Mary and the Gardener 瑪麗亞與園丁 -- we are blessed to witness the one-of-a-kind Easter Is it over yet? 我們有幸遇到空前的復活節。過了嗎？

[Anthony Su]

It is worth reviewing the once-in-history Easter worship service over-and-over. 值得重複品味這個破天荒的復活節禮拜。

• we are blessed to witness the one-of-a-kind Easter Is it over yet? 我們有幸遇到空前的復活節。過了嗎？
  
  
• The majority of us are fortunate enough to miss the miserable World War II and living in prosperity witnessing many new things in our lives. Is the ongoing pandemic harder than the WWII? 我們當中大部分的人有幸沒趕上第二次世界大戰的悲慘日子，並且見證了許多新的事物，跟全世界的繁榮。這次的溫亦大過第二次大戰嗎？
  
  
• Is Easter a one-day event? How big a day was it? How big an Easter day was it this year? 復活節是一天的事情嗎？那天是多大的日子呢？今年的復活節是多大的日子呢？
  
  
•  A woman went into the cemetery alone before sunrise, that day. How many of us have the courage to do that? She rushed to tell others what she saw. Two disciples rushed from their hiding place to verify what they heard. How many things are we expected to learn from what Jesus did to His followers that day? There is at lest one explicit command, "Go and tell”. 那天，有一位婦女獨自在天亮之前走進墓地。我們當中有多少人有那樣的勇氣作出同樣的事情？她跑去傳報所看見的情。兩位耶穌的門徒衝去驗證所聽到有關墳墓的話。當天耶穌對他的跟隨者所作的事情顯示祂要我們學習到什麼功課呢？至少有一個明講的指示：「去講出來」。

Here is a section of the sermon toward the end.

We 21st Century Christians sometimes have a faith that is very abstract and intellectual. At confirmation we say, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and I accept him as my personal savior and Lord. We think of our faith as a set of beliefs we hold on to even if they don’t seem plausible. But Mary’s faith is the one we are offered.  We are offered, not a set of ideas, but a relationship with the living Christ, who is the Alpha and Omega of history and yet is close and personal enough for us to want a hug. 

Like Mary, we long to be close to Jesus, to be known and seen by Jesus as the object of love in return. We want to be known and loved in all our unique and particular aspects.  And we want to know him so well that we could recognize him in the semi-darkness just by his posture and gait, and know his voice by its particular pitch and timbre. We want to experience the risen Christ for ourselves. We are challenged by the story of Mary and the Gardener to keep searching until we find him. 

這是講道內容接近尾聲的一段。

21世紀的基督徒，有時我們的信仰會非常抽象和理智）我們會說，我信耶穌是基督，是神的兒子，我接受他是我的救主（在講出信仰告白時，我們會說，「我信耶穌是基督，是真活上帝的兒子，我接受他是我個人的拯救者跟我的主。」）我們認為信仰是一套信念，即使它們看起來似乎不合理。

但我們在這裡讀到的是「馬利亞的信仰」我們讀到的不是一套想法，而是與永生基督的關係。基督既是歷史的起頭，兼最後的終結者，卻又跟我們親近到令人想要擁抱一下。我們像馬利亞一樣地渴望親近耶穌、被耶穌看到、並且成為祂所疼愛的對象。我們要透過一個獨特的方式被祂認識、被祂關愛。

我們也想要非常了解祂，甚至可以僅憑舉手投足跟聲調韻味就能在昏暗的光線下認出祂。我們想要親自經歷復活的基督。馬利亞和園丁的故事挑戰我們要持續尋找，不斷禱告，直到我們找到祂。