坎特伯雷大主教上海证道:行在“三位一体”真光中的团契(中英全文)

英国圣公会坎特伯雷大主教贾斯汀·韦尔比访华期间，于5月31日在上海沐恩堂证道。他在圣三一主日（复活节后第八个星期日）的证道解释“三位一体”，鼓励基督徒建立彼此相爱的团契见证基督，同时也批评了那些破坏团结和互相攻击的基督徒。

第105任英国圣公会坎特伯雷大主教贾斯汀·韦尔比日前正在进行为期十天对中国的访问。据大主教方面官方网站透露，贾斯汀·韦尔比将于6月5号结束此次他的首次访华。在那之前，他将到访北京、上海、南京。在北京他将与政府高层及北京宗教团体领袖见面会谈，并在北京大学就宗教与商业伦理进行一次演讲；在上海韦尔比会在沐恩堂证道，参观徐家汇天主教堂及玉佛寺，并到访外高桥的一个清洁发电厂；在南京，韦尔比将参观爱德基金会旗下的一个为孤独症儿童提供服务的儿童发展中心，并在南京金陵协和神学院就教会的领导力授课，他还会参观江苏省淮安市洪泽县的洪恩堂以及教堂的敬老院。

5月31日，正逢复活节后第八主日，即圣三一主日。韦尔比大主教在证道中批评了过生活不道德、破坏团结和互相攻击的基督徒。

韦尔比大主教证道的经文是彼得前书3:8-18。

Thank you so much for the invitation to speak here today. It is a great privilege to be among you.

首先对今天能够受邀来演讲表示非常感谢，这是一项殊荣。

On Trinity Sunday we are drawn into the presence of God by the Spirit through Jesus, sent by love of the Father. We are drawn inward in order to be sent out to give and bless and be the presence of Jesus. Trinity is community, perfect in love and acceptance and giving out, going out. We are to be like that in the church. 

在圣三主日，我们被圣灵带到上帝的面前，这是因着上帝的慈爱。我们被拣选是因为要蒙召去给予和祝福，并活出耶稣的馨香之气。三位一体有特殊的含义，在爱、接纳和给予、开放方面有着完美的体现。我们在教会中应该做到这样。

All true, but full of issues about how. How? Peter was writing to churches in what is now Turkey. He writes all about how to live a complicated life with households, with worries and pressures, and how to be the community that God wants us to be, because that community is mainly the means through which He loves us.

事实理应如此，但实践起来有太多的问题。如何实践？彼得给教会的信中所写的是关于如何在日常生活、烦恼和压力中成就生命，如何成就上帝喜悦的团契，因为上帝的爱主要通过这样的方式向我们显明。

So today's sermon is about community in the light of Trinity. That community of the church is above all called to witness and worship. We witness every day by what kind of people we are individually and as a community.

所以今天证道的主题是“行在三位一体真光中的团契”。这样的团契是超越一般的见证和敬拜的，因为我们每天都透过个人和团契来见证上帝。

In the New Testament the Greek word for witness and the word for martyr (as in someone who dies for their faith) are the same, ‘martyroi’.  As today in many places, for the church of the first centuries, to be a witness to Jesus Christ very often meant death. 

新约中“见证”和“殉道”的希腊文是同一个词。像今天在很多地方，第一世纪的教会的见证很多时候指的是殉道。

But the normality of Christian witness for most Christians in the world is the day-to-day experience of living our lives in ways that reveal to those around that we trust in Jesus Christ and seek to follow Him as His disciples.

但今天对大多数信徒来讲，我们要透过我们每天的行为向周围人见证我们信耶稣基督并且是寻求祂的真门徒。

Peter was very clear that the heart of witness lay not in aggressive shouting at people or any other form of manipulation or disruption, but in lives that were lived so clearly that people would ask why the Christian lived in such a way and that the Christian would “always be ready to give an explanation for the hope that is within you, but with gentleness and grace”.

彼得非常清楚，激烈地呼吁或是其他方式都不能让人们动容，只有透过我们的生命，人们才会询问，为什么基督徒是以这样的方式在生活，“有人问你们心中盼望的缘由，就要常作准备，以温柔、敬畏的心回答各人”（彼前3：15）。

What are the things that witness most clearly?

哪些事情能够作为清晰的见证？

In Peter’s letter it was a willingness to accept the hardships and challenges of life and still to trust in God as a church united in love for one another. Much of the letter is about the everyday life of ordinary people. It speaks of family relations, of how the household works, of judges who were sometimes fair and sometimes unfair; of ups and downs in life, the worries that most people face. 

在彼得书信中，彼得认为是在困境和艰难中依然坚定地信靠上帝，依然在爱里成就合一的教会。彼得的信中大部分都是关于日常生活的。他讲到家庭的关系，讲到家庭的维系，讲到公义，讲到生活中的顺境与逆境以及大多数人所面临的烦恼。

The letter begins with a chapter setting out the wonderful good news of Jesus Christ, and an explanation of the nature of the church. Peter tells them at the beginning that they have been given something extraordinary - salvation - and that they are a community which now is able to live differently from those around them, filled with hope and assurance of the love of Christ.

彼得在书信的头一章就告诉他们关于耶稣基督的神奇的好消息，并解释教会的特质。彼得在一开头就告诉他们，他们拥有一件非同寻常的东西——救恩，并且他们作为一个团契能够过上不同于世俗的生活，一种对于基督的爱充满盼望和确信的生活。

Peter accepts that life is unfair and opposition comes (verse 8). No life anywhere is without worries and concerns. 

彼得承认生活有时会遭遇不平和艰难。世上从没有毫无烦恼和麻烦的生活。

A friend of ours once commented about the struggles of children, that no one is ever happier than the least happy of their children. I am not sure that is completely true, but almost nothing has us awake at night like a child in trouble. The same applies to elderly relatives, and the desire we all have to ensure that they are treated with dignity and respect (3:1-7) and that we are as we grow older.

一个朋友曾提到孩子之间的争闹，说我们没有谁像他们那样开心，他们之中最不开心的都比我们开心。我不确定这种说法是不是全对，但没有什么事情能够让我们在午夜醒来，像一个陷入困境的孩子一般。老年人也是如此，我们希望他们能够受到尊重，并希望我们老了也能受到如此待遇。

All of us face one or both of these questions. Yet how will we be able to know the peace of God in the midst of all these pressures?

我们都面临这样的问题。然而身处这些压力中时，我们如何能够进入上帝的安息呢？

We begin by recognizing that what God has already given us in the salvation Jesus has won for us is infinitely precious, and the God who gives such things will not then turn and betray us. And secondly, that we are a community of faith, not solitary Christians.

首先，我们要意识到，上帝透过耶稣的救赎赐予我们的是无限宝贵的，而赐予我们这丰盛恩典的上帝是不会改变的，也不会背弃我们。其次，我们因着信仰成为合一的团体，而非孤立的个体。

The community of the Trinity is the pattern for the community of the church. There are two movements therefore. We are drawn into the presence of God in prayer and worship and thanksgiving, and through the church we are sent out from our own concerns to share our burdens and support each other. 

三位一体的团契是教会的榜样。有两样事情让我们进到上帝的爱里，一个是我们的祷告、敬拜和感恩，一个是通过这样互担重担和相互支持的团契。

Prayer is not a psychological trick to make us feel better; in prayer God reshapes our wills to fit what He wants and enables us to find peace.

祷告不是给人好感觉的心理诡计。上帝在祷告中重塑我们的意志以适应祂的旨意，并让我们内心平安。

I pray every day for our children, and grand-children. They have many joys and many sorrows, but even in sorrow God has showed He stands with us.

我每天都在为我的孩子、孩子们的孩子祷告。他们有很多欢乐也有很多悲伤。但即便在悲伤中，上帝也与我们在一起。

In our lives as a family we have known very deep trauma in the family, yet even then we were sustained by the presence of God through the Holy Spirit and by the love of God mediated through the church - the community of God.

作为一个家庭，我们生命中也有很深的创伤。然而通过圣灵在教会——神的家——显示的上帝恒久的爱，我们被激励，我们得以持续。

Another area of pressure is work. One of the things that strikes me about China is how hard people work and the pressure they are under. Pressure includes the pressure from within us to succeed.

压力来源的另一领域是工作。中国人承受压力并努力工作，让我尤其印象深刻。压力包括让我们成功的压力。

St Augustine, one the greatest of the teachers of the church, living in the fourth and fifth centuries, wrote of the time before he was converted to Christ when he saw a beggar happy because the beggar had a full stomach. And Augustine envied him because although he himself was wealthy, he was never at peace because of the ambition within him.  

圣奥古斯丁是生活于第四、五世纪的伟大神学家。在皈依基督教并投身于护教之前，奥古斯丁有一次看见一个乞丐因为吃饱而高兴，就很羡慕他，因为奥古斯丁虽然很富有，却因为内在的野心而从未享受过平安。

Ambition is good, but it can become an idol that pushes Christ from our lives. Our worship is only Christ. Worship is what enables pressure from within and without to be managed. In praise and thanksgiving we realize again the unchangeable love that God has for us - God's sufficiency.

雄心壮志是好的，但它也可能会取代基督成为偶像。我们敬拜的只能是基督。崇拜可以使我们管理里里外外的压力。在赞美感恩中，我们重新认识上帝对我们永恒不变的爱。

Pressure also comes from things not in the family (where we have influence), or from within us, but additionally from the great issues of the day, or things that happen to us, from issues of health to great issues like the environment.

压力同样也来自家庭（对我们都有影响）的事务，或来自我们里面，或来自这个时代的重大问题，或者是发生我们身上的事，或者是环境等带来的健康问题。

The church is the gift of God that enables us to sustain the burden.

教会是上帝的礼物，使我们能承受重担。

A friend of mine in Africa found his part of the country enveloped in war. Almost two million refugees flowed into the area. When I asked him how he coped, he said, "We did what God enabled us to do". It was "we" did, not just I. It was a witness of compassion for those who suffer (Matthew 25) and for the world God made, by the church together.

我有一位非洲朋友，他的国家部分被战争笼罩。近两百万难民涌入他所在的那一区域。我问他是如何成功应对的，他说，“我们能做，是上帝让我们能做。”他说的是“我们”，不是“我”。这是教会之间彼此联合、怜悯受难之人的见证。

The church is a source of compassion and strength, one that we often forget.

教会是同情和力量的源头，我们却经常忘记。

All this brings us to the heart of witness that is the Christian community, living faithfully to Christ in the normal pressures of life as a blessing to its society in obedience to the leaders of that society, so as to enable the church to live in peace and to demonstrate to the world the reality of Jesus Christ.

这一切给我们看到，基督徒团体，在压力下忠实于基督，顺服于当地社会领袖，并成为所在社会的祝福。这也使得教会生活在和平中，并向世界展示耶稣基督的真实。

Witness always includes words, but it starts with actions because it is those that people around us understand most clearly.

言语是见证的一部分，但见证通常开始于行动，因为行动最容易让周围的人理解。

If people could be made Christians through argument alone, God would not have sent His Son, but a philosopher. If people could be persuaded to be good Christians by force, He would have sent a soldier. If people could be manipulated and tricked into being good Christians or bribed into being good Christians, He would have sent some kind of crooked person who was good at trickery. 

如果仅通过争辩就可以让人变成基督徒，上帝就不会差派他的儿了，祂也许应差派一个哲学家来。如果能用武力说服人们变成基督徒，上帝就应该差派一个士兵。如果能操纵和欺骗，让人们成为善良的基督徒，或者是通过贿赂，上帝就应该差派深谙欺骗诡计之人人。

But God did not do any of those things. Our loving Heavenly Father “so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that all who believed in Him should not perish but have eternal life” and he left a community of ordinary people like us, filled with the Holy Spirit, who exists to witness to the truth of Jesus.

但上帝没有做那样的事。我们慈爱的天父“爱世人，甚至将祂的独生子赐给他们，叫一切信祂的，不至灭亡，反得永生”。祂也留下了一个像我们一样普通人组成的群体，这是一群圣灵充满的人，见证耶稣基督的真理。

The community of the Trinity is lived out in the sight of the world by the community of the church.

在世界的眼光下，基督的三位一体，由真理的教会活出来。

Which is why at the end of the reading is the call "always to be ready to give an explanation of the hope that is within" us, but gently and respectfully.

这就是为什么使徒说“有人问你们心中盼望的缘由，就要常作准备，以温柔敬畏的心回答各人”。

Are we each able to explain why we are Christians? If someone asks do we know what to say? Practice with a Christian friend. Know what you need to say that is respectful, gracious and answers only what someone asks. 

你能够解释为什么你是基督徒吗？如果有人问你，你知道怎么回答吗？跟一个基督徒朋友彼此练习一下。一旦有人问起的时候，你才能知道该如何尊重及亲切地回答。

A British theologian called Lesley Newbiggin describes the church as the interpreter of the gospel. The challenge is that we are to be community that is both such a blessing to its society and so different from all other communities that when people look at it they see the reality of God.

英国一位神学家Lesley将教会比作福音的翻译者。这位翻译者面临的挑战是，一方面要我们成为社会的祝福，一方面又与周围的社区格格不入，当人们看我们的时候，他们看到的是上帝的真实。

Christians who behave badly individually or as a community - by immorality, disunity, mutual attack and so forth - witness to people that God is bad. Christians who live with all the pressures of life and yet show that in Christ they find peace and hope give a witness to His truth and love.

我们的行为——不论是基督徒个人，还是基督徒群体——如有道德败坏、不团结、相互攻击等坏行为，对非基督徒来说就相当于在见证上帝是坏的。而如果在所有的压力下依然活出在基督里的和平与希望，这就是在向人们见证上帝的真理和爱。

Christian witness is based in churches that reach as a blessing into society and demonstrate that they have the peace of God. They are good, outward-looking and functional communities.

基督徒的见证是基于祝福社会的教会，也会显示出他们有来自上帝的平安。他们是好的、开放的、运作良好的群体。

Where there are Christians, people should know that the hungry will be fed, those who are hurting will be healed, those who are lonely will be loved, those who are in despair will be brought hope, those who are disruptive will be taught to do the right thing and to love their country and society.

哪里有基督徒，那里的人们就可以知道，饥饿者会得食，受伤者将得医治，孤独者将被安慰，绝望的人将重新有希望，那些人生曾经无望的人可以重新学习做正确的事、爱社会与国家。

To live with Christians in such a community is also how we find freedom from the pressures and worries of all our lives.

与这样的基督徒群体共享同一片蓝天，也可以使人们在所有的压力与忧虑中找到自由。

In such a community the life of the Trinity is made visible, and in such a community we find our sure defense against all that life can throw at us.

在这样一个社群里，“三位一体”是可见的；在这样的社群中，人们找到确据，能够面对生活中突如其来的每一个挑战。