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.
0 評論
作者Revd Angela Sheard, 聖馬田助理牧師 記得我初入神學院的時候,遇上的同學老師,來自五湖四海的不同背景,大家的人生經歷不盡相同,又來自不同的教會傳統和宗派,對於一些基本的基督教神學理念,都有不同的看法。對於一些「惹火」的倫理議題,就是那些時常在教會內部引起爭端分歧的話題,就更加意見紛紜。在我們當中,很多人都是來自氣氛比較平靜的教會,這些教會的會友,對於爭議性的倫理問題,大致上都有共識,又或者根本不會討論這些話題。然而,我們進入神學院之後,發現環境完全不同:在這裡,大家要公開討論這些棘手的問題,並無保證一定會達成共識。我認為,我們各自的教會背景,就像一個同溫層,而神學院最理想的作用,就是讓來自不同同溫層的人聚首一堂,展開溝通對話。如果沒有神學院的經歷,我們可能永遠沒有機會,與不同背景的人彼此交流。 回想修讀神學的日子,其中一個時常面對的挑戰就是:明白別人的「意見」不難,要認識這「意見」背後的那個「人」卻不容易。我們時常聽到其他人發表自己的意見,例如對墮胎的立場、或者是對耶穌為何要釘十架的想法;但是我們未必能夠很容易地洞悉,持有這個意見的,究竟是一個怎樣的人;我們也未必會輕易放下對別人的提防之心。當然,大家時常在休息室一同用餐,共度時光,對於打破隔膜也是有幫助的。然而,直到大家參與了一次出乎意料的活動之後,我們的溝通才有比較明顯的躍進:事緣其中一位同學的伴侶,決定在學院裡發起一個「魔域奇遇」(Dungeons and Dragons)小組。 看見大家的表情好像有些茫然,大概不知道「魔域奇遇」是甚麼吧?「魔域奇遇」簡稱D&D,其實是一款角色扮演棋盤遊戲,可能未必人人玩過。遊戲的參與者各自扮演一個角色,組成不同隊伍,在一個奇幻世界裡面,在智慧老人(Dungeon Master)的主持之下,完成指定任務。這個遊戲可以延續幾個星期,甚至幾個月。我們一齊制訂自己的角色、開拓遊戲的處境、一齊打仗、一齊解答謎題。這個遊戲容讓我們回復片刻的傻氣幼稚,也容讓我們作出冒險的決定。參與者可以放開自我,在新奇的世界裡面,一齊為共同目標努力。角色扮演的好處,是讓人放鬆心情,暫時除低自己的面具,以真實面目示人。因著這個遊戲,同學之後回到課堂,討論問題的態度也起了變化,原因是我們對於彼此的真性情,有了更多了解。 我認為,今日福音經課所記載的,也是一個顯露真我本性的時刻。拿但業的改變,始於耶穌洞察到他的真性情。約翰福音這一部分的章節,主要記載耶穌呼召第一批門徒,而拿但業出現的一幕,正是高潮所在。在拿但業出現之前,門徒正在告訴其他有意跟隨的人,耶穌究竟是誰。施洗約翰與兩位門徒在一起,向他們指出,耶穌是「上帝的羔羊。」其中一位門徒就是安得烈,他又跑去找他的哥哥西門彼得,對他說:「我們遇見彌賽亞了。」另一位不知名的門徒告訴腓力,耶穌到了加利利,於是腓力就想帶拿但業去見耶穌。他對拿但業說:「摩西在律法上所寫的和眾先知所記的那一位,我們遇見了,就是約瑟的兒子拿撒勒人耶穌。」 在這個故事裡,其他門徒邀請別人跟隨耶穌,多數只是簡單地宣告:「我們遇見彌賽亞了 – 你來看!」何以腓力邀請拿但業,卻要引述希伯來經卷呢?耶穌對拿但業說的一句話,為我們提供了一點線索。他說:「你在無花果樹底下,我就看見你了」。一些猶太拉比的著作曾經暗示,「無花果樹」是研讀經卷的地點,所以「無花果樹」這個象徵,也時常用來借喻經卷研究。耶穌說「你在無花果樹底下」,表明他知道拿但業有研讀摩西律法和先知書,希望在經書裡面,找到上帝所應許、猶太人期盼已久的彌賽亞的記號。無論從哪個角度推想,這位彌賽亞必然是一位大有權能的君王,因為他要驅散以色列的仇敵,為上帝的子民伸張公義。如此重大的任務,當然需要有財有勢、家世顯赫的王者才能辦到。耶穌來自拿撒勒這個荒涼小鎮,只是一個窮木匠的兒子,何德何能可以做拯救猶太人的彌賽亞呢?拿但業認為難以置信,他的反應是:「拿撒勒還能出甚麼好的嗎?」 從這樣的背景來看,拿但業願意去見耶穌,本身已經是一個非比尋常的舉動。對於彌賽亞的身分,拿但業已經有某些先入為主的觀念。正因為這樣,拿但業與耶穌接觸,比起約翰、安得烈、西門彼得、腓力等幾位門徒與耶穌接觸,是一件困難得多的事情。以上幾位門徒似乎立刻表示願意跟隨耶穌,但要拿但業也跟隨耶穌,就等如要他對自己既有的宗教觀或者世界觀,提出翻天覆地的挑戰。耶穌大概也明白拿但業面對的挑戰,所以他一看見拿但業朝著自己走過來,就讚賞他說:「看哪,這是個真以色列人,他心裡是沒有詭詐的。」對於其他門徒,耶穌可沒有這樣讚賞過。有趣的是,耶穌與拿但業接下來的對話,內容並非依據舊約聖經的解釋,辯論耶穌到底有無可能是彌賽亞。耶穌與拿但業之間,並無任何辯論。他們的對話,反而是關於人際關係、關於怎樣了解別人、怎樣讓別人了解自己。依我看來,耶穌與拿但業對話的轉捩點,並非任何閃耀著智慧光芒、令人心悅誠服的高深道理,而只是耶穌簡單的一句話:「我看見你了。」 如果我們也像拿但業一樣,世界觀受到翻天覆地的衝擊,難免會快些退縮,進入我們生活的同溫層,與同聲同氣的人一齊圍爐取暖,自以為已經掌握真理;假如碰到一些不願改變心思的人,也懶得與他們爭辯,反正大家都不能夠說服對方。當然,我們也可以換轉另一種態度:遇到爭議性的話題,可以與別人熱烈討論,大家展開良性辯論,開心見誠地交流不同意見。對我來說,在神學院的日子裡,最能夠打動我的時刻,就是真正感覺我能夠看到別人真我本性的時刻,不論是在課室裡,還是在「魔域奇遇」的棋盤上。或者,這個就是今日福音經課重複出現的這句話:「你來看」的核心意思。如果要我們「來、看」日常生活中與我們意見水火不容的人,就是那些我們覺得沒有一句話中聽的人,我們做得到嗎?如果要我們效法拿但業的勇氣,敢於與主相遇,即使這樣的相遇,可能會造成衝擊,挑戰一些我們雖然自認思想開明但仍不免會緊緊抓住的金科玉律,我們做得到嗎?如果要我們真心相信,耶穌對拿但業說的話:「你將要看見比這更大的事」,此時此地對我們仍然適用,我們又做得到嗎? When I went to theological college, I entered a space full of people gathered from an extremely diverse range of backgrounds. Our different life experiences, church traditions and denominations gave us different perspectives on some fundamentals of Christian theology, and also on many of the ‘hot button’ ethical issues which are so often the cause of conflict and division in the church today. Many of us had attended churches in which most people more-or-less agreed on these issues, or simply didn’t talk much about them – but now we found ourselves in a very different environment, in which the thorny issues were brought out into the open with no guarantee of consensus. I think that this environment was at its best a bringing together of different echo chambers, a place which encouraged conversation between people who would perhaps otherwise have never spoken to each other.
One of the challenges that I often faced at college was seeing the person behind the opinion. When all you know about someone is their view on abortion or why Jesus died on the cross, it can be difficult to see them as a whole person – and it can also be difficult to let your own guard down. Shared meals and time in the common room helped with this, but one of the best aids came quite unexpectedly – the partner of one of the students decided to start a Dungeons and Dragons group in our college. Now, I can see all those blank faces looking back at me – for those of you who are as yet uninitiated, Dungeons and Dragons (or D&D) is a roleplaying board game in which teams of characters have to complete a quest in a fantasy world under the jurisdiction of the Dungeon Master. Over the weeks and months, we developed our characters, explored our environment, fought battles and solved puzzles together. The game allowed us to be silly and to take risks. It allowed us to lose ourselves together in a new world, working towards a common purpose. There was also something about the light-heartedness of the roleplay that allowed masks to be lowered momentarily and glimpses of peoples’ true selves to be seen. This in turn changed the nature of our conversations in the classroom, because we had been reminded of the humanity of one other. I think that this sense of a humanizing moment takes place in our Gospel reading – the conversion of Nathanael happens because of a moment in which Jesus sees who he really is. This story is the climactic episode of this section of John’s Gospel, which is about the recruitment of the first disciples. The story up to this point has been about disciples telling other potential followers something of who Jesus is – John the Baptist identifies Jesus as ‘the Lamb of God’ to two other disciples who are with him, one of those disciples (Andrew) tells his brother Simon ‘We have found the Messiah’, an unknown disciple alerts Philip to the presence of Jesus in Galilee, and then Philip brings Nathanael to Jesus with the promise that ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth’. Most of the invitations which take place in this story simply declare, ‘We have found the Messiah – come and see.’ So why does Philip preface his invitation to Nathanael by referencing the Hebrew scriptures? We have a suggestion in Jesus’s description of Nathanael as one ‘under the fig tree’. Some texts written by Jewish rabbis imply that the “fig tree” was the place for studying the Scriptures – and the fig tree is often used as a metaphor or symbol for this kind of study. Nathanael is thus identified by Jesus as a student of the writings of “Moses and the Prophets”, someone who searched for signs in these texts of who the promised and long-awaited Messiah would be. By all accounts this Messiah would be a powerful king, one who could defeat the enemies of Israel and restore justice to the people of God. Wealth and power and noble birth would surely be required for this enormous task. The son of a humble carpenter from the provincial backwater of Nazareth must have sounded like someone not even worth considering! “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asks disbelievingly. From this perspective, Nathanael’s willingness to meet Jesus is in itself something extraordinary. Because of his prior assumptions about who the Messiah must be, Nathanael’s encounter with Jesus requires more of him than the encounters of John or Andrew or Simon or Philip. Whereas they all seemed to follow readily, Nathanael faces a fundamental challenge to his religious perspective or worldview. Perhaps acknowledging this, Jesus praises Nathanael as soon as he sees him walking towards him – ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ – something which he does not offer the other disciples. The following conversation between Jesus and Nathanael is, interestingly, not about arguments derived from scripture around how Jesus could in fact be the Messiah. Jesus and Nathanael do not have a debate. Instead, their conversation is about relationship – it’s about knowing someone else and being known. For me, the turning point in their conversation is not a flash of convincing intellectual brilliance, but the simple words of Jesus “I saw you”. When our worldviews are challenged in the way that Nathanael’s was, it is tempting to shrink further into the echo chambers of our lives – to surround ourselves with people who will agree with us, to assume that we have already arrived at the truth and that there is no sense in arguing with people who simply will not change their minds and who will try to persuade us as unsuccessfully as we try to persuade them. There is, of course, a place for passionate debate, for engaging in healthy conflict and for airing disagreements in an open forum. But I think some of the most powerful moments in college for me were those when I really felt that I had seen something of the essence of another person, be that in the classroom or hunched over a Dungeons & Dragons board. Perhaps that is at the heart of the often-repeated phrase in this Gospel reading, ‘Come and see’. What does it look like for us to ‘come and see’ the people in our lives with whom we disagree profoundly, the people that we are convinced have no good news to reveal to us? What does it look like for us to have the courage of Nathanael, to enter into an encounter that has the potential to challenge the certainties and bedrocks of our lives which we can cling to even as we profess to be open-minded? What does it look like for us to really believe that those words of Jesus to Nathanael are still true for us, right here and now: “You will see greater things than these”. 作者凌宇軒弟兄 (平信徒助理) 上主,就在新一年開始,願祢恩典,喜樂和平安降臨,也願祢幫助我們思想主耶穌基督降生,受洗,以及一生,使我們在信仰生命中更有依靠,更有信心。又願祢這個時刻臨到我們當中,祝福我所分享,弟兄姊妹的思想和領受,都蒙祢保守和悅納,歸榮耀給祢。祈禱是奉靠主耶穌基督的名禱告。阿們。
今日是2024年的第一個主日,新一年開始,標誌著聖誕節期剛過去,也是教會顯現節期開始,我藉這個機會祝願每一位弟兄姊妹聖誕新年喜樂,平安,健康,有著新盼望,去迎接新一年開始。今日教會紀念基督領洗日,福音經課描述了施洗約翰,如何去為主耶穌基督洗禮,簡單由預備到完成過程都記載在經文當中。主耶穌基督領洗的故事可能有好多弟兄姊妹來說會好熟悉,是一個很美好的故事,也確立了基督徒到教會接受聖洗禮的一個重要禮儀,主耶穌基督領洗之後,聖靈也彷彿鴿子一樣、降在主耶穌基督身上,並有聲音從天上來說、你是我的愛子、我喜悅你,福音所描述的相信是從上主而來的聲音,讓整個故事描繪一個完美的境象。我們聖馬田中文堂在接近六十年歲月當中,也經歷了好多弟兄姊妹接受洗禮的美好時候,這就是今日福音經課要我們學習的其中一個榜樣,讓我們更有動力,更有力量去傳揚福音,讓更多人享受這美好洗禮時刻。 而隨著自己在信仰和教會成長了好一段日子,特別是在聖馬田堂的環境當中,鼓勵弟兄姊妹透過多多感受和思考,配合閱讀聖經和彼此分享造就,去體會信仰生命對每一個弟兄姊妹可能會有不同的領受。就好像這故事為一個例子,我曾經都會想過,主耶穌基督既是上主的獨生兒子,在人世間又沒有犯罪,根據猶太人這個習俗和規矩,祂根本不需要接受洗罪之禮,而又根據經文記載,主耶穌基督是親自去到施洗約翰,接受洗禮。其實大家有沒有想過,主耶穌基督是不需要接受施洗約翰洗禮呢?與此同時,施洗約翰仍然會繼續為其他人悔罪洗禮,並且繼續宣傳主耶穌基督將要來到,傳揚救恩的工作。當拼合這些背景因素走在一起的時候,原則上主耶穌基督當時領洗不是為了祂自己的緣故,也不只是純粹要為往後教會設立一個美好洗禮禮儀傳統,甚至即使沒有這個故事的發生,主耶穌基督和施洗約翰都是會繼續傳道,宣揚救恩,領人歸向上主。想深一層,這個故事帶出了不同信仰重要原素,讓我們活著當下的弟兄姊妹有很多信仰反省和依靠,幫助我們在世活出信仰,正如主禱文所講,願我們在地上活出上主的國度。當我再深深思想主耶穌基督領洗的故事,我找到四個不同的意義,或許容讓我可以與大家一同分享和思想,幫助到大家在信仰生命中有一些啟發。 首先在主耶穌基督領洗之前,經文記載施洗約翰已經開始做著一些先知的工作,他不單止跟著當時猶太人習俗規矩,為猶太人恆常潔淨,表徵著除去自己的不潔和罪去親近上主。施洗約翰其實是為到被認為不潔的外邦人,可以透過洗罪之禮,以及行割禮和獻上祭典得以潔淨,以致可以學習和親近上主。施洗約翰所做的,就是應驗今日福音經課之前兩節所提及以賽亞先知的預言,上主要差遣使者 在曠野預備主的道、修直他的路。這個新舊約之間的造就和配合,不單讓我們明白了解上主在舊約中偉大的創造和權能,同時也啟示主耶穌基督來到世界上要實踐和完成上主救贖計劃,成就著我們現在擁有美好的信仰,以及將來我們每一個人永生的盼望。一切施洗約翰所做的都是為將來美好的事做好準備。我們也可以在信仰和生命中,隨時為從上而來最好的事做好準備,或大或小都是重要的,願全能上幫助我們。 第二,主耶穌基督前去施洗約翰那裡領洗,是祂自己選擇身體力行的一個決定,而不是預先安排,與平常不同的洗禮,更加不是有高高在上的特權而有的一個儀式。祂知道自己擔負著上主給予祂的使命,同時間祂的道成為了肉身,成為我們一份子,與當時的人和現今世代我們一樣,得著上主形象和上主子民身份,在地上生活,走入人群,治理世界,建立上主國度。主耶穌基督在聖誕節開始道成肉身,從馬利亞懷中出來,親自住在我們每一個人中間。這就是我們信仰新約救恩的開始,上主透過主耶穌基督,顯現在世人當中,使我們可以明白了解上主旨意更多。而主耶穌基督的洗禮更加彰顯了祂自己人性的一面,經歷每一人所要經歷的生命,使祂在之後所宣揚的福音可以更加觸動我們每一個在世的人。或許主耶穌基督身體力行的走入人群的榜樣,可以作為我們傳揚福音的動力,去接觸更多未曾接觸福音的人。 這個故事第三個重要的意義,就是主耶穌基督由這一刻開始,傳講上主的救恩,活出福音真正意義的里程碑。聖經四福音在不同章節中都有記載主耶穌基督降生,以及主耶穌基督在十二歲獨自留在耶路撒冷聖殿,與當中教師有談論時間,但之後鏡頭一轉,就是這個主耶穌基督,大約三十歲時候領洗的故事了。這個故事主耶穌基督開始向眾人展示了祂的身份,並且宣揚祂是從上而來,讓福音開始感染別人的時間。對我來說,這就好像是正式接受任命的一個儀式,而又因為主耶穌基督自己親自去領受洗禮的緣故,這就是救恩開始傳開的一個表徵。這是一個簡單而隆重的時刻,主耶穌基督開始宣講上主奧秘,讓世人去得到這份救恩。今日教會設立這個紀念日子,讓我們去為到主耶穌基督開始祂傳道事工,感染世人而獻上感恩。也藉著主耶穌基督親自領洗,鼓勵我們感染多一些人的認識救恩,領受洗禮,或許這就是我們在世上和教會的重要使命吧。 最後一個重要的意義,就是聖靈彷彿像鴿子,降臨在主耶穌基督身上,這個不單只是因著主耶穌基督受洗歡喜快樂,充滿喜悅和愛的景象,同時間是一個三位一體,聖父,聖子和聖靈一齊作工而產生完美的景象。我相信上主不單是對著主耶穌基督領洗,才有這樣的景象,上主見到每一個願意領洗,或承認接受上主的人時,都會有歡喜快樂的時候。所以不論是聖馬田堂,還是在普世教會當中,每一個洗禮,又還是傳統教會根據新約經課中,主教參照使徒統帥的保羅,按手在門徒頭上,喻表聖靈臨在他們而行的堅信禮,全部都是歡喜快樂,充滿喜悅和愛的場面,是歡迎加入歸回上帝運動行列的重要時刻。所以教會洗禮和堅信禮是一個重要和歡喜的時刻,也是教會其中一樣最希望做到的事情。主耶穌基督的洗禮,加上使徒保羅引申出來的堅信禮,是我們教會永恆不變的方向,也是我們與別人分享上主恩典和愛當中,希望結出的成果,榮耀上主,造就他人。 上帝兒子在聖誕節降生為人,並且與我們一樣在世生活,接受洗禮,歸回上主。在信仰層面中,主耶穌基督是否需要接受施洗約翰的洗禮,或許只是一些在表面的討論,今天從主耶穌基督領洗記載中,帶出了好多信仰中好重要的訊息,從舊約到新約的關係,以致主耶穌基督以道成肉身,從與人活生生的生命中,帶出上主救恩的重要訊息,讓教會建立,學習和彷效,這便是我們信仰生命,和教會生活中所要行出來的道。多謝主耶穌基督讓我們反省,或許我們所要做的就是行出今日福音經課中故事中的四個重要意義,並且也讓更多人可以來到教會接受洗禮和堅信禮,榮耀上主和主耶穌基督,讓救恩感染週遭的人。就願上主祝福,保守和帶領我們。阿們。 |
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
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