2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-end
We are just under four weeks from the General Election, and each party is campaigning on how they will make things better, for us as individuals and as a society. Yet for all the promises and pledges there is no denying the long-term challenges which threaten the prospect of rapid improvement. And that is before we cast our eyes beyond these shores and observe the tectonic plates of global politics shifting, with the rise of authoritarian regimes undermining the certainty of democratic progress.
Put simply, for all the excitement of an election campaign, it is easy to lose heart. Intractable conflicts and inevitable climate change suggest the post-Enlightenment idea that things are just getting better might not be true. The narrative of constant improvement is under threat.
But before we get gloomy about this and wonder why we bother, we can recall that the church has faced this before. Last month Professor Michelle Brown preached at the Evensong for Bede’s Day, and reminded us that Bede and Cuthbert, our saints here in Durham Cathedral, both lived in threatening and uncertain times, through plague and political turmoil. And in our first reading from the apostle Paul we are made aware of his personal struggles in seeking to plant churches, and the wider struggle of doing so in the context of a powerful and sometimes brutal Roman Empire.
But Paul was very clear that this would not get to him. ‘We do not lose heart’ is his confident claim. Why? Because of two things: one in the present and one in the future. The present source of comfort is his inner renewal, by which we can understand his experience of the life of Christ growing and flowing in and through him. The future source of comfort is what he calls ‘an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure’, in the face of which the challenges of the present seem slight and momentary.
Bede and Cuthbert modelled a similar confidence. They both found comfort in the renewal of their inner lives, rooted as they were in daily prayer and contemplation, and they both had hope in the beauty and joy of heaven. Indeed, their perception of the weight of glory might be seen in the beautiful artwork that accompanied the gospels produced in their age and place.
But I want to take you somewhere else to explore this a little further. 83 years ago yesterday, on 8 June 1941, in the Church of St Mary the Virgin Oxford, C.S. Lewis stood up to preach. It was not a time of great hope. Great Britain and the countries in what was then called her Empire were fighting the Axis powers largely on their own. D-Day, which we remembered this week, was still some three long years away. The future of the war, and all that hung on it, was far from certain.
But C.S. Lewis stood up to preach on the Weight of Glory, and produced a sermon which has been published and celebrated ever since. Lewis spoke about the weight of glory having two dimensons to it. The first aspect of this weight of glory referred to divine approval for lives lived in the service of God. Lewis said
‘the promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses,…shall please God…To please God…to be a real ingredient in 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.’
And the second aspect of glory – perhaps a little more obvious – was about enjoying the light and beauty of God face to face. Lewis speaks about his own journey from seeing the language of future glory as largely irrelevant to seeing it as central to the Christian life.
But here’s the really interesting thing. For none of the people I have mentioned, not the apostle, not the Saxon saints, not Oxford writer, was the weight of glory something that meant they took their eyes off the present. Paul knew this age was passing away but he worked his socks off to see people know the hope and love of Christ. Cuthbert and Bede looked forward to their home in heaven, but they served and studied and preached and wrote so that their present world might be formed by Christ. And as for C.S. Lewis, he finishes his sermon with a call to let the possibility of future glory shape the way we love our neighbours today. For as 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 is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
The weight of glory does not stop us caring for others. It means we do this even more because each person is capable of immortality and the reality of being an ingredient in divine happiness. In this Cathedral we remember Margaret of Scotland, present in this building in 1093, who loved and cared for the needy as people made in the image of God.
So, if we are not to lose heart, before or after an election campaign, what are we invited to do?
First, with all the saints mentioned above, together with others such as Hild, we are invited to pay attention to the renewal of our inner nature. What this means is seeking to grow in prayer, in being present with God and listening to God. I long for Durham Cathedral to be a centre of people who deepening their own prayer lives, not to retreat from the world but to engage properly with it. It might mean being more intentionally with the Lord before and after we receive the sacrament this morning. Or it may be something else that is already on your heart. But I pray our inner nature is being renewed day by day.
Second, with all the saints, we are invited to lift our heads and look to the eternal weight of glory beyond all measure. The stuff of life – bothersome emails, aching bodies, impending deadlines – can be seen as slight and momentary afflictions in the light of what lies before us, when we will hear God’s approval and see his eternal light. I don’t say that lightly, and Paul had times of deep depression, but I am invited to let the saints help me take the long view and see today for what it is.
Third, with all the saints, we are to love people as of immortal worth. Our service may look different to others, but I pray it will include casting our votes actively, thoughtfully and prayerfully. For as C.S. Lewis concluded his sermon, ‘next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.’ That’s what politics is really about.
Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, ‘everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.’ So he did not lose heart. May we, renewed by the body and blood of Christ, not do so either. Amen.
For the full text of Lewis’ sermon see https://www.doxaweb.com/assets/weight_of_glory.pdf
Very Revd Dr Philip Plyming
Durham Cathedral
9 June 2024