Which gospel? 哪個福音？

Optical illusions have fascinated me since I was a kid. I remember being puzzled about why my eyes could not simply see the reality of what was clearly there in front of me but were somehow deceived by the illusion. It was not until I was older that I was able to understand that it was not really my eyes that were telling me what was there, but my brain that was interpreting signals that were transmitted to it by my eyes. But it was those clever artistic illustrations that seemed to show two different realities in the same picture that captivated my thinking. I saw two different pictures depending on how my brain interpreted the signals it was receiving. And it made me realise just how difficult it was to get my brain to ‘switch channels’ and see the other picture.

How we see the gospel has an enormous effect on our approach to life, the things we value, and how we interact with the world around us. Once we get used to seeing it one way, it becomes more difficult to appreciate another reality. Many modern theologians are now beginning to see the gospel in a new way which has a different emphasis than the traditional approach that many of us have been used to. This perspective sees it not just as a personal conviction and spiritual relationship with God, but also as a more fundamental manifesto of God’s intention to bring the world back into alignment with his original creation plans. It becomes a way of understanding the work of the kingdom of God within the world around us, not only the amazing story of our personal salvation through Jesus. It becomes a declaration, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, that God is intervening in this world to start his kingdom work now, ahead of the final restoration of all things. It sees the church as a prophetic declaration to this world of the new world order to come, not only as a place of community and encouragement for believers.

As theologian author Tom Wright puts it in his book ‘Surprised by Scripture’, 

’The central message of all four canonical gospels - in their very different ways - is that the creator God, Israel’s God, is at last reclaiming the whole world as his own, in and through Jesus of Nazareth’.

Or again as Lee C Camp says in ‘Scandalous Witness’ 

‘…we may better understand Christianity by calling it an interpretation of history instead of a religion. For Christians the resurrection of the crucified Jesus is the central historical claim on which Christians stake their lives: it ushers at the end of history, vindicates the way of Christ, and inaugurates a new political possibility in the world’

Dr Johannes Reimer in his book Missio Politico speaks about the mission of the church this way, 

‘The church of Christ is his ‘ecclesia’ [gathering] in the midst of a world not yet reconciled with God. It is his priest, royal servant, and prophetic voice. All its public action is highly political. But the most political expression is its very being - that of a new society of the kingdom of God in the midst of human kingdoms. It is God’s alternative social space. In it, humans see a different way of living, a new future, a positive alternative to what is ruling their lives.’

It is important to understand that when these authors use the word ‘political’ they are not suggesting that Christianity should be a political organisation involved in the running of government, but are simply emphasising that the gospel is no mere private personal belief but is of a world-impacting significance that intersects to some degree with every aspect of humanity including its politics. But more of that in another blog later…..

The significant thing to take on board when reading scripture is to see that there are many different themes and ideas that all come together in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s not just one picture and like those clever artistic illustrations. We need to adjust our perspective from time to time to see the bigger meta-narratives that place us within the incredible historical reality of God’s redemptive plan for the world.

我在小時候就已深為錯視藝術（optical illusion）所迷，還記得當時困惑自己的眼睛竟然無法只看擺在面前的事實，卻不知怎的被錯覺欺騙。我長大後才明白，原來不是眼睛在告訴我那裡有什麼，而是我的腦袋在詮釋眼睛所傳送的訊號。然而叫我著迷的是那些巧妙的藝術錯覺，好像在一幅圖畫展現兩種現實似的。我看見的圖畫取決於我的腦袋如何詮釋收到的訊號。這令我意識到，讓我的腦袋「轉台」以看到其他圖畫是多麼困難的事。

我們對福音的看法極大地影響我們的生活態度，我們重視的事物，以及我們與周邊世界的互動。我們一旦習慣了一種看法，就更難去欣賞別的現實。許多現代神學家正開始用新的方法看福音，與我們當中許多人習慣的傳統方式有不同的重點。這角度不只把福音看作一種個人信念，以及與上帝之間的靈性關係，而且更根本地看為上帝要讓世界與原初創造計劃回歸一致的宣言。這成為一種理解上帝國在我們週邊世界工作的方法，而不只是我們透過耶穌得到個人救贖的精彩故事。這成為一個宣言，就是上帝現在正透過耶穌的生命、死亡和復活，介入這世界，開展祂國度的工作，直至最終恢復萬物。這種角度視教會為一個對這世界預示新世界秩序的先知宣言，而不只是一個關乎社區和鼓勵信徒的地方。

神學家 Tom Wright 在他的著作 Surprised by Scripture 裡這樣說：

「四本正典福音的中心信息——以各自不同的方式——就是創造的上帝，以色列的上帝，最終要在拿撒勒人耶穌之內以及通過他，取回整個世界。」

又或者如 Lee C Camp 在 Scandalous Witness 說：

「藉著稱基督教為一種歷史詮釋而不是一個宗教，我們或許就能更好地理解它。對基督徒而言，釘十架的耶穌的復活是他們賭上生命的核心歷史主張：它迎來歷史的終結，維護基督的道路，並在這世界啟動新的政治可能性。」

Johannes Reimer 博士在他的書 Missio Politico 這樣談及教會使命：

「基督的教會是他在尚未與上帝復和的世界中 的 “ecclesia”（聚集），是他的祭司、忠僕，和先知的聲音。它的所有公開活動都是高度政治性的。但其中最政治性的表達就是它的存在——關乎一個在人類云云諸國中，屬於上帝國度的新社會。它是屬於上帝的另類社會空間。人類在其中看見一種不同的生活方式，一個新的未來，一個關乎由什麼主宰他們生活的積極選擇。」

要明白當這些作者使用「政治」一詞，他們不是在提倡基督教應作為一個參與政府運作的政治組織，而是單純強調福音並非僅僅是私人的個人信念，更關乎一個極具影響力的世界，某程度上與人類各方面交織，包括政治。以後在另一篇網誌再說......

在閱讀聖經時值得留意的是，有許多不同主題和想法聚集在耶穌的生命、死亡與復活中。它不只是一幅圖畫，而是像那些精彩的藝術畫般，我們要時不時調整我們的角度，才可看見那關乎上帝救贖世界計劃——把我們放在令人難以置信的歷史現實——的宏大敘事。