教会，一个新的家庭
在今天的故事中，嫁入拿俄米的家的路得，承诺要留在拿俄米身旁，并且要像拿俄米的族人那样敬拜神。在路得记的结尾，我们看到拿俄米得了一个孙子，是路得和一位名叫波阿斯的至近亲属所生的，波阿斯娶了寡妇路得，又接纳她的婆婆加入他的家庭（路得记4）。神赐一个大家庭给拿俄米，她家族的希望因此得以重燃。
在一个有很多来自外地的人的教会中，我也有类似的经历，来自很多不同地方的人，彼此成为一个大家庭。我特别记得一位名叫嘉露的女士，她自己虽没有孙儿女，但她像祖母那样对待我的儿女。
教会其中一个作用，是要重新塑造我们对家庭的看法；成为教会这个大家庭的成员，表示我们接受那些与我们没有血缘的人，我们的关系乃是建立在耶稣的宝血上的。
初代教会很快便成为一个彼此依赖的群体，他们甚至以弟兄姊妹相称。
教会的大家庭时常都要面对一个挑战，就是要明白我们的关系是基于我们与神的关系，是神呼召我们成为一个大家庭的。
父神啊，我们是祢的儿女，求祢帮助我们，让我们有彼此相爱和因信以弟兄姊妹相称的教会大家庭，当我们没有这样行时，求你赦免。奉我们至圣的弟兄耶稣的名祈求，阿们。
路得记 1:6-18
6 她就与两个儿妇起身，要从摩押地归回，因为她在摩押地听见耶和华眷顾自己的百姓，赐粮食于他们。
7 于是她和两个儿妇起行离开所住的地方，要回犹大地去。
8 拿俄米对两个儿妇说：“你们各人回娘家去吧！愿耶和华恩待你们，像你们恩待已死的人与我一样。
9 愿耶和华使你们各在新夫家中得平安。”于是拿俄米与她们亲嘴，她们就放声而哭，
10 说：“不然，我们必与你一同回你本国去。”
11 拿俄米说：“我女儿们哪，回去吧！为何要跟我去呢？我还能生子做你们的丈夫吗？
12 我女儿们哪，回去吧！我年纪老迈，不能再有丈夫。即或说我还有指望，今夜有丈夫可以生子，
13 你们岂能等着他们长大呢？你们岂能等着他们不嫁别人呢？我女儿们哪，不要这样！我为你们的缘故，甚是愁苦，因为耶和华伸手攻击我。”
14 两个儿妇又放声而哭，俄珥巴与婆婆亲嘴而别，只是路得舍不得拿俄米。
15 拿俄米说：“看哪，你嫂子已经回她本国和她所拜的神那里去了，你也跟着你嫂子回去吧！”
16 路得说：“不要催我回去不跟随你！你往哪里去，我也往哪里去；你在哪里住宿，我也在哪里住宿。你的国就是我的国，你的神就是我的神。
17 你在哪里死，我也在哪里死，也葬在那里。除非死能使你我相离，不然，愿耶和华重重地降罚于我！”
18 拿俄米见路得定意要跟随自己去，就不再劝她了。
Church: A New Family
“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” — Ruth 1:16
In our story for today, Ruth, who married into Naomi’s family, pledges to remain with Naomi and to join with her people and worship God. At the end of the book of Ruth, we find Naomi with a grandchild, born to Ruth and a kinsman-redeemer named Boaz, who has married the widow Ruth and taken her mother-in-law Naomi into his household (Ruth 4). Hope is restored to this family through God’s provision of extended family members who show his love to one another.
I experienced something like that in a church full of transplants. People from many places became a large extended family to one another. I especially remember a woman named Carol who had no grandchildren but became a grandmother to my own children.
One purpose of the church is to reshape our understanding of family. Being part of a church family means including people who are not related by blood—except for the blood of Jesus.
The early church quickly became a community in which people relied on one another and even called each other brothers and sisters.
One of the ongoing challenges of being a church family is to understand that our relationships are to be shaped by our relationship with God. God is making us into a family.
Father God, help us, your children, to have church families in which we love each other as brothers and sisters in faith. Forgive us when we do not act that way. In the name of our Brother, Jesus, Amen.
诵读: 楚云
片头: 张妙阳
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