This
week I read through C.S. Lewis’ sermon TheWeight of Glory. As with the bulk of
Lewis’ work, it’s a masterpiece that bears reading in its entirety. But one his final paragraphs cuts me to the
heart:
“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. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses,
to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one
day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to
worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only
in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or
other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming
possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that
we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all
loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never
talked to a mere mortal.”
After
reading this I thought about all the people I’ve hated. The bullies I’ve refused to forgive. The marginally-abled drivers who cut me off
on the expressway. The slow people in
line in front of me in the checkout.
Colleagues I’ve considered obtuse or annoying. I thought about the people to whom I
attribute the brokenness of the world.
Politicians whose greed or ignorance perpetuates injustice. Terrorists or the agents of corrupt
governments who murder kids. Human
traffickers. Bigots. Cheats.
All of
us are destined for eternity. Each of us
is a work in progress. And each of us
has been given the tremendous weight of responsibility to steer that eternal
work. Each of us has the potential to
contribute to a trajectory of either redemption or reprobation. Which will it be?
Last
summer I heard a presentation from a guy who spent part of a year living in Uganda. While there, his work brought him into
contact with the officials of several different governments. Some of these were either complicit with
known human rights violations, or had connections to active warlords. Evildoers.
One of these individuals told him, on one occasion, “Once you start
killing people, it’s hard to stop.” So
he thought, “The best thing is to keep them from starting.” He started a non-profit that mentors boys and
young men. Instills in them the ethics
of honesty; compassion; peacemaking. Reaches
and redirects human beings who could, under the wrong influences, become the “nightmare
creatures” Lewis talks about.
When we
see the depravity of our fellow image-bearers, our instinct is to condemn. Lewis issues this caution. It could be our act or attitude of
condemnation that tips the scales of that person’s heart. How much better to err and act on the side of hope –
hope that in every person there lies the potential for redemption that the
Savior sees in us.
So from now on we regard no one from a
worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do
so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has
come: The old has gone, the new is here! All
this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and
gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to
himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has
committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are
therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through
us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him
who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)
