Jesus; but it’s also a simple form of a meal, which reminds us that we depend on God for the grand things and the simple things. The Eucharist is a celebration that all the things we can’t control are safe in God’s hands. Second the story shows us the significance of rest. When we’re frantically busy, it’s often a sign we’re trying to control time. I often find solace in remembering that the Holy Spirit works even while I sleep. It reminds me I’m not indispensable, that if there’s a crisis, I shouldn’t assume I’m always the best person to resolve it, that my impulse to act may make things worse rather than better, and that I’m never more than a partner with the Holy Spirit in any good that I’m involved in. When I want to work on a sabbath I’ve always got to ask myself if I’m forgetting any of these things. A friend of mine has a memorable phrase: he talks about being a functional atheist. A functional atheist is a person who gladly says the creed and engages in worship but in all the great and simple elements of their life operates as if God did not exist. When in the manna story God challenges the Israelites not to collect manna on the sabbath, it’s a way of finding out whether they are functional atheists. Third the story is telling us important things about obedience. The manna story is all about obedience. The Israelites think Moses is misguided, God is unreliable, and they’d be more in control if they’d died in Egypt than facing hunger in the wilderness. Nothing has changed in the intervening three and a half thousand years. Obedience feels like an imposition because it asserts another’s will over our own, and an insult because it substitutes someone else’s stupidity for our own wisdom. But the truth is, obedience is a statement that we accept we’re not always right and the story isn’t entirely about us. Beyond daily bread, sabbath and obedience, there’s a more fundamental thing than any of them That quality is trust. The story of manna is above all a story about trust. The first half of the book of Exodus has shown us that God hears our cries and, even though hostility and opposition is real and fierce, God will bring us from slavery to freedom. Now God and we find out if all those mercies have issued in trust. In a sense the whole Bible, Old Testament and New, comes down to this question: God has done extraordinary things to be with us, in creation and exodus, in incarnation and resurrection; do we trust that God will continue to be with us now and always, in our life and beyond? Every act of faithfulness in the humility of daily living and the starkness of difficult decisions comes down to this question, and constitutes our answer to it. And now we can see why it’s so significant that the defining moment in the Christian story is not a story of control, not a story of technology, not a story in which God overpowers or dominates or subdues or remotely manipulates. It’s a story of how God, in the form of Jesus Christ, let go of any control, was handed over, was condemned, faced the torture of the whips, the humiliation of nakedness, the agony of the nails and the calumnies of the crowd, and let his body be subject to crucifixion. All because God put being with us, being entrusted to us, ahead of being in control. At the defining moment of our lives, as we face our own deaths, we are called to let ourselves be handed over, to entrust ourselves to God: and realise the ultimate futility, and functional atheism, of our relentless quest to be in control.
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
|