危險的教會

Some brilliant excerpts from Practise Resurrection by Eugene Peterson:
 
"Life in the church is dangerous. Much of the danger comes from being cozily familiar with the way of faith that we feel set apart or above our early status of what we sometimes think of as a mere Christian. We become so diligent in learning about and working for Jesus that our relationship with Jesus erodes.

The constant danger - and this has been going on a long time in church - is that we take on a role, a religious role, that gradually obliterates the life of the soul.

But our participation in the life of church does not bring us into an advanced level of gospel living. Faith is life at risk. Love is life at risk. Worship is life at risk. Familiarity with God and church and congregation can dull awareness of the stakes involved so that we forget to put in protection."


.......


"Karl Barth is eloquent in his insistence that we are always and ever beginners in this Christian life. No matter how much we know, no matter how diligent we are, we never graduate from being 'Christian' and go on to advanced levels. Neither Christian living nor Christian service, whether as layperson or pastor, can ever 'be anything but work of beginners... What Christians do becomes a self-contradiction when it takes a form of a trained and mastered routine, of a learned and practiced art. They may and can be masters and even virtuosos in many things, but never in what makes them Christians, God's children.'"


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教會危險之處在於，把信徒都局限於同一個形式的「信仰」。
同一種敬拜、同一種事奉、同一種見證，
同一些屬靈字眼、同一種傳福音的形式。


每個人的信仰如倒模一樣；
就像都是一個角色，一套儀式，失卻了原來的活潑。

任何破壞這種「合一」的聲音或思考，
都會被視為分化、搞分裂，不屬靈，被關心、被勸導。

漸漸地，我們被一個宗教框框困死了，
反而不懂得做回一個有血有肉，
有感情有上帝心腸的 "mere Christian"。



於是，人越上教會，反倒是越固執，甚至是更為教條化；
對社會更冷漠，只着重個人得救，看不見社會需要。



很喜歡Karl Barth 的講法，所有人都只是基督徒，
沒有人能從「基督徒」畢業過來；
那怕你是牧師也好，會眾也好，
那怕你對敬拜流程、聖經經文再熟識－－我們都不過是基督徒。

更重要的是，
要真正行出基督徒的樣式，
我們每一個人都還是初學者一般。

搖搖擺擺、跌跌碰碰。

吊詭的地方是，
當你以為自己已經得着了，那反倒是失去了。