Mandarin Sermon Translations

  • John 14:1-14, Ephesians 2:11-22

    May 7, 2023, Steph Min, and Council Commissioning

    How can we know the way?

     

    约翰福音14:1-14，以弗所书2:11-22

    2023年5月7日，Stephen Min和理事会调试

    我们如何能知道路呢？

    Jesus is preparing his dearest friends for his departure: the time when he will no longer be physically with them, his arrest and death. I’ve affectionately called this his “Minnesota Goodbye” because it extends for three chapters of John’s gospel (14-17). In Minnesota, after you’ve enjoyed dinner in someone’s home, you say, “well, we should be going” and an hour later you still haven’t left. Scholars say that the community in which these words were first heard was an isolated group—separated from their synagogue or worshipping community, they were experiencing loneliness and despair about their place in the world.

     

    耶稣正在为他最亲爱的朋友们的离开做准备：他将不再与他们在一起，他的被捕和死亡。我亲切地称之为“明尼苏达的再见”，因为它延伸到约翰福音的三章（14-17）。在明尼苏达州，当你在别人家享用晚餐后，你会说，“好啦，我们该走了”，一个小时后你仍然还没有离开。学者们说，最初听到这些话的社区是一个孤立的群体，与他们的犹太教堂或礼拜社区分离，他们对自己在世界上的地位感到孤独和绝望。

     

    For the last several months, after I drop off Eva for AV, I’ve been able to worship at Crossroads United Church with my colleague and dear friend, Rev. Cari Copeman-Haynes, whose preaching has been part of my healing process. I offer this prayer, which she crafted, because it speaks well about our journey together in the Easter season. She refers to Jesus as Cosmic Christ through Jesus dying and rising, the love and mercy of God extends across the universe, the milky way galaxy, the stars beyond our knowing, the entire cosmos.

     

    在过去的几个月里，在我送Eva去AV后，我可以和我亲爱的朋友Cari Copeman Haynes牧师一起在Crossroads United Church做礼拜，他的布道是我康复过程的一部分。我献上她精心制作的祈祷词，因为她很好地表达了我们在复活节的共同旅程。她将耶稣称为宇宙基督，通过耶稣的死亡和崛起，上帝的爱和怜悯延伸到宇宙、银河系、我们所不知道的恒星、整个宇宙.


    Let us pray:

    让我们祈祷：

     

    Cosmic Christ, in this Easter season help us to listen beyond facts to truth, and so to re-discover faith. Help us to open to the mystery of the cruciform shape of your life, and recognize you, risen, alive despite death, present with us and in all creation now in our suffering and in our joy. Use this time for your purposes. Let your Word plant new life in us, for the sake of the world you love. Amen.

     

    宇宙基督，在这个复活节季节，帮助我们超越事实倾听真理，从而重新发现信仰。帮助我们打开你生命中十字架形状的神秘面纱，并认识到你，你已经崛起，尽管死亡，但仍然活着，在我们的痛苦和喜悦中，与我们同在，在所有的创造中。把这段时间用于你的目的。为了你所爱的世界，让你的话语为我们注入新的生命。阿门。

    Jesus is offering words of comfort, at least in part, in John’s gospel today. Words we often hear at a funeral, right? Jesus is getting his closest friends ready for his death; Jesus knows that his departure will cause pain and disorientation, those closest to him will be scattered, deny any association with him, run away in fear, and by the time they see him again, hide behind locked doors. That’s what happens when we lose something or someone dear to us.

     

    耶稣在今天的约翰福音中提供了安慰的话语，至少在一定程度上是这样。我们在葬礼上经常听到的话，对吧？耶稣正在让他最亲密的朋友为他的死做好准备；耶稣知道他的离开会引起痛苦和迷失方向，与他最亲近的人会分散，否认与他有任何联系，在恐惧中逃跑，当他们再次见到他时，会躲在锁着的门后。这就是当我们失去了我们亲爱的东西或人时会发生的事情。

     

    “Let not your hearts be troubled.” John 14:1 Now I know for some of us it’s unsettling to hear that there are nuances in how translation the Bible from the original Greek manuscripts, others of us are curious to learn. So here we go, venturing into some unsettling but insightful territory together. I learned something about Jesus’ words that may open a new way for us to understand what it means to follow Jesus together. John’s gospel does what we know is more typical for the Apostle Paul to write to God’s beloved people who gather in community as if they form a singular heart. This, of course, is not literally referring to our blood pumping through the same organ to keep us alive, but a metaphor, a word picture for describing our shared life as followers of Jesus. For Paul in the ancient context, this meant that Jews and Greeks, slave and free, rich, and poor, as well as all genders, who follow Christ share one metaphorical heart or body. Be of the same heart and mind, Paul says.

     

    “不要让你的心烦恼。”约翰福音14:1现在我知道，对于我们中的一些人来说，听到从希腊原始手稿翻译《圣经》有细微差别是令人不安的，而我们中的其他人则很好奇。所以，我们开始了，一起冒险进入一些令人不安但富有洞察力的领域。我从耶稣的话语中学到了一些东西，能为我们理解跟随耶稣意味着什么开辟了一条新的道路。约翰福音做了我们所知道的更典型的事，即使徒保罗写信给聚集在社区中的上帝所爱的人，就好像他们形成了一颗奇异的心。当然，这并不是指我们的血液通过同一个器官来维持生命，而是一个隐喻，一个描述我们作为耶稣追随者共同生活的图片。对于保罗来说，在古代语境中，这意味着跟随基督的犹太人和希腊人，奴隶和自由的，富人和穷人，以及所有性别，都有一个隐喻性的心或身体。保罗说，要有相同的心和思想。

     

    The Greek word heart in John 14 is cardia, you perhaps recognize this because we still use the Greek word today for heart attack a cardiac arrest. Cardia is not plural but rather singular. So, Jesus says to the community: Let not your heart be troubled. So, pastor, why is this such a big deal, you ask? Well, Jesus is saying to his followers: you, all ya all, share one heart.  This means that though we may all dance to the beat of our own drum, and I know you all do, here at TLC, part of what I love about all of you, is that the same love, a singular heart compels us into the world to listen, serve, give of ourselves. None of us lives only for ourselves as Christ followers, we share a collective, metaphorical heart that welcomes the stranger, sees those who may feel invisible, and loves even at great cost to ourselves. All of this, so that together we might become a dwelling place for God. A place where all, no matter who they are or whom they love, are drawn to hang out because there is room in our collective heart for ALL.

     

    约翰福音14章中的希腊语单词心是cardia，你可能认识这个单词，因为我们今天仍然使用希腊语单词，意思是心脏病发作或心脏骤停。Cardia不是复数，而是单数。因此，耶稣对社区说：不要让你的心受到困扰。那么，牧师，为什么这是一件大事？耶稣对他的追随者说：你们所有人都有一颗心。这意味着，尽管我们都可能随着自己的鼓点跳舞，我知道你们都这样做，但在TLC，我爱你们所有人，同样的爱，一颗独特的心迫使我们进入这个世界，倾听、服务和奉献自己。作为基督的追随者，我们没有一个人只为自己而活，我们有一颗集体的、隐喻的心，欢迎陌生人，看到那些可能感觉不到的人，甚至不惜自己的巨大代价去爱。所有这些，让我们一起成为上帝的居所。在这里，所有人，无论他们是谁或他们爱谁，都被吸引去闲逛，因为我们的集体心中有空间容纳所有人。

     

    Thomas and Philip hear Jesus talking about his departure “I will go prepare a place for you, then come and take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the WAY to the place where I am going.”

     

    托马斯和菲利普听到耶稣谈论他的离开：“我会去为你准备一个地方，然后来把你带到自己身边，这样我在哪里，你也可以在那里。你知道我要去的地方的路。”

     

    Nope, they don’t, Thomas says, “But we don’t know where you are going! How can we know the way?” Thomas is practical, tactile, we know this because he’s the one who insisted that he too be able to see and touch Jesus’ wounds before he could trust him. Thomas is immediately thinking about GPS coordinates, a geographical location that could be found on a map, just tell us exactly where, Jesus, and we will meet you there. But Jesus is up to something different, drawing Thomas, Philip, and all who overhear him, including us, as we listen in on his intimate conversation spoken centuries ago. Jesus is drawing us beyond facts to discover truth. Jesus is describing a process he embodies when he says, I AM the way, the truth, and the life. The WAY is beyond geography, beyond time and place; the way involves dying and rising again and again. Dying before we’ve taken our last breath. A kind of dying that opens us to truth and life now. Not only does Jesus die and rise on the cross, but he shows each of us the WAY to enter this life-giving rhythm, the spiritual practice of letting go.

     

    不，他们不知道，托马斯说，“但我们不知道你要去哪里！我们怎么能知道路呢？”托马斯很务实，有触觉，我们知道这一点，因为他坚持认为，在信任耶稣之前，他也能看到和触摸耶稣的伤口。托马斯立刻想到了GPS坐标，一个可以在地图上找到的地理位置，只要告诉我们确切的位置，耶稣，我们就会在那里见到你。但耶稣在做一些不同的事情，吸引了托马斯、菲利普和所有无意中听到他的人，包括我们，因为我们在听他几个世纪前的亲密对话。耶稣正在带领我们超越事实去发现真理。耶稣描述了一个他所体现的过程，他说：“我是路，我是真理，我是生命。”。道路超越了地理，超越了时间和地点；这种方式包括一次又一次的死亡和崛起。还没等我们最后一次呼吸就死了。一种让我们了解真相和生活的死亡。耶稣不仅死了，站在十字架上，而且他向我们每个人展示了进入这种赋予生命的方式，即放手的精神实践。

     

    To go to the cross, Jesus had to let go of justifying himself before Pontius Pilate, he didn’t hire a lawyer to defend his case. And after breathing his last, on the day of the resurrection, Jesus comes, in a form they don’t recognize, to find the disciples in their fear, hiding behind locked doors. He doesn’t come with vengeance, hoping to get even, but instead offers peace. He lets go of the justified right to get even; they ran away and hid when he needed them the most. When he sees Peter, who denied him as the cock crowed, Jesus doesn’t yell at him or say, “I told you so.” He asks, “Peter, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord you know that I love you.” Then share that love, pay it forward, feed my lambs.

     

    为了走向十字架，耶稣不得不放弃在本丢彼拉多面前为自己辩护，他没有请律师为自己的案件辩护。在复活的那天，耶稣呼吸了最后一口之后，以一种他们不认识的形式来到这里，发现门徒们躲在锁着的门后，感到恐惧。他并不是带着复仇来的，希望报复，而是提供和平。他放弃了公平的正当权利；他们逃跑了，在他最需要他们的时候躲了起来。当耶稣看到彼得时，他没有对他大喊大叫，也没有说：“我早就告诉过你了。”他问：“彼得，你爱我吗？”“是的，主啊，你知道我爱你。”然后分享这份爱，付出它，喂养我的羔羊。

     

    Jesus is preparing his dearest friends for his arrest and departure by reminding them they share a collective heart do not let your heart be troubled, you trust in God; trust also in me follow me into the WAY of dying and rising, a mystery that unfolds as you let go. I’ll show you the WAY. As you let go, you will discover truth, and find life that begins now and forever will be.

     

    耶稣正在为他最亲爱的朋友被捕和离开做准备，提醒他们他们有一颗共同的心——不要让你的心受到困扰，相信上帝；对我的信任也会跟随我走向死亡和崛起的道路，这是一个随着你放手而展开的谜团。我给你带路。当你放手的时候，你会发现真相，并发现从现在开始的生活，直到永远。

     

    “But we don’t know where you are going!” Thomas pleads. Letting go is not the easy way. Jesus knows we cannot walk in this WAY alone. “How can we know the WAY?” The WAY finds us when we experience deep love, pain, or loss. The WAY finds us when we are compelled by a love that draws more out of us than we thought we had to give. The WAY finds us when we suffer a painful loss, when a person, circumstance, or something we most treasure is ripped away from us.

     

    “但我们不知道你要去哪里！”托马斯恳求道。放手不是一件容易的事。耶稣知道我们不能独自走这条路。“我们怎么知道路？”当我们经历深深的爱、痛苦或失落时，路就会找到我们。当我们被一种爱所驱使时，路就会找到我们，这种爱从我们身上汲取的东西比我们想象的要多。当我们遭受痛苦的损失时，当一个人、环境或我们最珍视的东西被夺走时，出路就会找到我们。

     

    Our Stephen Ministers, who will be commissioned today, have been learning about and practicing The WAY together for the last several months, with the guidance of Maureen and Sherry. Growing together in prayer, reflection, listening to scriptures and real-life stories to build relational skills to come alongside those experiencing pain and loss. They have learned how to be present with people in their pain: not to fix a problem, but to listen, to attend, to accompany along the WAY. This kind of relating involves letting go for the Stephen Minister; letting go of the desire to control the situation, the person’s response, letting go of trying to fix them. Trusting that Jesus has become our peace, drawing us near to God, by letting go of his own life. In the letter to the followers of The WAY gathered in the ancient city of Ephesus, all who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ Jesus. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups, the outsiders, and the insiders, into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. The blood, shed on the cross, is God’s very life, poured out to bring peace, to destroy every dividing wall between us.

     

    我们的斯蒂芬部长将于今天接受委托，在Maureen和Sherry的指导下，他们在过去的几个月里一直在一起学习和实践The WAY。在祈祷、反思、聆听经文和现实生活中的故事中共同成长，培养与那些经历痛苦和失落的人相处的技能。他们学会了如何与痛苦中的人在一起：不是解决问题，而是倾听、参与、陪伴。这种关系包括让斯蒂芬部长下台；放下控制局面的欲望，放下对方的反应，放下解决问题的努力。相信耶稣已经成为我们的和平，通过释放他自己的生命，拉近我们与上帝的距离。在给聚集在以弗所古城的道的追随者的信中，所有曾经远离的人都被基督耶稣的血带到了附近。因为他是我们的和平；在他的肉体中，他将局外人和局内人这两个群体合二为一，并打破了我们之间的隔离墙，也就是我们之间的敌意。洒在十字架上的血，正是上帝的生命，是为了带来和平，摧毁我们之间的每一道隔离墙。

     

    We all build walls, especially when we experience pain and loss, walls around our heart, walls so people can’t see us struggling, walls so we aren’t embarrassed or humiliated.

     

    我们都会筑起墙，尤其是当我们经历痛苦和失落时，墙围绕着我们的心，让人们看不到我们在挣扎，让我们不会感到尴尬或羞辱。

     

    Growing up in Montana, I watched my grandfather Floyd repair sections of his barbed wire fence to keep his own cattle and sheep in and his neighbour’s out. Repairing fences is a continual chore for ranchers. When I would go for a sunset walk or early morning run when visiting the ranch, I had to carefully step across the cattle guards, which allowed cars to pass through the fence, but kept the livestock fenced in. Throughout history, we humans have erected giant walls to keep people out. Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, and Roman emperors-built walls across the known world, to protect their assets from attack. China wins the record with the Great Wall that spans 1500 miles, keeping out northern invaders. My brother was an exchange student in Germany on Nov 9, 1989, when the Berlin wall, as disconnected piece of the Soviet Iron Curtain, came down, uniting those who’d been divided. During the pandemic every country built a wall at some time with travel bans, trying to contain the spread of COVID19, at a certain point every family stayed behind their own walls, in what we called our bubble. The ancient and modern world are full of walls.

     

    我在蒙大拿州长大，看着祖父弗洛伊德修理他的铁丝网，把自己的牛和羊关在里面，把邻居的羊关在外面。修理栅栏对牧场主来说是一项持续不断的家务活。当我参观牧场时，当我去日落散步或清晨跑步时，我必须小心地跨过牛栏，牛栏允许汽车通过围栏，但将牲畜围起来。纵观历史，我们人类都竖起了巨大的墙来阻挡人们。古埃及、巴比伦和罗马皇帝在已知的世界各地建造城墙，以保护他们的资产免受攻击。中国凭借跨越1500英里的长城，抵御了北方侵略者，赢得了这一纪录。1989年11月9日，我哥哥是德国的一名交换生，当时作为苏联铁幕的一部分，柏林墙倒塌了，把那些分裂的人团结在一起。在疫情期间，每个国家都修建了一堵墙，禁止旅行，试图遏制新冠肺炎的传播19，在某个时刻，每个家庭都呆在自己的墙后面，我们称之为我们的泡沫。古代和现代的世界到处都是墙。

     

    Robert Frost in his poem, “Mending Wall” says “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall:

     

    罗伯特弗罗斯特在他的诗《修补墙》中说：“有些东西不喜欢墙：

     

    Before I built a wall I’d ask to know                 在我建墙之前，我想知道

    What I was walling in or walling out,               我在墙里或墙外，

    And to whom I was like to give offense         我想冒犯谁

     

    Stephen Ministers help people who have felt threatened by harsh, exclusive ideas about walking by faith, who’ve been pushed out by discrimination based on who they are, or whom they love. Stephen Ministers provide care to people who feel alienated or lonely. They help people take down walls and build bridges instead. So that people experience being part of the collective heart of God, no longer outside but inside God’s human family.

     

    Stephen Ministers帮助那些因信仰而行走的苛刻、排外的想法而感到威胁的人，那些因自己是谁或所爱的人而受到歧视的人。斯蒂芬部长为感到疏远或孤独的人提供照顾。他们帮助人们拆除围墙，建造桥梁。让人们体验成为上帝集体之心的一部分，不再在上帝的人类大家庭之外，而是在上帝的家庭内部。

     

    We are all tempted to think in terms of us and them, the Jews and the Gentiles, the haves and have nots. In Christ, we are one. We share one collective heart. God in Christ builds bridges, according to the Paul in the letter to the Ephesians, whose dying and rising has “destroyed every barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” between outsiders and insider, to bring everyone together in Christ. Remember, we who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, forming a collective heart, a dwelling place for God.

     

    我们都很想从我们和他们、犹太人和外邦人、富人和穷人的角度来思考。在基督里，我们是一体的。我们有一颗共同的心。根据保罗在给以弗所人的信中所说，上帝在基督里架起了桥梁，以弗所的死亡和崛起“摧毁了局外人和局内人之间的每一道屏障，敌对的隔离墙”，让每个人在基督里团结在一起。请记住，我们这些遥远的人被基督的血带到了一起，形成了一颗集体的心，一个上帝的居所。

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