你最不想在天堂遇到的五種人

有機會再來翻譯聖馬田講會的主日講章，這次主講者是Sam Wells，也是我相當喜歡的神學家，有豐富的著作。雖然是幾個禮拜前的講章，但內容很精彩。 

The Five People You Don’t Want to Meet in Heaven

你最不想在天堂遇到的五種人

A sermon preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields on December 7, 2025 by Revd Dr Sam Wells

Reading for address: Romans 15: 4-13

We’re experiencing a time when, whatever our personal circumstances and trajectory, we share a sense that society seems divided: we’re amid people with whom we profoundly disagree, in nation, church and world, and it seems it’s only getting worse. I want today to explore how we might embody the way of Christ amid polarisation and the frenzy of public dispute. In 1915 the physiologist Walter Cannon coined the term ‘fight or flight’ to describe how a zebra, tracked down by a lion, would either scram or try to defend itself. Later researchers added the term ‘freeze’ to describe the paralysis of indecision. It’s not hard to recognise these three responses in our experience of the current climate.

我們正經歷著這樣一個時代：無論個人境遇和人生軌跡如何，我們都感受到社會似乎在分裂：我們身處一個與我們觀點截然不同的群體之中，無論是在國家、教會還是世界層面，而且這種情況似乎還在不斷惡化。今天，我想探討在兩極化和公眾爭論的狂熱之中，我們如何實踐基督之道。 1915年，生理學家沃爾特·坎農創造了「戰鬥或逃跑」一詞，用來描述斑馬被獅子追踪時會如何反應，倉皇逃竄或試著抵抗。後來的研究者又加入了「凍結」一詞，用來描述猶豫不決導致的癱瘓狀態。在現今的社會氛圍中，我們不難發現這三種反應的影子。

Freeze is the sense of feeling powerless, bewildered by rules that you’ve never known broken before and assumptions jeopardised that you’d never previously questioned. In some ways the current international scene is like covid, in that we’ve never known anything like it and don’t know how long it’s going to go on or how many years it’ll take to repair the damage, if indeed the damage is repairable. Freeze isn’t a medium or long-term option, and like the zebra, we might find we’ve been eaten up by then.

「凍結」是一種無力感，一種對從未經歷過的規則被打破、對從未質疑過的假設被動搖的困惑。在某些方面，當前的國際局勢與新冠疫情類似，我們從未經歷過這樣的事情，也不知道它會持續多久，也不知道需要多少年才能修復造成的損害——如果這種損害真的可以修復的話。 「凍結」並非中長期之計，就像斑馬一樣，到那時我們或許會發現自己已經被吞噬殆盡。

Flight involves attempting to screen out anything relating to antagonism, extremism, general political craziness or horror. It means avoiding the news, and sticking to comfort food media, or at least only engaging with curated content that affirms our own view of the world. It’s a counsel of despair that says, ‘The best thing I can do is sit this one out.’ Which isn’t much support to those who don’t have that option.

逃避意味著試圖封鎖一切與敵對、極端主義、普遍的政治瘋狂或恐怖相關的訊息。這意味著避開新聞，只專注於那些能帶來慰藉的媒體內容，或至少只接觸那些符合我們自身世界觀的精選內容。這是一種絕望的勸告，彷彿在說：「我能做的最好的事情就是置身事外。」 而對於那些別無選擇的人來說，這根本無濟於事。

Fight can be ideological or practical. The ideological fighter piles into the public forum, whether a campus debate, a social media platform, or an institutional arena, and seek to win a verbal battle through force of rhetoric and unassailable argument. It can lead to a lot of heat but not often a great deal of light. The practical fighter joins active forms of resistance, legal or illegal, whether directed at specific outcomes or as ventilation for exasperated fury. These can be brave and admirable, but the reaction they can sometimes provoke can be brutal and long-lasting.

戰鬥可以是意識形態上的，​​也可以是實際的。意識形態上的鬥士湧入公共論壇，無論是校園辯論、社群媒體平台或機構場所，都試圖憑藉雄辯的口才和無可辯駁的論點贏得辯論。這種做法可能會引發激烈的爭論，但往往難以帶來實質的啟發。而實際的鬥士則會積極參與各種形式的抵抗，無論合法與否，其目的可能是為了達成特定目標，也可能只是為了宣洩心中的憤怒。這些行動或許勇敢而令人欽佩，但它們有時也會引發殘酷而持久的反噬作用。

For all these reasons it may be that in the current crisis we find ourselves looking for reactions that go beyond the fight-flight-freeze triad. Before exploring some of these, I want to look at one of the most significant passages in the New Testament that relates to living with profound difference. When we think about why Jesus came, we assume it was to remove barriers between us and God, to model what it means to walk with God and humankind, and to open the way to heaven. But in Romans 15, Paul’s concerned with something else entirely. Today’s epistle is impenetrable unless you appreciate the following logic. God called Abraham, promising the Holy Land to his descendants, through whom God would offer a blessing to all nations. It seemed in the exile Israel had lost this blessing, but the return 50 years later showed God’s promises are irrevocable. Nonetheless God’s ultimate purpose was to bring gentiles into the embrace of those promises. So Jesus is a Jew, fulfilling God’s promise to Israel, but he draws the gentiles into the blessing. Thus the convergence of Jew and gentile are the fulfilment of Jesus’ ministry. This matters to Paul not just because he himself is a Jew, but fundamentally because, if we think God’s promise to Israel isn’t permanent, we have no reason to trust any of God’s other promises.

正因如此，在當前的危機中，我們或許會尋求超越「戰鬥-逃跑-僵住」這三種反應模式之外的應對方式。在探討這些因應方式之前，我想先看看新約中一段與深刻差異相關的、意義重大的經文。當我們思考耶穌降世的目的時，我們通常會認為祂是為了消除我們與上帝之間的隔閡，為我們如何與上帝和人類同行樹立榜樣，並開闢通往天堂的道路。但在羅馬書15章中，保羅關注的卻是完全不同的另一件事。除非你理解以下邏輯，否則今天的書信將難以理解。上帝呼召亞伯拉罕，應許將聖地賜給祂的後裔，並藉著他們賜福給萬國。以色列在被擄期間似乎失去了這份祝福，但50年後的回歸顯示上帝的應許是不可改變的。然而，上帝的最終目的是要將外邦人也納入這些應許的懷抱中。因此，耶穌是猶太人，他實現了上帝對以色列的應許，但他同時也將外邦人帶入了祝福之中。因此，猶太人和外邦人的融合正是耶穌事工的實現。這對保羅來說意義重大，不僅因為他自己是猶太人，更重要的是，如果我們認為上帝對以色列的應許並非永恆不變，我們就沒有理由相信上帝的其他任何應許。

So Jesus isn’t just about reconciling us to God, he’s just as much about reconciling us to one another; and in the New Testament, the form that takes is the forming of one people out of Jew and gentile. Today our imaginations aren’t about a first-century world with a Holy Land populated by 2.5 million Jews in a Roman Empire of 50 million, but about a population of 15 million Jews in a global population of 8 billion. So while the crisis in Gaza still rings in our hearts and heads, the more general question is, what does Jesus mean for our reconciliation with all people. The point is not trying to work out who if any we don’t need to be reconciled with, but how Jesus bids us interact with all people, especially the ones from whom we find ourselves most profoundly alienated.

因此，耶穌不只要使我們與上帝和好，也要使我們彼此和好；在新約中，這種和好體現在猶太人和外邦人合而為一。如今，我們想像中的世界不再是公元一世紀，羅馬帝國擁有五千萬人口，其中聖地居住著兩百五十萬猶太人；而是全球八十億人口中，猶太人只有一千五百萬。因此，儘管加薩危機依然縈繞在我們心頭，但更普遍的問題是：耶穌對我們與所有人的和好意味著什麼？關鍵不在於我們是否需要與某些人和好，而是耶穌教導我們如何與所有人相處，尤其是那些我們感到最疏離的人。

So as we seek to relate to those with whom we profoundly disagree, we recognise both that any progress we make rests on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but also that what we’re seeking to do is to embody the purpose of Jesus. So even if we fail, we’re embarked on a worthy cause. Here are five ways we can be moved by Paul’s words to the Romans to engage in our current crisis with the people we least want to see in heaven.

因此，當我們試圖與那些與我們意見相左的人建立聯繫時，我們既要認識到，我們取得的任何進展都依賴於聖靈的感動，也要認識到，我們所做的一切都是為了體現耶穌的旨意。所以，即使我們失敗了，我們也踏上了一條值得追求的道路。以下五種方法可以激勵我們，讓我們從保羅寫給羅馬人的話語中汲取力量，從而在當前的危機中，與我們最不願意在天堂裡見到的人建立聯繫。

Number one, seek to understand. The celebrated community organiser Michael Gecan tried a novel thing. He went to the heartlands of America to meet, understand and build relationships with the people who voted for a party and a leader to who he himself had an allergic reaction. His surprise was they told him, ‘You’re the first person who’s come and listened to us. We know everyone thinks we’re deplorable. But no one actually wants to find out what we really think and why we vote the way we do.’ When Michael Ignatieff was asked here after his autumn lecture in October what he’d got wrong as leader of the Liberal Party in Canada in its catastrophic 2011 electoral defeat, I was moved by the humility of his answer. He said, ‘I didn’t understand half the voters we wanted to support us. I just didn’t come from their background and hadn’t experienced what they’d experienced.’ Remember Jesus: he spent 30 years in Nazareth seeking to understand the people of Israel before calling them to renewal. I wonder what it might mean for us to seek to understand.

第一，要努力理解。著名的社區組織者邁克爾·格坎嘗試了一種新穎的做法。他前往美國腹地，與那些投票支持他自己都反感的政黨和領導人的人們見面、了解他們，並與他們建立聯繫。令他驚訝的是，他們告訴他：「你是第一個來傾聽我們心聲的人。我們知道每個人都覺得我們很糟糕。但沒有人真正想了解我們內心真實的想法，以及我們為什麼會這樣投票。」10月，邁克爾·伊格納季耶夫在秋季講座結束後，他作為加拿大自由黨領袖，他在2011年選中他慘敗的原因是什麼了。他說：「我並不了解我們想要爭取支持的一半選民。我沒有他們的背景，也沒有經歷過他們所經歷的一切。」 想想耶穌，他在拿撒勒待了30年，努力了解以色列人民，然後才呼召他們復興。我想知道，對我們而言，尋求理解究竟意味著什麼。

Number two, find points of convergence. Few people feel able to engage with the best possible interpretation of their opponents’ arguments or actions; and fewer still can disentangle the positive features of their adversary’s programme and celebrate them. On September 13, Erika Kirk spoke in Phoenix, Arizona at the memorial service for Charlie and said of her husband’s assassin, ‘I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did. … The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.’ Surely those remarkable words are ones everyone across political divides, especially Christians, can admire and cherish. Finding points of convergence means demonstrating that hostility is towards ideas and actions not towards individuals and certainly not towards people who show dignity, courage, and extraordinary forbearance. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive.’ Turns out that’s a point of convergence.

第二，找出共同點。很少人能夠以最佳方式解讀對手的論點或行為；更少人能夠釐清對手綱領中的正面因素並加以讚揚。 9月13日，埃里卡·柯克在亞利桑那州鳳凰城舉行的查理追悼會上發表講話，談到刺殺她丈夫的兇手時，她說：「我原諒他。我原諒他，因為基督也這樣做了……仇恨的答案不是仇恨。我們從福音中得知，答案是愛，永遠的愛，愛我們的敵人，愛那些迫害我們的人。」尋找共同點意味著表明，敵意針對的是思想和行為，而不是針對個人，更不是針對那些展現尊嚴、勇氣和非凡忍耐力的人。耶穌說：「父啊，赦免我。」事實證明，這就是一個共同點。

Number three, find a way to stay in the conversation, even if only as an observer. Paul starts by twice referring to steadfastness and encouragement. I recall a moment when I was a child at home one evening. My father was out at a meeting, and I was home alone with my mother. A group of people came to the door, and I quickly saw my mother was agitated. I never knew the whole story, but it was clear they wanted a lot of money, and my mother didn’t trust them. It wasn’t clear if they were asking out of need or threatening out of power, or a bit of both. My mother made some calls to try to track my father down, and maybe some police as well. She asked me to sit in the lounge with them. I knew it was one of the hardest things, aged 8, I’d ever been asked to do. I must have sat in silence with them for half an hour. Looking back, I was being asked to be an observer. If they’d tried to steal anything I’d have seen them, and if they’d started to cause damage, they’d have had to do it in front of me. Eventually my memory is that my father returned with some other men, and said a few things, amounting to, ‘I think you need to leave.’ And later that evening my parents were so appreciative of me I even got to drink a bottle of coca cola, which is doubtless why I still remember it. But I think what was happening was my parents couldn’t stop something bad happening, but they could ensure we were watching so we could testify and remember later. Where there are bad things happening today, we can do the same. That’s what we’ll be doing later this morning by joining Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign.

第三，想辦法留在對話中，即使只是作為旁觀者。保羅開頭兩次提到堅定和鼓勵。我記得小時候的一個晚上，父親外出開會，我和母親獨自在家。一群人來到門口，我很快發現母親情緒激動。我並不了解事情的全貌，但很明顯他們想要很多錢，而母親並不信任他們。我不確定他們是出於需要還是權力威脅，或許兩者兼具。母親打了幾通電話試圖找到父親，可能也報了警。她讓我和他們一起坐在客廳裡。我知道，對於一個八歲的孩子來說，這是我做過的最困難的事情之一。我大概和他們默默地坐了半小時。現在回想起來，我當時是被要求做一個旁觀者。如果他們試圖偷東西，我一定會看到；如果他們開始破壞，也只能當著我的面。我記得，後來父親帶著幾個人回來了，說了幾句話，大概就是「我覺得你該走了」。那天晚上晚些時候，父母非常感激我，甚至讓我喝了一瓶可樂，這無疑是我至今還記得這件事的原因。但我認為，當時的情況是，父母無法阻止壞事發生，但他們可以確保我們時刻關注，以便日後作證並記住這一切。今天，如果發生不好的事情，我們也可以這樣做。今天上午晚些時候，我們將加入國際特赦組織的「為人權而寫」運動，正是這樣做的。

Number four, find a way to retain a sense of everyone’s created humanity. Paul shows how God finds a place for the gentiles. In a celebrated radio address, Leonard Wilson, Bishop of Singapore, spoke of being flogged by Japanese guards during the second world war. He said, ‘Their faces were hard and cruel, and some… were evidently enjoying their cruelty.’ But then he had a vision of them as they had been. ‘Once they were little children with their brothers and sisters – happy in their parents’ love in those far-off days before they’d been conditioned by their false nationalist ideals. And it’s hard to hate little children.’ Leonard Wilson shows us a way to look upon even our most determined enemies with kindness and thus avoid being consumed by hatred.

第四，要找到方法，保留每個人與生俱來的人性。保羅向我們展示了上帝如何接納外邦人。新加坡主教倫納德·威爾遜在一次著名的廣播演講中，講述了二戰期間他被日本守衛鞭打的經歷。他說：「他們的面容冷酷無情，有些人…顯然很享受這種殘暴。」但隨後，他看到了他們曾經的模樣。 「他們也曾是和兄弟姐妹一起玩耍的孩童——在遙遠的過去，在被虛假的民族主義思想所塑造之前，他們曾沉浸在父母的愛中。很難憎恨孩童。」倫納德·威爾遜向我們展示瞭如何以善意看待我們最堅定的敵人，從而避免被仇恨吞噬。

Number five, never lose hope. Hope means the Holy Spirit will find a way to weave all the stray and discordant notes back into the melody. Beyond time, we’ll be together with the people we rallied against and the people we ridiculed or said discriminatory things about, those we ignored or quietly thought the worst of; and we’ll realise we all needed each other to enter God’s realm. We’ll behold the Father looking with intense fondness, love and longing towards each and every one of us – including them. So our way to live God’s future now is to ensure heaven isn’t a crushing disappointment. Living hopefully means finding a way to live with the people we find it hardest to imagine being with in heaven.

第五，永遠不要失去希望。希望意味著聖靈會找到方法，將所有偏離正軌、不和諧的音符重新編織進旋律之中。超越時間，我們將與那些我們曾反對的人、那些我們曾嘲笑或歧視的人、那些我們曾忽視或暗自揣測的人重聚；我們將意識到，我們都需要彼此才能進入上帝的國度。我們將看到天父滿懷深情、慈愛和渴望地註視著我們每一個人——包括他們。因此，我們現在活出上帝國未來的方式，就是確保天堂不會讓我們感到無比失望。懷著希望生活意味著找到一種方法，與我們最難以想像能在天堂裡相聚的人一起生活。

There’s a popular phrase, ‘This too will pass.’ Many trace it back to medieval Sufi poetry in Persia; although something like it pops up in a speech of Abraham Lincoln. But you can trace it back to Paul in Romans 15. Three times Paul refers to hope. ‘In Jesus the gentiles shall hope,’ he says, quoting Isaiah. ‘May the God of hope give you all joy and peace in believing,’ he prays. ‘May you abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,’ he concludes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The conflicts we face today are serious and troubling. But they’re not bigger, wider or longer than Jesus, and they too will pass. We’re not zebras. Fight-flight-freeze are not our only options. We show our faith not by destroying those with whom we profoundly disagree, or by running away, but by following Jesus’ way of love. He sought to understand. He found points of convergence. He stayed in the conversation. He recognised our created humanity. And he told a bigger story, one of hope not hate, faith not fear, love not lies. Do not be afraid, say the angels of Advent. I am with you always, says Jesus. Perhaps most pertinently, says Mother Julian: ‘He said not “You shall not be tempested, you shall not be travailed, you shalt not be dis-eased”; but he said, “You shalt not be overcome.”’

有一句流行語：「一切都會過去。」許多人認為它源自波斯中世紀的蘇菲詩歌；雖然亞伯拉罕·林肯的演講中也出現過類似的說法。但你也可以追溯到保羅在《羅馬書》第十五章的論述。保羅三次提到盼望。他引用以賽亞書說：「外邦人必因耶穌得盼望。」他禱告說：「願賜盼望的上帝，因你們的信把各樣的喜樂、平安充滿你們的心，使你們藉着聖靈的能力大有盼望！」他總結道：「願你們藉著聖靈的能力，大有盼望。」耶穌基督昨日、今日、直到永遠，都是一樣的。我們今天所面臨的衝突是嚴峻而令人不安的。但它們並不比耶穌更大、更廣泛、更持久，而且它們也終將過去。我們不是斑馬。戰鬥、逃跑、僵住並非我們唯一的選擇。我們展現信仰的方式不是摧毀那些與我們意見相左的人，也不是逃避，而是效法耶穌愛的道路。他尋求理解、他尋找共識。他始終參與對話。他認出了我們被造的人性。他講述了一個更宏大的故事，一個充滿希望而非仇恨、充滿信仰而非恐懼、充滿愛而非謊言的故事。待降節的天使們說：「不要害怕。」耶穌說：「我永遠與你們同在。」朱利安修女說，或許最貼切的一點是：「他沒有說『你們不會遭遇風暴，你們不會經歷痛苦，你們不會生病』，而是說『你們不會被打倒』＊。」

＊這句話出自十四世紀神秘主義的朱利安修女，強調雖然苦難、風暴、麻煩和艱難不可避免，但上帝應許的是最終的勝利，而不是沒有痛苦的生活，這意味著我們應該從上帝那裡找到力量去忍受，而不是被邪惡打倒，或屈服於絕望之中。