提要
你會不會對牧師感到厭倦﹖我會，而我正是一個牧師！我常常試著分析這種厭倦感，我想我至少找出了一個原因：我們作牧師的常常強調一些眾所周知的事。我們的講道一再繞著「應該如何如何」、「要如何」打轉，好像我們和會眾的關係是親子關係。反之，一個單單傳講聖經，讓聖經為自己發言，並提供實際應用的牧師就格外吸引我的注意了。
但，另有一位使者值得我們注意，那就是大自然本身：在我們周圍的世界。
保羅說我們可以從樹木、天空、洋海、山嶺領受信息。大自然不會以「應該」、「要」等字眼攻擊我們，大自然只有力的述說它的創造者。它不只呼喊：「上帝存在！」，它還告訴我們上帝是怎麼樣的上帝。上帝那「看不見的屬性」和祂的「永能和神性」彰顯在祂所造的萬物中。我們只需要用耳朵去聽、用眼睛去看、用心去想。
牧師可能還有另一項缺點──我們常是先替我們的會友思考好，而不是鼓勵他們自己去思考。大自然則是最大的思想激發者：它使你思想上帝的事。
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Overview
Do not ever get tired of preachers? I do, and I’m a preacher! I’ve often tried to analyze this fatigue, and I think I’ve hit on at least one thing about us preachers that makes me tired: we so often hammer away on the obvious. Our sermons are time and again framed around “shoulds”, “coulds”, and scoldings – as though we had a parent-child relationship with our congregations. On the other hand, a preacher who simply preaches the Bible, letting it speak for itself, and then making practical application, is someone who had my attention.
But there’s another messenger who should have our attention. It’s creation itself: the world around us.
Paul says we can hear a sermon in the trees, the sky, the waters, and the mountains. And, rather than assault us with “shoulds” and coulds”, creation eloquently speaks of its Creator. Not only does it cry, “God exists!” But it tells us what God is like. His “invisible attributes” and His “eternal power and Godhead” are uncovered in what He has made. All we need are ears to hear, eyes to se, and a mind to think.
Maybe there’s another flaw in us preachers – we tend to think for our people, instead of challenging them to think for themselves. The creation, after all, is the great thought-provoker: it makes you think thoughts of God.
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