1 Corinthians 13:8-13

My daughter Emily just emailed me from the Chicago Theater where she and her husband are attending a Sufjan Stevens concert. She attached a couple of pictures of the theater and said, “Dad, you’d love this theater!” What follows in this blog is my response: “O, indeed I would  -  in fact I do, even though I've never been there! Your two pictures indicate that they have preserved the theater’s splendor well. What a setting to experience a Sufjan concert! Enjoy every minute of it!

“Emily, I am here on the back patio reflecting on the Glory of which the architecture that surrounds you and the music that speaks to you are only a ‘rumor’. That Glory which shall be ours when the ‘Perfection’ (Completion) comes, when we shall see Him and one another ‘Face to Face’, when we shall ‘Know Fully even as we have been Fully Known’. C.S. Lewis' 1941 sermon at Oxford called The Weight of Glory is stirring my mind to better appreciate what Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 about the Glory of the coming World of Love, the text and topic of this weekend’s sermon. And I want to effectively communicate it somehow to our congregation.

“Lewis challenges us to see in the wonder of human friendships, the songs of delight, the breath-taking sunsets, the thrill that follows accomplishing some great feat, etc.  -  all the experiences we call ‘beauty’ and ‘glory’ which eventually fade  -  to see in these the hints of what we were truly made for by God, what awaits us in the coming World of Love: delighting in His presence, experiencing His welcome, feeling His embrace, and being fully loved and fully loving every one and every thing around us.

“Lewis writes, ‘For they [the things of beauty and glory in our present experience] are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited... The leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in... For Glory means acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things. The door upon which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last... What would it be like to taste at the Fountainhead that stream of which even these lower reaches [the things of beauty and glory in our present experience] prove so intoxicating? Yet that, I believe, is what lies before us.’"

Father in Heaven, help me to fully enjoy all the gifts of beauty and glory you graciously permit me to experience  -  friendship, health, food, color, culture, humor, feats of valor and human accomplishment. May I enjoy these gifts as from you, for everything you created is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. But may I see in these things, and through these things, the good that awaits me in your presence when Jesus returns to renew everything. May I not mistake these present gifts for the real thing. May they not become idols. For they are not the thing itself. You are. Direct my discipleship around the grace of Jesus, his life, death, resurrection, and coming Glory. May I live fully today because of the fullness that awaits me. And may you use me to prepare others to experience the coming World of Love through the gospel of Christ. Amen

O Lord, all things in this world are gifts from you, presented to us so that we can know you more. Help us make a return of love to you and others through all these gifts. And may we appreciate and use these gifts insofar as they help us to become more loving persons. But if and when any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace you and hinder our growth in you. Deliver us by your grace. In the name of Christ. Amen 
Adapted, St. Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr, AD 115. The Church honors his life each Oct. 17^th.