Mandarin Sermon Translations

  •  “LET  tHERE BE LIGHT”                                                                                                      

    (Text:  Revelation 21:1-6)


    “要有光”

    经文：启示录 21:1-6）

                                                                                              

     

    Inscribed over the west window of the Peace Tower overlooking Parliament Hill in Ottawa are the words of Proverbs 29:18:  “Where there is no vision the people perish.” 


    在渥太华国会山和平塔西窗上方，刻着《箴言》29章18节的话语：“没有异象，民就放肆。”

     

    Peace remains an urgent need in our world today, as our news headlines remind us daily.  Peace remains the desperate hope of the whole global community, as Pope Leo XIV affirmed in his very first public words from the balcony overlooking Saint Peter’s Square after his election as Bishop of Rome.  Peace is the gift Jesus gave his disciples as they gathered around their last Passover supper before his crucifixion:  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you …”  Peace is the very mission the risen Jesus entrusted to his faithful followers on the first Easter Sunday:  “Peace be with you.  As God has sent me, so I send you …”  And peace is the vision of today’s reading from the final chapter of Revelation:  “Carried away in the spirit to a great, high mountain, I saw the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God ...” 


    如今，和平依然是我们世界迫切的需要，正如每日的新闻头条不断提醒我们。和平是全世界渴望的希望，正如教皇利奥十四世在当选罗马主教后，于圣彼得广场阳台发表的第一句话中所强调的那样。和平是耶稣在被钉十字架前最后一次逾越节晚餐上赐给门徒的礼物：“我留下平安给你们；我将我的平安赐给你们……”和平也是复活的耶稣在首个复活节主日托付给忠实门徒的使命：“愿你们平安！父怎样差遣了我，我也照样差遣你们……”而今天启示录末章的经文，也正展现了和平的异象：“我被圣灵感动，被带到一座高大的山上，看见圣城新耶路撒冷由神那里从天而降……”

     

    The Holy City embodies God’s heavenly gift of peace.  The very name ‘Jerusalem’ means “foundation of peace”.  Yet amidst all the glorious radiance described in John of Patmos’ vision, New Jerusalem’s most striking feature is also its starkest feature:  “I saw no temple in the city…”  The Bible’s final vision of humanity’s ultimate destiny in God’s post-apocalyptic world is the vision of a world without temples – a world without churches, synagogues or mosques; a world without steeples, pulpits and preachers; a world without religion!  “Its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of the Lord is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” 


    这座圣城体现了上帝所赐的天上和平礼物。“耶路撒冷”这个名字本身就意味着“和平之根基”。然而，在约翰的异象中，在新耶路撒冷那一切辉煌的荣耀之中，最引人注目的，也恰恰是最出人意料的特点：“我未见城内有殿。”

    圣经对人类最终归宿的终极异象，是一个“无圣殿的世界”——一个没有教堂、没有犹太会堂、没有清真寺的世界；一个没有钟楼、讲台和传道人的世界；一个没有宗教的世界！“那殿乃是主神全能者和羔羊。那城内又不用日月光照，因为有神的荣耀光照，又有羔羊为城的灯。”

     

    Sunlight may dispel, and moonlight may brighten the physical darkness of       night.  Candles in our sanctuary may illuminate the presence of God with us.  A word of scripture or spiritual wisdom of the ages may lighten our “dark nights of the soul” in this world.  But in New Jerusalem, God’s faithful people will live in the eternal light of Emmanuel – “God with us” in Jesus Christ, Lamb of God.


    阳光能驱散黑暗，月光能照亮夜色。我们圣殿中的蜡烛象征着神的同在。经文的话语和历代灵性智慧也能在我们“灵魂的黑夜”中给予光明。但在新耶路撒冷中，神忠实的子民将永远活在以马内利——“神与我们同在”的光中，就是耶稣基督，神的羔羊。

     

    In the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, God has established the new Jerusalem temple where all people of all cultures, creeds, classes and colours assemble to fulfill our eternal destiny:  “All nations shall walk by the light of the Lamb, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into the city.  Its gates will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there … The throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and all people will see God’s face and worship the Lamb…”


    在那位被钉十字架又复活的耶稣基督里，神建立了新耶路撒冷的圣殿，在那里，各族、各信仰、各阶层、各种肤色的人都汇聚一堂，实现我们永恒的命定：“万国要在羔羊的光中行走，地上的君王必将自己的荣耀带进那城。城门白昼总不关闭——在那里将不再有黑夜……宝座设在城中，是属神和羔羊的；祂的仆人都要事奉祂，也要见祂的面，敬拜羔羊……”

     

    Revelation’s vision of new Jerusalem may signal the end of religion – but not the end of worship!  Central to the life-giving vision of peace is the worship of God – “on earth as it is in heaven!”  Worship is God’s primary source for nurturing God’s faithful people to fullness of our humanity in this world; and worship will be the primary source for sustaining all people in the fullness of our human being in eternal life.


    启示录中新耶路撒冷的异象或许意味着“宗教的终结”，但绝不是“敬拜的终结”！这个充满生命的和平异象的核心，就是敬拜上帝——“愿你的旨意行在地上，如同行在天上！”在今生，敬拜是上帝养育我们成长、成全人性的源泉；在永恒中，敬拜将继续成为支持我们人性圆满的根本所在。

     

    I can personally affirm that I feel most truly and fully myself – that is, like the human being I have been created in God’s image to become – when I assemble for worship within the Holy Communion of God’s people, on this day, at this time, in God’s house, around God’s word and table, and under the cross of our crucified and risen Lord, Jesus Christ.


    我可以亲身见证，当我与上帝子民一同聚集敬拜时，在这一天，在这时间，在这圣殿中，围绕上帝的话语与圣餐台，在我们被钉十字架又复活的主耶稣基督的十字架下，我最真实、最完整地成为神按祂形象创造的那个人。

     

    After all, it is the light of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that was the very first word God spoke in the primordial darkness and formless void in the beginning of time – “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:1-3).  And the same light of the Lamb will be the very last word God speaks beyond the apocalyptic end of time, to give new life for a new humanity, in the new Jerusalem of a new heaven and a new earth in God’s new creation of a holy new people of God in a whole new world without end!


    毕竟，正是那位被钉十字架又复活的耶稣基督——除去世人罪孽的神羔羊的光——是神在时间之初、那原始的黑暗与混沌中说出的第一句话：“要有光！”（创世记1:1-3）。而同样的光，那羔羊的光，也将是神在时间终结、灾难之后所说的最后一句话，带来新的生命、为了新的人类、在新耶路撒冷、新天新地中所说的话。那将是神在一个圣洁的新子民中，在一个全然更新、没有终结的世界




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