作者Revd Dr Samuel Wells 聖馬田堂主任牧師 復活期的主旨就是貫穿使徒行傳的問題。好吧,耶穌復活了,所以呢? 那又怎樣? 今天,來自我們使徒行傳經課的問題是:金錢有什麼用? 這篇經課告訴我們的第一件事是,金錢有道德目的。早期的門徒似乎並不認爲金錢是壞東西。 任何試圖與他人共處的人都會發現,自始至終試圖表現得無私很快就會導致憤怒、痛苦和被指責虛僞。關鍵不是要假裝我們沒有深刻的需求,而是要區分我們的欲求和我們的需求,並找到將這些需求向他人表達出來的方法,既能相互豐富,又不會變得具有操縱性。 社區的真正樂趣在於發現你我的需求能夠成爲增強而不是削弱我們共同生活的要素。 對於那些想把賺錢與福音無關的人來說,說金錢具有道德目的也是一個挑戰。 錢不是壞事,但也不是小事。對於復活的第一批見證人來說,金錢並非無關緊要。他們對金錢的使用是其他人瞭解他們對耶穌復活的信仰的最明顯的方式。今天也是一樣。 我們對金錢的使用是其他人瞭解我們對復活的信仰的最明顯的方式。 所以錢並不壞,錢也不是無關緊要的。金錢有道德目的。但這段話告訴我們的下一件事是金錢並不 是萬能的。 近幾個世紀以來,人們越來越普遍地思考金錢而不提及上帝。這樣做的最著名的兩位思想家是亞當·史密斯和卡爾·馬克思。這兩位思想家表明,當上帝不再是一切時,金錢就成爲一切。 史密斯將我們所有的交易視爲陌生人之間的交換。他對市場及其讓陌生人相互簽訂合同的能力充滿信心。 這與使徒行傳第四章的願景幾乎相反,因爲史密斯將人類視爲致力於滿足自己需求的孤立實體,而不是爲崇拜而設計的團體的成員。 如果說亞當·史密斯的人性觀是悲觀的,那麼卡爾·馬克思的人性觀就更悲觀了。 馬克思將我們的經濟關係視爲一種戰爭形式。對於史密斯來說,我們都是陌生人。對於馬克思來說 ,我們都是敵人。我們不是上帝爲敬拜而造的孩子;我們是爲敬拜而生的。相反,我們已經成爲經濟動物,除了與我們自己同階級的人之外,可以與任何人戰鬥。 所以金錢有道德目的,但金錢並不是萬能的。我們在使徒行傳第 4 章中發現的第三件事是金錢實際上的用途。金錢的存在是爲了通過要求犧牲、分享和服從的紀律來創建社區。 復活是一種共同的體驗,在敬拜中體現,在順服中體現,但也在分享金錢時所釋放的力量中體現。 從根本上來說,金錢從來都不是避免相互依賴的手段,而最終應該始終是發現我們彼此需要的一種 手段。想象一下沒有保險的生活,沒有安全網時假如我們需要進入護理機構,是多麼可怕。但如果沒有讓我們的生命有活著意義的人際關係,這些事情對我們來說就沒有多大好處。使徒行傳第四章教導我們要用金錢來建立關係,而不是用關係來賺錢。教訓是這樣的:在建立朋友關係的事務中讓金錢成爲你的朋友。 不要通過塑造偶像來讓賺錢變成你的偶像。永遠不要利用關係來賺錢,而是用金錢來建立關係。金錢並不是保護我們免於相互依賴的工具。通過我們不再將彼此從根本上視爲陌生人時所創建的社區類型, 金錢讓我們創建新的相互依賴。 最後,請記住,使徒行傳第四章基本上是一個關於神的故事。 聖靈呼召門徒去做父在基督裏已經做過的事; 這就是變賣他所有的一切,並將其放在你-他的使徒-的腳下。 The question that dominates the season of Easter is the question that pervades the book of Acts. So what? Ok, so Jesus has risen: so what? Here’s today’s question, from our Acts reading: what is money for?
The first thing this reading tells us is that money has a moral purpose. The early disciples don’t seem to have regarded money as a bad thing. Anyone who tries to live with other people discovers that trying to be selfless the whole time results rapidly in anger, bitterness and accusations of hypocrisy. The point is not to pretend that we don’t have profound needs, but to distinguish between our wants from our needs, and find ways of communicating those needs to one another that are mutually enriching without becoming manipulative. The true joy of community is to discover that your need and mine become ingredients that build up rather than diminish our common life. To say money has a moral purpose is also a challenge to those who would like to make money irrelevant to the gospel. Money isn’t a bad thing – but neither is it a small thing. Money wasn’t irrelevant to the first witnesses of the resurrection. Their use of money was the most visible way others could see what they believed about Jesus’ resurrection. Today it’s the same. Our use of money is the most visible way others can see what we believe about the resurrection. So money isn’t bad, and money isn’t irrelevant. Money has a moral purpose. But the next thing this passage shows us is that money isn’t everything. In recent centuries it’s become more common to think about money without reference to God. The two most famous thinkers to do so are Adam Smith and Karl Marx. What both these thinkers show is that, when God ceases to be everything, money becomes everything. Smith evaluates all our transactions as interchanges between strangers. He places his whole confidence in the market and its ability to enable strangers to make contracts with one another. This is pretty much the opposite of the vision of Acts chapter 4, because Smith sees human beings as isolated entities bent on meeting their own needs, rather than members of a body designed for worship. If Adam Smith’s view of human nature is bleak, Karl Marx’ view is bleaker still. Marx saw our economic relations as a form of warfare. For Smith, we’re all strangers. For Marx, we’re all enemies. We’re not children of God made for worship; instead we’ve become economic animals built to fight with anyone but people of our own class. So money has a moral purpose, but money isn’t everything. And the third thing we discover in Acts chapter 4 is what money is, in fact, for. Money exists to create community by requiring the disciplines of sacrifice, sharing and obedience. The resurrection is a communal experience, discovered in worship, discovered in obedience, but discovered also in the power that’s released by the sharing of money. Money is never fundamentally a device for avoiding dependence on one another, but should always be ultimately a means for discovering our need of one another. It’s scary to think of life without insurance, without a safety net should we need to go into a care facility. But these things aren’t much good to us without the relationships that make our lives worth living. Acts 4 teaches us to use money to make relationships, rather than use relationships to make money. The lesson is this. Make money your friend in the business of making friends. Don’t make money your idol in the business of making idols. Never use relationships to make money. Always use money to make relationships. Money isn’t a device for protecting us from dependence on each other. Money is for creating new kinds of interdependence by the kinds of community created when we stop regarding one another fundamentally as strangers. And one last thing. Remember Acts chapter 4 is fundamentally a story about God. The Sprit calls the disciples to do what the Father has already done in Christ; which is to sell all he has, and lay it at our, his apostles’, feet.
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