March 27, 2015

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

“The cross comes before the crown…It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’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….Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963) A Sermon, “The Weight of Glory”

Do you know all of your neighbors? Do you love all of your neighbors? Do you have a neighbor whose dogs bark all day and night? Do you have a neighbor who leaves his garbage cans out three days after the trash has been picked up? Do you have a neighbor who does not shovel his sidewalk when it snows? Neighbors are one of the most difficult things we will have to navigate in our lives, or so I think some days. I do love my neighbors, but there are many that I struggle to “like” every day. And there are neighbors who do not like me. In one neighborhood that I used to live, one of my neighbors was so mad at me because I complained to the police that he ran the stop sign in front of our house every morning, that he would beep his car horn every time he came to the stop sign in front of my house. In another neighborhood we lived, one of our neighbors would park so close to our cars that we couldn’t move our cars because she thought we took her parking space.

C. S. Lewis says that “your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” I agree with Lewis that my neighbors are a weight, and a burden in my life – as well as a joy and a blessing. And it is true that the burden of my neighbor can only be supported and carried by humility. The couple who lives beside my wife and me have both experienced health problems in the last few months. With the snow that we have experienced this winter, I and my fellow neighbors have determined to clean off their driveway whenever it needs it. It is not always convenient, it does not always fit into my schedule, but it is something I need to do – not for thanks or other kudos, but because it keeps me humble, which only happens when I get outside of myself, and serve my neighbors.

Pastor Dave