The Weight of Glory

One of the weightiest topics in theology is that of heaven. C.S. Lewis doesn’t avoid the difficult topic in his sermon “The Weight of Glory”. While the Bible does not offer very many explicit details regarding heaven (what it does offer is probably symbolic), Lewis delves into the idea of the glory that we will have in heaven. At first he explains how the glory of heaven is a reward for our Christian life. When I read this at first, I disagreed with Lewis; after all, eternal life shouldn’t be our motive for following God; like the Heidelberg Catechism says, our motive needs to be one of gratitude for God’s grace. However, Lewis reconciles this by showing how there are two kinds of rewards: the natural reward (for love, this would be marriage) and the reward of the mercenary (for love, this could be money). Using this terminology, the glory of heaven is the natural reward for our faith: it is not the reason for our faith, but it is an outcome. Of course, many of us become Christians because we want to go to heaven or, more likely, we fear hell. Are those of us with such motives not true Christians? Absolutely not! Our initial motives almost always change over the course of our faith. I believe God can use even fear to bring about love and devotion.

Next, Lewis explores the meaning of the word “glory”. What we most often think of when we hear this word, Lewis says, are fame and luminosity. I agree with Lewis when he says that “to be famous means to be better known than other people, the desire for fame appears to me as a competitive passion and therefore of hell rather than heaven”. However, when we define fame as “appreciation by God”, it makes a lot more sense. After all, it is a biblical idea that God can be pleased with us. Maybe this is what glory means. Secondly, luminosity should not be taken literally, but should be synonymous with beauty. The glory we will have in heaven will not only allow us to see beauty, but will unite us with beauty. I really like how Lewis explains how the Nature we see here on earth is merely a poor reflection of the beauty and splendor we will experience and be connected to in heaven. One important thing I see in Nature is how it can point us to God. A beautiful landscape suggests greater beauty. Creation suggests a Creator.

The final point I’d like to make is Lewis’ last point as well. He says, “All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to [heaven or hell]”. This sentence contains an incredible amount of responsibility. We must be very careful in everything we do to shine God’s Light through our words and actions, because we never know how God may use us to bring others to Him, or even more overwhelming, to deter others from knowing Him.