隨時儆醒等待祂再來
中英文作者:楊光(《真理報》加西版2008年6月號)

到處都有饑荒和地震，這一切不過是痛苦的開始。馬太福音24:7-8（新譯本）

每次看四川大地震的報道就忍不住流淚，為那些喪生的孩子、父母、夫妻、為丟失的潛力、為摧毀的家園、為喪失親友的人而流淚。餘震預測在以後的幾個星期里會繼續毀滅城鎮。而五.一二大地震之前不久，旋風納爾吉斯橫掃緬甸南部海岸，造成極大的破壞，同時世界各地因食物短缺、物價猛漲而恐慌。到處都有饑荒和地震......

馬太福音第廿四和廿五章里記載着，耶穌清楚地列出我們會看到的世代終結的預兆。地震是其中最早的兆頭，但這只是生產之難的開始，自然界最早的大動盪，就像孕婦分娩開始時的震痛，意味着臨盆前要忍受的痛苦。

然而，可這只是開始，更痛苦的時期還在後面。

儘管前景黯淡堪慮，耶穌說這些話不是為了嚇唬我們晚上睡不着覺，而是為了我們到時不會受驚嚇，為了讓我們隨時儆醒等待祂再來，為了我們能堅忍到底，為了我們不被焦慮和恐懼所困卻忘記去安慰關愛他人、向他們傳福音。這就是耶穌在綿羊和山羊的比喻里和在升天前講的“大使命”：給餓的吃，給渴的喝，接待作旅客的，給赤身的穿，照料生病的，探望被囚的，去使萬民作祂的門徒。

這最近的自然大災害，又一次提出了基督徒由始以來必須面對的問題：在這多災多難的世界裡，那位是愛、憐憫、恩典和一切良善的神在哪裡？在他的書《我不曾認識的耶穌》裡，腓力普．燕希卻認為這問題應該改為：教會在哪裡？耶穌留給我們的工作是把貧窮的、受逼迫的和孤兒寡婦當做耶穌來服侍，直到祂再來時將這個敗壞墮落的世界更新成完美的國度。所以，不要光站在一旁敬佩那些犧牲一切去順服“大使命”的人，與其等到一場像四川地震一樣的大災難將我們從自滿中喚醒，我們作為基督身體的豈不是應該在任何時候都服侍他人，為他人着想嗎？

雖然最近為四川踴躍提供物資支持是很可貴的，雖然每天都從災區傳出救援工作中的英勇行動，但對於基督徒來說，這不應該是異常現象，而應該是作神兒女的行為常態，不單是為了遠方的，而且更為了自己周圍那些有需要的。可惜的是，我自己在這方面的成績不怎麼樣，但我們知道任何時候求神赦免而得救恩都不算晚。同樣的，現在開始使生命和行為符合作為基督在世上的代表，符合作為 神被聖靈充滿的兒女也不算晚。如此，我們不要忘記最後的獎勉將會是主人的讚許：“好，你這又良善又忠心的僕人......，可以進來享受你主人的快樂！”

Stay Alert for His Return
By Linda Yang
There will be times when there is no food for people to eat, and there will be earthquakes in different places. These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born. Matthew 24:7b-8 (NCV)

It's hard to watch the news coming out of Sichuan without shedding tears, for the lost children, lost parents, lost husbands and wives, lost potential, lost homes, and those who lost loved ones. The destruction continues as after-shocks of various degrees are predicted to last for the next few weeks. And shortly before the 5.12 earthquake, Cyclone Nargis devastates Burma's southern coastline while the rest of the world is in a panic over food shortages and rising prices. There will be famines and earthquakes...

Matthew records, in chapters 24 and 25, Jesus' clear outline of what we are to expect as the end of the age draws near. Earthquakes are near the top of the list, the earliest signs of the end, but constitute only the beginning of nature's convulsions, only the first birth pains, like that of a pregnant woman who is just beginning to feel the contractions, signifying labourious hours to come.

In short, this is only the beginning. Worse times will definitely follow.

However grim and bleak our prospects may be, Jesus did not say all of this to frighten us or keep us awake at night. He said it so that we will not be surprised when it comes, so that we will stay alert for his return, so that we will stand firm until the end, and so that we will not be so seized by anxiety and fright that we forget to comfort and care for and witness to the rest of the world. For that is the commission that Jesus left with us in his parable of the sheep and the goats and before his ascension into heaven: to give the hungry food, to give the thirsty drink, to be hospitable to strangers, to clothe the needy, to care for the sick, to visit those in prison, and to go and make disciples of all nations.

This latest major natural disaster raises the age-old question with which Christians are confronted: Where is God, the God of love and mercy and grace and all things good, in the midst of such suffering? But Philip Yancey insists in his book The Jesus I Never Knew that the question should be: Where is the church? Jesus had left us with the task of serving the poor, the oppressed, orphans, and widows as if they were Jesus until His return to make new and perfect this flawed and fallen world. Rather than merely admiring from a distance those who gave their lives to follow the commission, rather than being stirred out of complacency only by such terrifyingly tragic disasters such as the Sichuan earthquake, shouldn't we, as the Body of Christ, always be serving and thinking of others?

Though the recent effort to provide financial aid and material assistance to Sichuan is commendable, and altruistic heroism are being reported daily from the devastated areas, this should not be an anomaly but a norm for Christians - not only for people in far away lands, but for the needy that surrounds us. Sadly, my track record is not so good. However, just like it is never too late to ask for God's forgiveness and be saved, it is also never too late to begin living and acting as representatives of Christ on earth, as true Spirit-filled children of God. And let us not forget that our reward will be hearing the Master's approving words: "Well done, good and faithful servant! ... Come and share your master's happiness!"