作者Revd Dr Samuel Wells 聖馬田堂主任牧師 我花了很長時間才理解福音的一個核心特徵,那就是它如何從根本上改變人們從感到匱乏變成豐富的觀念。我們習慣於認為自己什麼都缺乏,缺乏壽命、缺乏機會、缺乏資源,甚至缺乏啟示。從根本上來説,這是一種我們缺乏上帝保守的假設。但福音展現的是,神太豐富了,祂施予的一切極之多——豐盛的生命、聖徒和天使的光榮陪伴、滿溢的寬恕。神以豐富的恩賜覆蓋我們。我們可以用三種方式回應。 我們可能會放棄這些天賜恩典並努力依靠自己的資源謀生,但這是罪惡的反叛性。 我們可能會發現,我們的想象力無法延伸到恩典的浩大,致使我們擔心自己會淹沒在神豐富的恩賜中。因此我們將神縮小到一個可以控制的地步,只處理我們能夠理解的恩賜。這是無知,是道德想象力的匱乏。 或者我們可以敞開心扉、思想、身體和靈魂去發現和接受這些豐富的禮物,並藉著實踐體現上帝的豐富的禮物來塑造我們和我們社區的生活。這就是成為神的同伴的意義。 今天的福音也許是這種轉變的明確寫照。約翰的序言本身就是一個新的創世故事:它從“太初”開始。 第一批門徒的呼召本身就是第一“周”的新呈現 。約翰正在施洗; “次日”他為耶穌施洗; “再次日”他的門徒又跟隨耶穌。 “又次日”耶穌決定去加利利。 最後,“第三日”在加利利的迦拿舉行了婚禮。 在這第一個重要的一週有一個高潮,一個故事展示了耶穌如何實現上帝創造世界和呼召以色列的目的。故事分為四個階段。 首先有好酒, 接着酒快用完了, 之後酒真的用完了。 然後,發揮管家和門徒的想象力,就有了華麗、豐富的酒。 同樣,聖經故事也分為四個階段。 有好酒。創做是美好的。以色列知道與神和好。 酒快用完了。造物因罪而扭曲;以色列偏離了神的道路。 酒用完了。以色列被流放:她失去了土地、國王、約櫃、聖殿。即使猶大從巴比倫歸回後,她也沒有擁有這片土地,沒有國王,有聖殿,但沒有約櫃。 然而耶穌在第三天卻提供了比以往更好的酒。不是恢復原狀而是更美好的復活。 如果迦拿是以色列的故事,那麼它也是耶穌的故事。 有好酒。他開始他的事工時很受歡迎,並有忠實的門徒。 酒快用完了。他開始面對敵意。猶太當局果斷地反對他。他的門徒開始分裂。 。 酒用完了。他遭到背叛、審判和迫害。他走向十字架。 然而,到了第三天,酒卻比以往任何時候都更好。創造因恩典得以恢復和改變。 這不是一個將毒物轉化為安全水的故事。這並不是一個因罪惡而變形的世界轉變成一個清潔健康的社區的故事。這不是一個神聖的清潔劑抹殺或消滅邪惡的故事。這是一個關於墮落受造物的不足,以及以色列的匱乏被上帝的慷慨所改變的故事。 (六個禮儀的水缸代表以色列的匱乏)。這是一個關於美好創造的故事:它受制於經濟匱乏,沒有資源來幫助自己,但卻被注入了豐富恩典的經濟。這是一個從“足夠”,變成“不夠”,再變成“太多”的故事。 這亦是基督的位格和工作的比喻。這是福音的故事:神在基督裏以遠超過我們所需要的恩典覆蓋我們。 我想知道你的想象力是否是由你的匱乏感主導,而不是上帝的豐富所主導。 我想知道你在這個故事中處於什麼位置——有好酒,有酒但短缺,有酒但耗盡,還是有極其豐盛和美好的酒。也許迦拿婚宴的故事可以成為你今天的故事. One central feature of the gospel it took me a very long time to understand is how it’s fundamentally a change in perception from scarcity to abundance. We’re used to thinking we’re short of everything – short of lifespan, short of opportunities, short of resources, short even of revelation. Fundamentally this is an assumption that we’re short of God. But the gospel is that there’s too much God, and more than plenty of everything else – abundant life, glorious company of saints and angels, overflowing forgiveness. God overwhelms us with an abundance of gifts.
We may respond in three ways. We may turn away from those gifts, and strive to make a life on our own resources. This is the perversity of sin. We may find that our imaginations cannot stretch to the enormity of grace, and, fearing that we might drown in the overflowing gifts of God, we reduce God to a manageable size and deal only with the gifts we can comprehend. This is ignorance, the poverty of moral imagination. Or we can open heart and mind, body and soul to discovering and receiving these teeming gifts, and shape our lives and the lives of our communities according to the practice of embodying the abundant gifts of God. This is what it means to be God’s companions. Today’s gospel is perhaps the definitive portrayal of this transformation. John’s prologue offers itself as a new creation story: it starts with ‘in the beginning’. The calling of the first disciples presents itself as a new presentation of the first ‘week’. John was baptising; the ‘next day’ he baptises Jesus; the ‘next day again’ his disciples follow Jesus. The ‘next day’ Jesus decides to go to Galilee. Finally ‘on the third day’ there is a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And at the climax of this first momentous week comes a story that demonstrates how Jesus fulfils God’s purposes in creating the world and calling Israel. The story comes in four stages. There is good wine. The wine runs short. The wine runs out. Then, stretching the imagination of the steward and the disciples, there is magnificent, abundant wine. Likewise the scriptural story comes in four stages. There is good wine. The creation is good; Israel knows peace with its God. The wine runs short. The creation is bent by sin; Israel strays from God’s ways. The wine runs out. Israel is in exile: she has lost land, king, ark, temple. Even after Judah returns from Babylon she has no possession of the land, no king, a temple but no ark. And yet here is Jesus, on the third day, offering better wine than ever. Not restoration – resurrection. If Cana is the story of Israel, it is the story i Jesus too. There is good wine. He begins his ministry in popularity and with faithful disciples. The wine runs short. He begins to face hostility. The Judaean authorities turn decisively against him. His disciples begin to fragment. The wine runs out. He is betrayed, tried and persecuted. He goes to the cross. And yet, on the third day, the wine is better than ever. Creation is restored and transformed by grace. This is not a story of the transformation of poison into safe water. It is not a story of a world deformed by sin being converted into a clean and healthy community. It is not a story of the obliteration or extermination of evil by a divine cleanser. It is a story of the inadequacy of fallen creation, and the inadequacy of Israel (represented by the six ritual water jars) being transformed by the generosity of God. It is a story of a good creation, brought subject to the economy of scarcity, having no resources to help itself, and being infused with the economy of abundant grace. It is a story of enough becoming not enough becoming too much. It is a parable of the person and work of Christ. This is the story of the gospel: God in Christ overwhelms us by giving us far more than we need. I wonder if your imagination is dominated by your scarcity rather than God’s abundance. I wonder where you are in this story – with the good wine, with the wine running short, with the wine running out, or with the superabundance of glorious wine. Maybe the story of Cana can become your story today.
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