2013.07.14 Matthew馬太福音 5:14-19
sermon by Father Jonah
http://www.justin.tv/dao_love/c/2578873
今天教會要紀念那些在大公會議上貢獻自己、維護真理的教父們。今天的福音談到一個非常重要的主題，耶穌說：「我們每個人都是照亮世界的光。」既然我們是一盞明燈、不斷散發著光明，我們就無法隱藏這光芒。基督信仰不同於政治理念…那一類的偏好，舉例來說，儘管我們擁有自己的政治理念、自己支持的國家足球隊，我們可以將這些個人的喜好藏在心中，然而，作為一名基督徒，我們無法隱藏內在所散發的光芒。
我的住處在新店，每到了夜晚，從我狹小的房間看出去，山上小鎮燈火通明。每一個住家點的燈，都一覽無遺、無所遁藏。這個景象一直提醒著我耶穌基督所說的話。
有人告訴我：「神父，太多的神學解釋讓我們無法消化！我們不曾體驗耶穌基督所說的光，也沒有受過光的啟發，我們根本不懂它的意思，那我們要如何發光？」要說明光的神學（例如：上帝的非受造之光）並非難事，但是，我們卻很難獲得實際的體驗。
耶穌基督所說的「光」究竟是怎樣的光？福音告訴我們，那是上帝的恩典之光。上帝的恩典散發的光芒是那麼單純，就好像，我們一早起床，雖然還想鑽進被窩，但是還是強打起精神，為了家人、為了教會的弟兄姊妹用心烹煮食物。之後，我們出門，從另一個城市搭乘巴士、火車或捷運，帶著我們的孩子和生活的煩惱前往教會。或許，在路途中我們遇到了一些阻礙，最後搭上計程車終於到達目的地。我們的一舉一動，都是愛心的真情流露，都是一股藏不住的芬芳，是一盞掩不住的光明。雖然我們的肉眼看不見這光，但是，我們可以品嚐它的清甜，嗅到它的香味，用心看見這充滿奧秘的光芒。
在每日生活中，在每一件微小的事物上，我們都沐浴在小小的光中。堅守自己的職份、成為一位好人，是一場永不間斷的考驗和永不止息的奮鬥。因為，我們的生活充滿了試探與考驗，我們必須為了社會、為了全人類，努力創造、工作、教學…，以堅定的信仰在困頓的環境中堅定不移。出於對上帝的愛，出於對人類的愛，我們以自己的方式來付出。是的，我們並非完美，我們付出的方式也不是完美的，但是，我們禀持正確的態度與信念，為上帝的子民而付出、守護，創造出美好的人類特質。這就是上帝的光，或者我們可以說，那是上帝的氣味、上帝的靈在。
當我初訪阿陀斯聖山，在船上遇見一位年長的神父。在我來聖山之前，曾經聽說一些傳奇的故事，所以我問他：「神父，我聽說有一些神聖的神父可以隱形，我用肉眼見不到他們，你可不可以告訴我，去哪裡才能找到他們？」這位神父回答我：「你所說的那些我聽不懂。你必須明白，出家僧侶的生活就像是大蒜的氣味，每日都必須努力勞動和耕耘。」他完全沒有向我提到「心禱」，因為我只是一位初階的學生，還不夠成熟。
然後，我幫忙照顧一位高齡一百歲的神父，他的神智不太清楚、大小便也失禁。我必須親自幫他清理大便。每個星期日，我們都會與院長談話，聆聽一些教導。他告訴我們：「大家都喜歡聆聽深奧的神學，但是，沒有人喜歡碰觸大便的神學。然而，大便的神學談的是真正的奉獻、付出、承擔他人的困難。」而這也是上帝之光的神學。我們應該在每日生活中、微小的事物上看見上帝的光，例如：在廚房烹飪的時候，在公司上班的時候，身為丈夫或妻子、為了對方付出的時候，在照顧和教導孩子的時候…。
為什麼福音告訴我們上帝的光就是「你的」光呢？我們擁有上帝的光，在上帝面前，我們的美德和一切付出，都散發著內在的美麗和馨香。在每週日參加聖禮儀之後，就在回家的路上，另一場聖禮儀已經展開。它持續不斷地在我們的生命中進行著。我們以小小的行動，散播著上帝的恩典。這就是為什麼，福音要我們看見工作，並且榮耀上帝。「你們的光也當這樣照在人前，叫他們看見你們的好行為，便將榮耀歸給你們在天上的父。」
因為，聖父藉著我們顯現在世上。我們擁有耶穌基督的形象，我們在自己身上顯出耶穌基督，而耶穌基督又顯出天父。那是上帝的「父的特質」，是一種充滿愛的特質。上帝是三位一體的上帝，也是充滿愛的上帝。我們要在自己身上顯現出那三位一體的上帝，這是我們每天的工作，也是我們每天努力奮鬥的目標。
值得留意的是，上帝不只在我們祈求的時候才會給予，祂總是不斷給予我們機會。上帝不是魔術師，無法用魔術來轉化我們的心。上帝總是給我們機會，讓我們去嘗試、去修正、去努力、去學習。有些人向上帝祈禱，希望自己變得更慈悲，然而，就在祈禱完之後，就與他人爭吵不休。上帝不會賜給我們爭吵，但是，祂賜給我們學習的機會，讓我們在實際情況中演練心中的愛，練習去承擔別人的困難。這並不是虛幻的東西，像那些在荒漠中才會發生的事情。我們並不是荒中的隱修士，我們活在俗世裡，此時此刻，我們就在台北這個繁華都市中。我們要將生活當作學習的機會，在磨練中轉化自己。不要以為加入基督宗教之後，不需要費任何力氣、只要神父變個魔術就可以讓自己變得更好。唯有把握上帝給我們的每一次機會，努力學習、一點一滴修正自己的錯誤，才能得到真正的轉化。
今日我們一起閱讀了保羅的書信（提多書3：8-15），保羅再一次向他摯愛的門徒提多（他當時在克里特）提及：每一位好的基督徒，都應該「留心做好的事業」，對於那些實質上對自己、對別人都有益的事情，採取主動、成為倡導者。為什麼保羅希望提多成為倡導者呢？身為一位基督徒，我們不該只把想法放在心中，對於身邊的人、事、物也漠不關心。基督徒應該付出行動，對一些好事採取主動，不能總是保持中立、隨波逐流。
在我們的教會中，有一些教友（例如：Johanna）總是主動為大家唱誦讚美詩、準備餐點，我從來沒有指派任何人做這些事情，有人問我，我甚至告訴他們不用幫忙也沒關係。還有許多人，用自己的行動默默為教會付出，他們不希望我說出他們的名字。
我們來教會，不能像是去電影院或戲劇院那樣，我們的心中必須充滿對上帝、對教會的愛，還有對其他弟兄姊妹的愛，然後開始一個好的行動，並且召喚大家一起來努力。這才是真正的基督徒，而不是一位紙上談兵的哲學家，在腦中醞釀哲學的思維，卻從來不展開行動。採取主動是非常重要的。
St. Symeon the New Theologian曾說：「如果耶穌基督真的在你內心，你必須像一位懷孕的婦女一般，深切體認自己的腹中懷有一個珍貴的胎兒。他用腳踢子宮的時候，就是在提醒你、激勵你用實際的行動為耶穌基督服務，並且在身邊的弟兄姊妹的臉上、在這個社會上，看見耶穌基督的面容。」
今天，我們也紀念守護教會免於異端攻擊的教父們。他們以帶有邏輯的文句，詮釋了教會動人的神學。保羅在寫給提多的書信中也提到了異端份子，他說：「分門結黨的人，警戒過一兩次，就要棄絕他。」如果有人變成異端，他們的心已經起了某種變化，他們的想法已經變質。宗徒告訴我們，這些人對於上帝的想法，已經遭到嚴重扭曲。有些人會說：「他們瘋了嗎？」不，他們並沒有瘋，正常的心智和日常的工作中也蘊藏了許多挑戰。例如：特殊的意識形態、預設立場…等。許多念頭常常「抓住」我們的心靈。今日的心理學研究已經向我們展示了許多成果。重點是，我們要瞭解，人與人之間的溝通並非總是像我們假設的那樣，它不一定會合乎邏輯。
我們也不該忘記，魔鬼沒有停下腳步。他一直不斷塞給我們不好的思想。當我生氣的時候、無法控制自己的時候，魔鬼總是把握機會火上加油。他把不好的思維留在我們的記憶中。因此，我們的念頭往往不全是對的。我可以舉出很多例子，說明思想中很明顯的矛盾之處。在職場上，與同事爭吵之後，過了幾天你再回顧一下這些對話，你可能會對自己說的話感到驚訝。如果你已經忘記自己曾經講過的話，別人再提醒你的時候，你可能會說：「這真的是我說的嗎？」沒錯，就是你說的！
我的屬靈父親告訴我，他曾經與一位婦人談話。這位婦人告訴他，她真的非常困擾，因為每天都有人向她家門外丟雞蛋，她每天只要一開門，就會看到臭雞蛋。我的屬靈父親是一位非常聖潔的人，他領受了很多上帝和聖靈的恩典。他告訴那位婦人：其實雞蛋根本就不存在。那只是她的幻想而已，它可能只是魔鬼的試探。我說的這些，都是希望幫助你們瞭解，保持心靈潔淨是很重要的。我們除了要遠離魔鬼的試探，還要與教會同在、隨順神聖傳統的潮流、追隨教會的教導。
有許多所謂的「東正教徒」告訴我，他們有聖像可以自己在家祈禱就好了。他們並不瞭解，事實上，自己並不是真正的東正教徒，他們創造了自己的宗教、儀式…等，他們所信仰的，其實是自己的宗教。
異教徒有一個特點，就是他們常常暗中行事，無法以誠實的態度來面對。從教會的歷史中，我們可以觀察到，異教徒（例如：Arius）總是採用模稜兩可的方式，無法誠實地、明白地把事情說清楚，或者把疑問提出來。
這些人通常言行不一，他們的言論無法支持他們的作為：他們總是用跳躍式的邏輯、草率地下結論。關於這些異端，我不想一一指出，但是今日我要特別指出Ethnophyletism。有些人認為，只說自己是「東正教徒」是不夠的，它不足以表達自己的信仰，必須清楚說明自己是美國的、俄羅斯的或保加利亞的東正教徒才夠清楚，因為他們認為，到了天國之後，不同國家的東正教徒會被帶到不同的地方。所以除了耶穌基督的聖體、聖血之外，東正教徒還必須清楚保有自己的國家認同。如果你請他們解釋清楚其中的道理，他們總是含混地說：「恩，我不知道應該怎麼解釋，我的老師就是這樣告訴我的。」可見，人的心智多麼容易受到影響。不只在這個方面是如此，在其他方面也是如此。
這就是為什麼，正教信仰不只是一個教導。它還包含了一些紀律，和靈性上的成長，當然，我們還必須實踐上帝的愛、祈禱、領受聖餐。因為如果我們沒有在生活中活出自己的宗教，就會漸漸變成行屍走肉，我們的信仰充其量只是某種迷信，就好像有人盲目地來到教會，不知道自己在追求什麼。有人開玩笑說：「喔，這個人常常來教會，大概每年的復活節就會出現！」也就是說，這個人每年才會來教會一次。他來教會可能只為了在重大的節日應景一下，這樣根本不能算是真正的東正教徒。
荒漠教父曾經教導我們（這是一個很難瞭解卻非常美妙的觀念）：「當念頭湧現時，我們不該接受它們，也不該拋下它們。我們應該請教自己的屬靈父親，並且靜下心來分辨。即使這個念頭看起來是好的，我們仍然必須好好檢驗一下才考慮是否接受。」異端通常就是起於：「喔！我有一個想法！這個想法真好。它這麼直觀，又這麼好，我要馬上實踐它！」然而，莽撞行事的結果通常都是不好的。
身在教會之中，我們應該用實際的愛心和理解力來守護自己的心，這樣才能保持教會的和諧與共融。在這個大團體中，每個人仍然可以保有自己的個性和愛。
閱讀聖經的時候，我們往往記得其中提到的一些名字。例如，今日我們閱讀的保羅書信中就談到了幾個不同的人物：Titus, Artimas, Appolo, Tihichos, Zenas（他是一位律師）。我們記得每個人物的名字，卻不太知道他們完成了哪些事情。你們的名字也紀錄在「生命之書」上面。在台北的東正教會，每個人都奉獻自己的心力，分擔了不同的工作，像是：烹飪、唱誦讚美詩、參與活動、與朋友談話、分享自己的生活難題。就好像使徒保羅對腓力比的基督徒提到兩位婦人，這兩位婦人爭執不下，保羅請人去她們中間當和事佬。
聖經當中提到的這些微不足道的小事，還有一些小人物的故事，都是上帝所愛的。這些故事遍布在整部聖經之中，它們的歷史背景貫穿了數個世紀。除了這些小故事之外，我們每個人也都在上帝的眼前上演著自己的故事。是的，這些故事都已經被紀錄下來：天使們就是忠實的紀錄者，教會內準備了哪些食物，哪些人吃了、哪些人沒有，哪些人搭乘了哪一部公車來教會，大家遇到了哪些問題…等。上帝記下了一切，因為，祂對我們懷抱著無限的愛與關懷。
啟示錄告訴我們，「聖書」並沒有闔上，上帝要把我們的生命展示在我們眼前：我們每一個小小的錯誤、我們每一次小小的奮鬥與努力，我們會看見它們背後的意義。我們生命的每一個事件都不是枉然，它們都反映出：上帝的愛遍及在每一件微小的事物上，萬事萬物都展現了上帝的智慧和愛。
願聖三守護我們每一位。阿門。
Today we celebrate the Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils of the Church, and today the Gospel says to us something very important: Jesus says that, “You are the light of the world.” We. And it is very important that we cannot hide this light. We cannot be a Christian as if it were our political ideology because, for example, here I do not know what is your political party or what is the football team that you like, and things like that. Christianity is not something that we can hide and have it as individuals just in our home when we pray. Jesus gives an example, a practical example that actually here in Xindian I can see from my small room every day: a town that is on the mountain, shining with light during the night so the town cannot be hidden. It is on the mountain and everybody can see it. And actually here in the mountains you see big communities and huge buildings full of apartments and at night you see them shining, reminding you of the words of Jesus Christ.
But somebody could say to me, “Well Father, this is too much theology; we don’t have light, we don’t know about this and how do we shine?” It is easy to speak about theology and light, and I could talk to you about the uncreated light and all these things. But we don’t have – I mean I don’t have – this experience.. What kind of light is Jesus Christ speaking about? It is important to see this in the Gospel. It is the light and the Grace of God; but the Grace of God of God is so simple. It is the light of God that is to take the bus or the MRT, or to come from another town and to bring your kids and your problems here to the church; to take a taxi with so many difficulties; to wake up early even though you would like to sleep, to make to food that we can smell: all these small things that are for the love of God, that are for the love of our brothers and sisters. From these small things comes out a taste, comes out a mystical light that we don’t see but we can smell, we can taste, we can experience in the small details of our everyday life. It is a struggle to keep being good persons, honest. There are even so many contentions for the opposite thing. And it is also our job when somebody is teaching or he is working for society, and he has all this pain and struggle every day and still gives this faithfully, and he is doing this for the love of God and for the love of the other people. When he is doing this, serving in our poor ways, yes, not perfect, full of mistakes but with a good attitude to serve the children of God, to create and to save human personalities around us, there is the light of God; or instead we could say the smell of God, there is the presence of God.
When I went to Mount Athos to visit for the first time, I met an old priest in the boat and I asked him where were the Holy Fathers who were invisible because there are some stories about them. He said, “What is this that you are asking about? You know, a monk is the smell of garlic and every day working to dig in the earth.” He did not talk to me about praying in the heart because I was just a novice, just a visitor to Mount Athos; I was not mature to know those things.
And later I was taking care of an old father, one hundred years old and did not have all his consciousness and he had poo-poo every day so I had poo-poo on my hands. Every Sunday we would have a meeting with the abbot to talk about teachings, and he said, “Well everybody speaks about spiritual things, but nobody wants to say anything about the theology of poo-poo even though this is the real theology of serving, of taking the difficulty of others.” This is the light of God, and it is very important for us to see this light of God in everyday small things of our life: in cooking, in working, in being husband and wife, in being a parent, in being a teacher.
This is why the Gospel says your light; now you know that we have light. It is very practical, so everybody will see your good works, says the Bible – it does not say to see your light. And the good works are to do our duty every day with all our heart, doing it in front of God, continuing our everyday liturgy. After receiving and participating in this liturgy, we go to the other liturgy to continue the liturgy in our job, in the world, and to bring the Grace of God by our small works and small actions. This is why the Gospel says “to see the works,” and to glorify – not to ask but to glorify – God the Father. Because through us is the Father but He appears. As Jesus reveals the Father, we also – being images of Jesus Christ, we reveal images of Jesus, and Jesus reveals God the Father. What does this mean? It shows the fatherhood of God, that God is a loving God; God is Trinity. This is our job; this is our everyday struggle.
And remember something, which I will say many times, that God gives to us not only when we say, “God change me; give me love,” or something like that. First of all, God is giving us opportunities; God is not like a magician, who does something and changes us inside. He is giving us opportunities: to work, to fail, to try again, and to learn lessons, and again to try.. It is easy to pray, “God give me…” Many people pray to God to give them love, and after this prayer they will quarrel with somebody. It is not that God is giving them quarrels, but God is giving the opportunity in practical life, to see and to practice the love. And yes, this can be very difficult to take the problems of the other. It is not the we are always responsible; the other is also responsible. But we must have patience and we must have real love, which is not an imaginary thing, something that we say about the Fathers of the Desert. But we are not Fathers of the Desert; we live in this world, we live in Taipei, here, this day. So remember, God is giving us opportunities. Don’t think that Christianity is a magical thing that will change us with no effort. It will change us when we take advantage of the opportunities that God is giving us to learn from our mistakes and to learn a little bit, and with every little bit it will be more.
This is why in the Gospel today we see the Apostles, again the Apostle Paul speaks to his beloved disciple Peter, who was in Crete, saying to him again, that all the people who are Christians must be the initiators, the managers of good works, of practical good things. Why does he say the initiators? Because the Christian cannot be Christian like, “You don’t know what I am, it is in my heart and you don’t care, I don’t care.” The Christian cares; the Christian cannot be neutral in society. The Christian starts something, which is actually that in so little opportunities. For example like somebody who sings here – I do not say to do this, but Johanna sings, and cooks – I do not say, indeed many times I say the opposite. I do not say to do these things, but people do by themselves, and there are many others that I know of but they do not want me to tell, help the church in secret ways. We cannot come to the church like we go to a movie or to the theater; but we must start something and call the others to follow – for the love of God, for the love or our brothers, for the love of our church. This is to be Christian, and not to be like a philosopher, just having some philosophical ideas in your head. It is so important to take this initiation, this management to say, “We will do this.” Christianity is something that comes out. Saint Simeon the New Theologian says something very high (of course), he says, “If you have Jesus Christ inside you, you must be like a pregnant woman, and a pregnant woman knows she is pregnant; the baby kicks. And Jesus Christ is kicking us, is pushing us to do practical things to serve him in the face of our brothers and in the face of society.
But because we speak today about the Fathers of the Church, who protected us from heresies and in this way expressed in practice by logical words and sentences the theology of the Church. We also see, as the Apostle Paul says to Titus about the heretics, he says that if someone is heretical, after you teach him one or two times, then let him alone. It is very important to understand that if somebody becomes heretical, something happens in his mind. The apostle says that his mind is turned, it is turned over. He loses the simple, logical argumentation about God. Some people will say, “Is he crazy?” No, he is not crazy, but we have problems even in our everyday jobs in our ordinary mind. For example, people who have presuppositions or ideologies. For example, although I may be able to do my job, but I say, “Yesterday you threatened me,” even though you did not do anything. There are many, let’s say, thoughts that catch our minds. Psychology today reveals a lot of things like that, a lot of misunderstandings: between husbands and wives, between friends, between colleagues at the job. There are so many decisions that psychology today reveals. And it is very important to understand that our communication is not always, as we suppose, a logical communication.
And also we must not forget that the Devil is working, and he is putting to me – and to you, probably – bad thoughts, when I am angry, when I don’t control myself completely. And then something remains. So many times we have ideas that are not always true, and many times our memories accept this. There are many examples of this, obvious contradictions. If you sometimes record what you say in a quarrel in your job and listen to it after two days, you cannot believe that you said these things because my does not want to accept them. But if it is recorded you would say, “Me, I said this?” But yes, you said it.
And I remember my spiritual father said to me that a woman once came to him and said that someone was throwing an egg outside of her house every day; she saw an egg every day. My spiritual father, because he had the Grace of God, the Grace of the Holy Spirit, told me that there were no eggs. It was only her imagination, and it was probably a temptation of the Devil.
I say all these things to help you understand how important to keep our minds clean, not from temptations, but being in the Church, being in the stream of the Holy Tradition, in the stream of the teachings of the Church. We have today, for example, so many “Orthodox” people, and I put this in quotes because they say, I have icons and I pray in my house. This person does not realize that they are not Orthodox; they have created their own personal religion, and many, many other things. It is very characteristic for a heretic that he never uses an honest way, always something comes and there he turns and uses covert ways. All the heretics, if you see the history of the Church, use covert ways, not honest and clear ways of speaking and asking, from Arius to the heretics we see today.
And as I say, these people cannot support what they do: when they come to a conclusion, there they jump. There are many problems, I don’t want to mention them, but today I will mention them, like for example there is ethnophiletism. Somebody says that he is an American, or Russian, or Bulgarian Orthodox, as if simply Orthodox were not enough, and when you go to Heaven you will be in a special place, and the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is not enough, so you must keep your national identity. And when you ask somebody if this is possible, then they cannot continue, they just stick and then they jump and say, “Well, I don’t know how to talk about it, this is what they teach me.” Finished. So you see how the mind can be turned. And in many other things, as I say.
This is why the Orthodox faith is not just a teaching. It is also a discipline; it is also to grow spiritually and to apply all the love of God – practically, praying receiving the Holy Communion. Because if we don’t do this our religion will gradually become dead, and it then it will become just some superstition, like we some people who come to the church. Somebody said, “Oh, this person goes to church very often – every Easter.” That’s only once a year. And they don’t understand that this person is not even Orthodox because he goes to church just for fun or for superstition every year, and he thinks he is Orthodox.
It is so very important to understand our mind – that it is a very beautiful but a very complicated thing. Never, as the Fathers of the Desert say, when the thoughts are coming, we should not accept them and not throw then away.. Just think and talk with some spiritual father. Examine it, and after this accept. Not just at once, even if we think that this seems to be good.The heretics started by saying, “Oh, I have a big idea. Good! I will do it since it is easy and it is good.” But the result was bad.
And this practical love and practical understanding in the Church keeps us from being a mass, but to be a loving community. And yet everybody in this community has his own personality, his own love.
When I read the Bible, and as I read today, and we remember the names – we see today that the Apostle Paul speaks about different people: to Titus, Artimas, Appolo, Tihichos, Zenas, who was a lawyer, as he says here. Remember these people who appear, simple people, we don’t know what all of them did. But your names are written in the Book of Life. In the Church of Taipei, the Orthodox church here, everybody is doing something – cooking, singing, coming to the church, talking to a friend, having a problem. This is like the Apostle Paul speaks to the Phillipians, and he speaks about two women and he asks someone else to make peace between them because they were quarreling.
These small incidents, and the small stories of the people of the Bible, stories that God loves, and they are through the Bible, through the centuries. These things are written, but there are other things, and still it is the story of each one of you – and me- in front of the eyes of God. And yes, it is all written down: the angels are writing here what kind of food we had today, who ate and who did not, who came and by which bus, and what were there problems. God records all. And because of his infinite love and care for each one of us In the Revelations it says the Books swill open, and God will show to us our lives: our small mistakes and our struggles. And then we will see that there was a meaning, they were not for nothing. And this meaning was – again – to show practically the love of God for the small things, for the wisdom of the small things. And the love of God for these small things. May the Holy Trinity protect all of us. Amen
Matthew 5:14-19
14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. 17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
