Meditating In The Field 所写的文章

《罗马书》 大约写于公元55年至57年之间，被认为是保罗在教义阐述上最为完整的一封书信。在写这封书信时，罗马的基督徒群体正面临着来自罗马皇帝的外部逼迫，以及犹太基督徒与外邦基督徒之间的内部纷争。因此，保罗渴望前往罗马坚固他们的信仰（罗马书1:13-15）。 在保罗的时代，罗马是一个人口达一百万的主要城市和政治中心，皇帝和元老院均驻于此。居民包括奴隶、被释放的奴隶、罗马公民，以及军政贵族。该城市的大多数人信奉多神教，受希腊神话影响，崇拜神祇、半神以及罗马皇帝。在犹太教与基督教出现之前，只要人们愿意把皇帝列入崇拜对象，官方大多容忍各种宗教。到了公元40年，基督教在罗马已经成为一股重要力量。尽管教会最初如何在罗马建立仍不明确，但许多人相信它始于那些曾到耶路撒冷朝圣并带回福音的犹太人。甚至有人认为早在五旬节时，福音就已传入罗马。 当时的基督徒并未聚集在一个统一的会众之中，而是分散在多个家庭教会中聚会敬拜，例如保罗在《罗马书》16:3-5中提到的百基拉和亚居拉。据信，早期教会主要由犹太基督徒领导。然而在公元49至54年期间，罗马皇帝克劳狄乌斯（公元前10年8月1日－公元54年10月13日）将犹太人驱逐出罗马。在这五年中，教会的领导权转由外邦基督徒接手。等到犹太基督徒被允许返回时，他们发现教会已大不如前。于是，双方产生矛盾，犹太基督徒试图在日常基督徒生活中重新融入旧约律法，例如割礼的实践。为此，保罗在《罗马书》中花费大量篇幅阐述犹太人与外邦人的关系（罗马书9:1-5, 30-32；11:11-16），以及因信称义与遵守摩西律法的区别（罗马书3:22；4:6-12；5:1）。 除了内部纷争，保罗时代的基督徒也面临严峻的逼迫。《罗马书》写于尼禄皇帝（公元37年12月15日－公元68年6月9日）统治初期。尽管他的统治仅有14年（公元54至68年），却因残酷逼迫基督徒而臭名昭著。这种逼迫起始于罗马大火（公元64年7月18日至23日），大火摧毁了三分之二的城市。许多人认为尼禄是纵火的幕后主谋，为的是拆旧建新、以自己命名新城。然而在政治压力之下，他将责任推给了基督徒。作为惩罚，基督徒被每日点燃，成为照亮尼禄花园的人体火炬；在角斗场中，他们被野兽撕裂。对基督徒的迫害持续恶化，延续至戴克里先皇帝（公元303－311年）时期，耶稣复活之后的250年间，基督徒始终处于被压迫状态。他们遭受讥讽、钉十字架、斩首、酷刑折磨，被野兽撕咬，甚至被火焚烧。使徒约翰被放逐至拔摩海岛；保罗在罗马被斩首；彼得则倒钉十字架。难怪保罗会如此形容使徒的命运：“我想，神把我们使徒明明列在末后，好像定死罪的囚犯，因为我们成了一台戏，给世人和天使观看。”（哥林多前书4:9-10） 在这样极度不人道的环境中，保罗一再安慰罗马的基督徒：“我想现在的苦楚，若比起将来要显于我们的荣耀，就不足介意了。”（罗马书8:18）尽管耶稣不在肉身中与他们同在，保罗仍鼓励信徒：“况且我们的软弱有圣灵帮助，我们本不晓得当怎样祷告，只是圣灵亲自用说不出来的叹息替我们祷告。”（罗马书8:26）尽管他们每日生活困苦，保罗指出，苦难对那些忠于神的人而言，可以成为助力而非阻力：“我们晓得万事都互相效力，叫爱神的人得益处，就是按祂旨意被召的人。”（罗马书8:28）最终，保罗以一连串反问句结束劝勉，表达他对基督的坚定之爱：“谁能使我们与基督的爱隔绝呢？难道是患难吗？是困苦吗？是逼迫吗？是饥饿吗？是赤身露体吗？是危险吗？是刀剑吗？……然而靠着爱我们的主，在这一切的事上，已经得胜有余了。”（罗马书8:35, 37） 两千年过去了，耶稣升天之后，世界在新冠疫情爆发三年后迅速改变。我们是否还能如此勇敢、自信地宣告：谁能使我们与基督的爱隔绝呢？是社交媒体？思维模式的转变？信息爆炸？人工智能？经济困境或繁荣？健康问题？人际关系？亲人？战争与战争的谣言？ 参考资料

我们该如何因信一直地被算为义呢？不光只是在一开始，而是在我们信仰的生活上始终如一。 罗马书4章中保罗提出了“因信被算为义”(4:3)。当我们初信主时，这个观念或许是最明显的。在我们有任何好行为以先，耶稣已经为我们死了。救恩赐下给我们。因着信神和祂拯救的大能，我们在祂面前被看作义人。当然，正如雅各长老所解释的，身体没有灵魂是死的，信心没有行为也是死的（雅各书 2:26)。要表明我们的信心，我们必须接受洗礼，祈求应许的圣灵，并且在我们的日常生活中学习以及实践神的话语。 难道“因信称义”到此就足够了吗？ 我希望进一步地了解这个观念是如何在信主之后持续发挥功用的。为此，我将查考三位圣经人物的案例：摩西、大卫和约伯。 假如神允许摩西进入迦南地会怎样呢？毕竟，摩西一生的忠心与功劳远远超过了那一次的情绪发作。假如神没有赦免大卫所犯的罪会怎样呢？因为他的过犯的确令人震惊。假如约伯真的得到了所有关于他为何受苦的答案又会怎样呢？毕竟他确实是个义人。 如果这些“假如”都是真的，我们可能会永远地相信一个人生命中的好处，例如：健康，财富和伴侣，是因着我们的“表现好”。我们可能会相信人受苦或者在生活中失意是因为他们是“坏“的，或者在神面前是缺乏的。于是，当我们自己遭遇困难与受苦时，也会开始质疑神的信实。如果基督徒已经在当做的事上尽心竭力，为什么他们仍然像其他人一样受苦呢？ 苦难是神不断的提醒：我们一生都需要每天因信被算为义。在苦难中，我们要一直相信： 当我们在试炼与患难中仍一直相信神、紧紧抓住祂时，在神的眼中，我们就因信被算为义。

喂养牧养我的羊到底

“I’m here to walk the last mile with them,” the deacon thoughtfully summed up his role as an overseer of the nursing home. “In average we see about one off every month,” he added softly. From the bottom of my heart, I gave thanks to God for his humor, patience, candidness and, most of all, for enjoying his work. Located in Puli, a small township in central Taiwan, the Christian Renai Nursing Home is surrounded by verdant mountains. Founded in 1996, the nursing home sits peacefully on a premise of 177,950 square feet. As of December 2024, the facility is served by 50 staff and houses 85 residents. Of these residents, 60 percent are church members. Half of these members are still able to attend church services regularly. Each week, ten church services are held. The nursing home is where many last miles have been accomplished. Here care is given and received, from everyday functional activities to spiritual fulfillment. If one likens the whole person to a sculpture, the last mile is when the sculptor is nearing the completion of a work. Throughout life, God shapes us by various forces. Aging and infirmity are two such forces. Aging means going through many repetitions in life. Through these repetitions, God chips, chisels, and sands hard edges into gentle curves. The natural form of an individual is transformed into the fullness of His image. Through infirmity, God eventually takes away the outer form for the formless perfection from within.  Job, at the brink of his life, likens this transformation of going from form to formlessness as a process of rigorous refinery (Job 19: 25-27; 23: 10; 42:5). David therefore pleads in his prayers, “Do not cast me off in the time of old age, do not forsake me when my strength fails” (Psalms 71:9). On a separate occasion, he asks God to sustain him in his sickbed when the day comes (Psalms 41:3). In response, through Isaiah, God reassuringly proclaims, “Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I carry, and will deliver you” (Isaiah 46:4). Meaning, even as we come with imperfection and an expiration date, God’s warranty is infinite. For His own glory, He is responsible for His own handiwork.  Certainly, to the best of our ability, we take good care of ourselves. As the doctor’s advice goes, prevent the preventable and delay the inevitable. We aim to live actively, creatively and age gracefully. But when the inevitable meets us, we have no fear. Through the many repetitions in life, God has already prepared us ready for the day. 

Our relationship with God can only be sustained when His responses are continuously reciprocated on our part. 

Holy day, holi-day, holiday… Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy (Ezekiel 20: 12) In a conversation with a colleague’s wife, she explained he did not take a single day off in the pre-tenure years. He worked every single day. Holy day, holi-day, holiday… in my head I counted away the number of holi-days he missed. There are 52 Sabbaths per year. The pre-tenure years were 7 years. 52 times 7 makes 364 days. That’s 364 days (one day short of a year) of paid holi-days forfeited! To put it another way, for every 7 years, one would work for another year for free! Why would anyone want to do that?! Or, maybe we often would, or cannot help but, do exactly that? What is so special about the holi-days? It is the seventh day of the week, when God rested from His work of creating the world (Gen 2:3). Yet God rested not because He was tired. In the Book of Mark Jesus explained, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath” (2: 27, 28). Very curiously, in the Chinese lunar calendar, the seventh day of the first month is also designated the “human day” (人日). Ancient civilizations may be culturally distinct and yet conceptually similar. In other words, there is an interlocking relationship between God, humans, and the Sabbath. God is greater than the humans, who are greater than the Sabbath (God >humans>Sabbath). God designed and designated the Sabbath for the humans so they can lead a humane lifestyle. But it does not mean the humans can abolish or act freely on the Sabbath. After all, God is Lord of the Sabbath, not humans.   Through the various bible passages, we understand the Sabbath is holy, solemn, and sanctified. To maintain the sanctity of this special day, humans rest from their labor ( Exo 20:8-11; Lev 23:3; Deu 5: 12-14). In the stillness that comes through resting, God wants all to know that He is God (Psa 46: 10) and He is the one that saves (Deu 5: 15). The Sabbath was made not to constrain or burden the humans, but rather to liberate, nurture, and heal (Mat 12:12; Luk 13: 10-17). God explicitly states in the Book of Isaiah:  If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. The mouth of the Lord has spoken (58: 13 and 14).  Isn’t this something?! The Lord has spoken. If we keep His holi-days there will be blessing galore. Even a president cannot guarantee the citizens that they would be blessed if they rested on the National Day. I mean resting in itself is already a blessing. But God is saying on top of getting a good rest, there will be plenty other benefits (which we might not yet fully realise or comprehend).  God’s foresight is immeasurable. He is the maker of time. Every single breath of ours keeps count of its passage. Right from day one of the world, God already knew one day the logic of capitalist economy would take over. Rest will be stolen. People will be busy making more of everything that they will not have time to rest. His people will be dehumanized. More is good, more is prosperous, more is successful. Within this logic, God has no place. The world spins fast and furious. Humans invent machines to increase product yield and convenience, and to save time (because time is money). Yet humans end up working like machines. Lethargy, fatigue, chronic physical sickness, mental ill health, broken personal relationships, exploitation subsequently ensue. Through the Sabbath, God mandates time for resting. He insists on us to slow down, pause, reflect and return to resist social forces that dehumanize.  While God has shown us Sabbath keeping as the way towards a better life, it is also a reminder of our own mortality. Yes, sooner or later all of us, with no exception, will see death in the eyes. The Sabbath is a sign between God and observers of Sabbath that one day they will enter eternal rest (Heb 4:11). Limited by our own finite being, it is challenging for humans to fully understand what infinite rest means. Through Sabbath, God allows us to get a foretaste of what being still in His presence might be like.  Mid-year resolution: go sleep by 10pm on Fridays…