I found this sermon by C.S. Lewis to be one of my favorite works by Lewis. There are so many good quotes in this essay that it was hard in class today to go through all of them with my group and only choose 3! I really liked the part of the serman when Lewis talks about the fact that you must first learn Greek before you can begin to enjoy Greek poetry. He said that a schoolboy learning Greek can't look forward to reading Greek works, such as Sophocles, when he is older. This analogy relates to our Christian Faith very nicely. We cannot just expect to jump right into Christianity and begin with a good relationship with Christ, we need to work at it. If we work at it hard enough, then one day we will be able to enjoy the benefits of having a good relationship with Christ, one of those benefits being eternal life in Heaven.
I also like how Lewis went on to talk about entering Heaven as a child, and that, like children, we have a "great and undisguised pleasure in being praised." Lewis then goes on to talk about pleasing God, and he calls it "a real ingredient in the divine happiness." He also says, "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." I am neither and artist nor a father so I can only imagine those two analogies, nevertheless they pack a powerful punch. We, as Christians, should strive to please God, even though we are fallen creatures we must do our best to please Him. Humility is an important word that comes to mind when I think of this. We need to please God by first being humble, and then asking what we as followers of Christ can do.
There is one part of this sermon that I keep going back to, and it becomes scarier everytime I go back to it. It's when Lewis talks about what the New Testament says to us about being at the Throne of God and He tells us, "I never knew you. Depart from me." I can't even imagine going to a place where God is not present, and whenever I hear something like this it scares me a bit. This is why we need to do our best to please God and have a good relationship with Him, so He can't say to us that He never knew us, but instead that He is happy with us!
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Hey Jake! i really appreciated you comment on this sermon. Indeed it is frightening to realize that God will tell some on that day that He never knew them. I also appreciate the fact that we must remember to have faith as a child--there is so much we can learn from children!
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it! I wish some one would have told me how long it takes (for ever) to become a true follower of Christ. Maybe they did tell me and I didn't listen. Regardless, I have spent the last several years with the false thinking that if I just prayed hard enough, or worked hard enough, that I would over night transform into Christ's likeness.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have painfully, yet beautifully realized is that it is in my times of struggle, failure, and weakness that God uses me most. Before I can fully understand this concept, I am processing how to enjoy being loved by God, loving myself, and loving others. Therefore, I am a continual work in progress.
I like your post and i too really like just how scary it could be to stand before God only to have him say to you "away from me, I never knew you." However, you were making a lot of references to working harder and how much work it takes to become a better follower of Christ. I slightly do not agree with this because, I can never say that anything I do for the glory of Christ I did of my own power meanly because I know that I do not possess any power of my own to please God, that is my I need the holy spirit. I am reminded of the Apostle paul when he says in the book of Roman (I believe) "you came to the faith by grace, do you now believe you can do anything of your own power." I see this as paul clearly saying "you needed the grace of God to believe, do not start thinking that you can now do anything apart from the grace of God. I confess, I may of misunderstood what you were trying to get at, if that is the case, i apologize.
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