作者Revd Dr Samuel Wells 聖馬田堂主任牧師 你覺得你滿足嗎? “滿足什麼?”你可能會説。一切都要得到滿足?如果有一種多數人也經歷過的焦慮,那就是對不足的焦慮。因為經濟發展是依賴於人們認為自己只需要更多。 十誡打破了“一切都不足”這種令人厭煩的假設。看看第八條誡命,不可偷盜。想一想偷竊的心理。”偷竊”是覺得世上的資源是不足的,如若我要得到所需,就必有人因此而受苦。但上帝説:“不可偷盜”。 看看第四條誡命,當守安息日。想想每天工作時的心理。這工作必須完成,且只有我能做到,每個人都依賴我,沒有足夠的時間,這是一個競爭激烈的世界,如果我沒有得到這份合同,機會便會給了其他人,如果我多花一點時間的話這個提案將會很完美,我不夠聰明,只能用努力來彌補。我連週末也不能坐下來休息因為我父母沒有支付我的學費。但違反安息日的命令就等於説這個宇宙中只有一位救世主,那就是我。但上帝説‘你要安息’.. 看看第三條誡命,你不可妄稱上帝的名。想想當我們這樣做時我們的腦海裏在想什麼。當我的言詞似乎未能表達我們內心那強烈及深刻的感覺時。我們便借用上帝的名。我們把神聖貶成廉價的言詞,。每當我們誇大其詞時,也是一樣。我們就是在說真理仍有不足。你不可妄稱上帝的名. 然後是第二條誡命,你不可為自己塑造偶像。這實際上就是覺得上帝還有不足的心理,覺得上帝不夠大,或者至少不夠近 。所以我要創造一個能與我產生共鳴的上帝,一個和我一樣大小的上帝 - 也許是一輛汽車,也許是一份職業,甚至是能告訴我體重的秤。現在我們已經接近問題的核心了。我們有一種恆常的焦慮,因為我們的不足 - 財富的不足,時間的不足,愛的不足,言詞的不足。但問題的核心是我們覺得我們沒有足夠的上帝。我們所唱的詩歌、崇拜、祈禱和一切經歷上帝的時刻,上帝是不足夠。 因此上帝説這些話的那一刻才如此重要。以色列剛離開埃及,就已經開始想像留下來是否會更好。上帝説:‘問題不是我有不足,而是對於你,我是太多了。 你貧窮的想象限制你去理解我。我愛所有受造物,更珍惜你們每一個都是獨特的。你能想象到嗎? ‘不,你不能,可以嗎?你仍然認為我還是不足夠。你變得焦慮,當你焦慮時,你開始想要更多的上帝、更多的錢、更多的東西。我在沙漠裏給你嗎哪,超過你所需要的。你仍然在安息日收集,因為你擔心不足夠。我在沙漠裏給了你水。但你的思緒仍然回到了埃及。如果你能用你的想像,讓我釋放你,帶你進入應許之地。 “但這刻,這裏有一些規則來提醒你什麼是最重要的,我就是你所需要的一切,我的豐盛總是大於你的匱乏。不要有其他上帝:他們越多,我就越少。沒有偶像:它們永遠不能滿足你,並且會令你忘記我是充足的。守安息日:我會給你所需要的時間。照顧你年邁的父母,不可偷竊盜 - 我會給你所需要的一切。不可殺人 - 他們是我給你所有的其中一部分。不要亂用言詞 - 是就說“是” 。不是就說“不是” 對你就已足夠了。 實際上,這取決於第一條誡命和最後一條誡命。你,不安焦慮、貪婪垂涎着他人看似的美好,卻越發感覺貧窮,越發失落,越發自憐,越發困入於自己的想象籠牢中,越發成為奴隸。上帝説,你每一個繁複和美麗的細節不都是我精心所創造,並將你從最黑暗的監獄中釋放出來,即使你最仇視的是你自己也一次又一次地原諒你,並以耶穌來到你中間與你同行。 只有你,只有上帝。面對面。那就是上帝伸出雙手給你十誡的時刻。上帝説:‘你可能會一再跌落去想像及感覺我的不足。很多人也都這樣做。所以這裏有一些禮物。他們會幫助你記住你的自由。他們會挑戰你的想象力並讓你認識到我是一位豐盛的神,給予你超乎所需的豐富,遠遠超過你所渴望或需要的。我創造的星系超過人能看見,我寬恕的深度超過一切罪人的罪 ,我給你在耶穌裏的愛超過你所能理解。 我們從上帝手中接過這份禮物,凝望上帝的面容,我們説:‘願這些誡命永遠成為我心中的恩賜,而非負擔。願他們時刻提醒我,你是獨一真神。是釋放我自由的上帝,請把這些話刻在我的心上,使我永遠不會忘記,你就是我所需要的一切。因為我現在明白,和你在一起,一個就足夠了。” Do you think you have enough? ‘Enough what?’ You may say. Enough anything? If there’s one anxiety most people can share, it’s an anxiety about not having enough. It’s just as well, because the economy depends on people thinking they need just a little bit more.
The Ten Commandments dismantle this nagging assumption that there is not enough. Look at the 8th commandment, you shall not steal. Think for a moment about the psychology of stealing. Stealing is saying there isn’t enough in the world and if I’m going to have what I need then someone else is bound to suffer. But God said, ‘You shall not steal’. Look at the 4th commandment, remember the Sabbath day. Think about the psychology of working every day. It has to be done, only I can do it, everybody is depending on me, there’s not enough time, it’s a competitive world out there, if I don’t get this contract someone else will, if I put a bit more time in this proposal will be perfect, I’m not clever enough, I can only make up for it with hard work, my parents aren’t paying for my education so I can sit around all weekend. Breaking the command to rest is saying there’s only one saviour in this universe and it’s me. But God said ‘You shall rest’. Look at the 3rd commandment, you shall not make wrong use of the name of God. Think about what is in our minds when we do so. It’s when the language at our disposal doesn’t seem to convey the strength or depth of feeling in our hearts. So we invoke the name of God. We make the holy into the trivial, and thus impoverish the language. Whenever we exaggerate, we do the same thing. We say the truth is somehow not enough. You shall not make wrong use of the name of God. And then there’s the 2nd commandment, you shall not make yourself an idol. Surely the psychology of this is that God is not enough – not big enough, or at least not near enough. So I shall make a god I can relate to, a god my size – a car perhaps, a career maybe, even the scales that tell me how much I weigh. And now we’re getting nearer the heart of the problem. There’s an abiding anxiety that we don’t have enough – not enough property, not enough time, not enough love, not enough language. But the heart of the matter is that we feel we don’t have enough God. For all our hymns and services and prayers and moments of truth, God is not enough. And that’s why the moment in which God speaks these words is so significant. Israel has come out of Egypt, but is already beginning to wonder if it wouldn’t have been better off staying. God says, ‘The problem is not that I am not enough for you – it is that I am too much for you. Your imaginations are simply too small to comprehend me. I love every creature I have made, but I treasure each one of you as if you were the only one. Can you imagine? ‘No, you can’t, can you. You still fall into thinking I’m not enough. You get anxious, and when you get anxious you start wanting more gods, more money, more things. I gave you manna in the desert, far more food than you needed. You still collected on the Sabbath because you feared there wouldn’t be enough. I gave you water in the desert. But still your thoughts were straying back to Egypt. If only you could let your imaginations go and enter the land I am promising you, and let me set you free. ‘But in the meantime, here are some rules to remind you of what matters most, that I am more than enough, that my abundance is always greater than your scarcity. Have no other gods: more of them means less of me. Have no idols: they will never be remotely enough, and will lead you to forget that I am plenty. Keep the Sabbath: I will give you all the time you need. Look after your aging parents and don’t steal – I will give you everything you need. Don’t kill people – they are part of the everything I am giving you. Don’t misuse language – yes and no will be enough for you.’ Really it comes down to the first commandment and the last. Here are you, anxious, covetous, looking at all the fun they seem to have next door, and all the time feeling more and more impoverished, more and more deprived, more and more sorry for yourself, more and more trapped in your stunted imagination, more and more a slave. And here, says God, am I, meticulously creating you in all your intricacy and beauty, setting you free from the darkest of prisons, forgiving you time and again even when your greatest hatred is for yourself, and coming among you to be your companion in Jesus. Just you, and just God. Face to face. And that’s the moment when God stretches out two hands and gives you the Ten Commandments. God says, ‘You may fall back into thinking or feeling that I am not enough. A lot of people do. So here are some gifts. They will help you remember your freedom. They will challenge your imagination to realise that I am a God of abundance, who gives you more than enough, far more than you could ever want or need, who created galaxies no one may ever see, who has depths of forgiveness no sinner may ever require, who gives you in Jesus more love than you could ever realise.’ And we take the gift from God’s hands, and we look into God’s face, and we say, ‘May these commandments be to me always a gift and never a burden. May they always remind me that you are the one true God who has set me free. Write these words on my heart so I never forget that you are always more than enough. For now I realise that, with you, one is plenty.’
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