However, the Lord promises to us a much greater glory then we will ever be able to give him. “To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.” This is the gift of glory God gives to us. Our greatest glory should always be humility before the Lord. It is a heavy burden that we should carry this glory. “Meanwhile the cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is a Monday morning. A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside.” One day our hope it to be able to achieve this great glory in following Christ for that is one of the main points of walking on this earth.
But this glory we seek to give the Lord can be found in our actions toward others on earth. “The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.” Everything that we do on this earth should be for the glory of the Lord, but how do we achieve that? The answer may simply be to be humble and love your neighbor. Though the worlds are simple the task is grueling and can never be fully attained, but this should not keep us from trying.
I find the whole idea of doing my actions for the glory of God in humility difficult. It is obviously not easy to do your works for God while taking no credit of your own. The world has made it far too easy for man to take great pride in his own achievements while erasing God from the picture altogether. I am wondering, however, what it means to carry the weight of my neighbors glory? How would this be acted out in everyday life?
ReplyDeleteI agree drew, humility is difficult especially given the fact that God has given us glory. We always have to keep in sight that the glory is not from us but from God. In regard to carrying the weight of our neighbors glory, while discussing in class my friend and I were brought to remember the example Prof. Ribeiro gave when he talked about celebrating about your neighbors "A" on the final as if it was yours and about your own "A" as if it were your neighbors. I think it is about that recognition that Lewis talks about that they are eternal beings. with that recognition will hopefully come a change in our actions towards everyone we encounter, creating that relationship that contains that seriousness without flippancy or superiority.
ReplyDelete"Much was possible to a man in solitude; perhaps the final transmutations and achievements in the zones on the yonder side of the central Knowledge were possible only to the spirit in solitude. But some things were possible only to a man in companionship, and of these the most important was balance. No mind was so good that it did not need another mind to counter and equal it, and to save it from conceit and blindness and bigotry and folly." -Charles Willaims
ReplyDeleteOnce we realize that we NEED our neighbors, that they bear our burdens just as we are to bear theirs, it should seem the clear and easy choice to love them. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Hence our need for constant and wonderful reminders, such as Lewis gives us in this sermon. I just hope we're listening.
I think when we apply the Ch2 readings to this, one of the ways we image God is communion. This, I would argue, is probably the most worthwhile image we've been given, and I feel like our society does a great job in hindering it. We're taught to be on our own, to live separate from family, to get jobs in places we've never heard of, all in the name of economical increase. I think often times, economies that did not advance as quickly as the united states, such as mexico, have more community in their culture. That is one thing I'd wish every culture had a little more of.
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