Sunday Sermons
The Weight of Glory
The Weight of Glory
“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though out outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentarily, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17).
Notice for a moment how Paul viewed growing old. He did not consider the aging process to be depressing; rather it only means for the faithful Christian that one is getting closer to the real goal. This means that if heaven is not my goal, then growing old will be a very discouraging time in my life. Consider the expression “day by day”, for character, patience, wisdom, integrity and virtue for the Christian is being built on a daily basis as they handle the trials of daily living.
Heaven and Men
The vast majority of men and cultures have always had some concept of a “heaven”, in fact this universal desire for a better existence after this life seems to be one evidence that the desire of the Creator was that we be made for heaven and not for hell(Matthew 25:41; 2 Peter 3:9). C.S. Lewis noted, “I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men will” (The Weight of Glory pp. 32-33). Even atheists believe in a heaven of sorts. “When they want to convince you that earth is your home, notice how they set about it. They begin by trying to persuade you that earth can be made into heaven. Next, they tell you that this fortunate event is still a good way off in the future” (p. 31).
Maimed by Sin
“We know from his earliest writings that C.S. Lewis was born with a sense of fun, and that it was considerably maimed by an entanglement of atheism and ambition. Perhaps a fiercely serious ambition for whatever it might be can never live in harmony with the merriment he describes. Certainly, Lewis could write no great works until he was converted to Christianity in 1931, after which he ceased to take much interest in himself” (p. 2). A number of points can be made from the comments in the above paragraph. First, instead of sin leading to fun, sin and selfish ambition actually gets in the way of enjoying God’s blessings(Ecclesiastes 5:10; Luke 15:17). In fact, sin can turn us into rather boring individuals. The comment that Lewis ceased to take much interest in himself after his conversion is an excellent insight. What makes people boring is their preoccupation with themselves, and this equally causes such people to lose a true sense of fun. The comment reminds me of teenagers and adults who are so self-conscious that they might say or do something that might be viewed as “uncool” that they are stiff and uneasy. How true it is that “things can become other than they should be through the wrong kind of seriousness” (p. 2). Jesus agreed, the less that we are preoccupied with ourselves the more “life” will we find (Matthew 16:25), and the more “life” we will have for others. Take a good look at the people who are converted in the Bible and how they immediately are rejoicing and enjoying life after their conversion (Acts 8:39; 16:15,34; Luke 19:8), by contrast look at those who decided to live for self (Mark 10:22). Lewis noted, “Having done the best we can to perform whatever God demands, should we not at least enjoy the good He sends us” (p. 1), “The size of a man’s understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth” (p. 13). Certainly Paul could rejoice even though his outer man was decaying because of the blessings he was given every day and the eternal blessings that awaited him.
We are far too easily pleased
On the one hand many people are dissatisfied with their earthly lot and at the same time they seem content to spend their life pursuing all lesser blessings. “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (p. 26).Unfortunately not only is man tempted to settle for far less than eternal life, man is equally tempted to think that heavenly glory will be less attractive than “our own stuff”. It is rather silly but many people seem to think that heaven will not be that great because it will not have horses, golf courses, beaches, certain “friends” or family members will not be there or some other earthly thing. In addition, “we discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendors we see” (p. 43). I believe there is an often overlooked thought here to ponder. Walking along the beach is wonderful but it does not make one a better person, and one cannot stay on the beach forever. All earthly experiences are short-lived. “We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it” (p. 42). People often talk about becoming “one with nature”, but that never really happens. I may enjoy my moment in the woods or watching the sunset, but when I must leave all such moments, all I have left is either memories or pictures. In fact, Lewis noted that most of the things that we call “beautiful” are actually inanimate and thus it is not very surprising that they take no notice of us. Paul said, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
“Eternal Weight”
Do you ever ponder the line in the song “Amazing Grace” that says, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years”? So many people view immortality as nothing more than living on in the memories of one’s children, as passing on some part of your genetics to the next generation. Lewis reminds us that we are not absorbed into nature. Nature is mortal. “We shall outlive her. When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of you will still be alive” (p. 44). In addition, “nature” is not the end all. Nature, the world we see, is not only very temporary, but if we truly love something here, such as the beauty of God’s creation, let us remember that such beauty is only a symbol or faint outline of further heavenly splendor. “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of an gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry (1 Peter 3:7), snub (James 3:9-10), and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendor” (p. 46). What this means is that we can only truly treat our neighbor right when we understand that they are made in the image of God and thus will live on forever and our words that we say to them, and how we treat or fail to treat them will have eternal ramifications. Thus, there can be no true joy in our relationships until we first have taken each other seriously—as someone who will outlast the universe itself.
The Longing
“Well done, good slave” (Luke 19:17). “The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret. And surely, from this point of view, the promise of glory, in the sense described, becomes highly relevant to our deep desire. For glory means good report with God, acceptance with God, response, acknowledgement, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will be open at last. Perhaps it seems rather crude to describe glory as the fact of being ‘noticed’ by God. But this is almost the language of the New Testament. Paul promises to those who love God not, as we should expect, that they will know Him, but that they will be known by Him, “but if anyone loves God; he is known by Him” (1 Corinthians 8:3)” (pp. 40-41). Heavenly glory, the “weight” of such glory includes fame with God, approval with Him and appreciation from Him. “And then, when I had thought it over, I saw that this view was scriptural; nothing can eliminate from the parable the divine accolade, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant’. With that, a good deal of what I had been thinking all my life feel down like a house of cards. I suddenly remembered that no one can enter heaven except as a child; and nothing is so obvious in a child—not in a conceited child, but in a good child—as its great and undisguised pleased in being praised” (pp. 36-36). “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). A desire to please men can be a very impure ambition, but the desire to please the one who sent His Son to die for us and the one who created us in the first place is a pure ambition, “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him” (2 Corinthians 5:9); “For the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteous and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:9-10). In fact, wanting to be appreciated by God, desiring to be known by Him is an ambition that can purify the rest of our lives, “And may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own” (Philippians 3:9); “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).
What we can miss
“And I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23). “In some sense, as dark to the intellect as it is unendurable to the feelings, we can be both banished from the presence of Him who is present everywhere and erased from the knowledge of Him who knows all. We can be left utterly and absolutely outside—repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored” (p. 41), “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:11-12); “Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us’. But He answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you’” (Matthew 25:11-12). “On the other hand, we can be called in, welcomed, received, and acknowledged. We walk every day on the razor edge between these two incredible possibilities. Apparently, then, our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is not mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honor beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache” (pp. 41-42).
The reward
“We must not be troubled by unbelievers when they say that this promise of (heavenly) reward makes the Christian life a mercenary affair. There are different kinds of rewards. There is the reward that has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it and is quite foreign to the desires that ought to accompany those things. Money is not the natural reward of love; that is why we call a man mercenary if he marries a woman for the sake of her money. But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover, and he is not mercenary for desiring it” (pp. 26-27). Godly men and women of the past have always longed for the reward, the eternal weight of glory (“For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” Hebrews 11:10; “for he was looking to the reward” 11:26).
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
