10:00 AM Glory

Certainly, The Weight of Glory presents concepts that are pointedly essential to the Christian faith.

Since corporate worship is also (at least, in a scriptural sense) markedly essential to the faith, might not Lewis also display any wisdom relevant to the 10:00 AM worship service?

Worshipers are "far too easily pleased" (1). We gather together, corporately, at a certain hour, every week to – well, there is where the problem lies. Truth be told, we are uncertain (or, at the very least, divided) concerning the exact function of the weekly assembly. We know well enough to preach the Word, read the Word, see the Word, sing the Word, but remain bemused as to why these actions must be collective. After all, must we do these things together?

In The Weight of Glory, Lewis considers the symbolic nature of scriptural imagery. The corporate assembling of the church, is, of course, both highly symbolic and scriptural. Now, for us, our first impression of the local gathering of dragged-in, worked-down, partied-out, slicked-back saints leaves much to be desired. However, Lewis would argue that, despite all appearances, the "load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour's glory should be laid daily on my back" (9). To the Christian, sitting in the pew between an elderly man who smells of mothballs and a gaggle of compulsively-texting, Hollister-sporting teenage girls, he would admonish, "Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holies object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat–the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden" (9).

Of course, we may easily continue to meet corporately every Sunday morning for reasons that are less than satisfactory. We may not fully appreciate the message, in all of its rich blessing, that is being presented to us through this tangible expression of Christ's radiant bride. But then, to be content with such half-measured appreciation would be scorning both the symbol and the reality of the proffered reward. Instead, if we desire to know and grasp the blessing offered us through corporate worship, we would seek by "continuing to obey and finding the first reward of our obedience in our increasing power to desire the ultimate reward" (2).