The Weight of Glory is a sermon that addresses the desire for Heaven experienced by many people as a feeling longing and sadness when they see scenes of great beauty. C.S. Lewis originally preached his sermon at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin on June 8, 1942, during the height of World War II. It was first published in Theology, November 1941. He begins by pointing out that modern people often think of unselfishness as the highest Christian value. Unselfishness, he says, is a negative value which focuses on self-denial. Older Christian thinkers as well as the New Testament focus on love as the highest value. Loving other people often does require denying ourselves, but this is a side effect rather than the main point. Love is a positive value that leads to promised treasures in Heaven that are beyond our wildest dreams.
Why the Desire for Heaven is Not Mercenary
Like any good debater, C.S. Lewis always anticipates and addresses expected objections to his statements. In this case, he anticipates objectors who would accuse Christians of being crude mercenaries who hope there is something in it for them. Lewis responds to these imagined objectors by pointing out that if we receive the natural result of our actions, we are not mercenaries but are simply enjoying the natural fruit of what we sow. For example, marriage is a mercenary action when a man marries a woman for her money. But the man is not mercenary when he marries the woman for love and then enjoys the reward of a loving marriage.
Discipline and Obedience Come Before the Joy
Sometimes we must act out of discipline and obedience with only the promise that there will eventually be a natural reward for our actions, because we have not yet developed the ability to perceive where our actions will lead. The example Lewis provides is that of a schoolboy who must study Greek grammar that he does not enjoy; he does it to please his parents or to escape punishment. He does not understand at first that the result of his labors will be that he will be able to enjoy Sophocles as an adult.
Of course, few school children today get to study Greek, but you get the point. We all have to study our grammar, learn our long division, and practice our scales in order the achieve mastery of literature, higher math, or a musical instrument, and until we begin to achieve that mastery, we do not understand the joy it will bring. Gradually, the drudgery turns into enjoyment; the reward begins as we begin to understand it well enough to desire it for its own sake: “…indeed, the power of so desiring it is itself a preliminary reward.” Lewis believes this describes the position of the Christian living a life that will lead to Heaven.
Why Modern Utopian Philosophies Do Not Satisfy
Lewis' main thesis for this sermon is that all of our earthly desires are really a desire for Heaven. He discusses the prevailing popular philosophies of his time (and ours) that try to convince us that all human happiness can be found in this life and in this world. These philosophies either ignore or attempt to distract us from the glaring fact that even if we should somehow achieve heaven on earth, we would lose it all on the day of our death. Even if we believe that the important thing is the happiness of the species, eventually there will be a final generation, our sun will die, and the whole beautiful story will come to nothing. Our natural inclination, Lewis says, is to want more than that—in fact, to want eternal life. He asserts that this desire is legitimate and that there is real hope of its fulfillment.
Glory: More Than a Robe and a Crown
In discussing what the word glory might mean as interpreted by scripture and Christian tradition, Lewis confesses that he once found ideas of glory involving robes and crowns rather unexciting. However, upon further study he realized that these are merely symbols used to try to convey a reality far beyond earthly description. As he describes what glory might really involve, you begin to understand why the martyrs were so willing to give up their lives rather than give up their faith. He examines for us the thinking of writers such as Milton and Thomas Aquinas combined with the information that scripture provides and arrives at an astounding insight to the essential ingredient of glory: the experience of being fully accepted and loved by God. Perhaps the best part of the sermon is when Lewis talks about the eternal value of human beings. In part he says, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, marry, snub, and exploit—immoral horrors or everlasting splendours.”
Why C.S. Lewis is Well Worth Reading
C.S. Lewis has an amazing ability to express compelling insight to the innermost secrets of the Christian life. This sermon was delivered about 13 years after Lewis conversion in 1929. Before that he was an atheist – so in just a few short years Lewis went from being a non-believer to a powerfully inspired speaker and writer with an uncanny ability to clarify complex theological issues to people who had been Christians all their lives as well as to people who were not Christians. His habits and training as a scholar, his wide reading in mythology and literature, and his own imagination and reasoning abilities converged to produce the huge body of literature he published until his death in November 1993. C.S. Lewis' use of language to point us toward the indescribable is….glorious.
Sources:
- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Carol Apple - Carol Apple has worked as professional technical writer and editor for about 20 years and has also worked as a technical illustrator. She ...
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