Choose Glory

Dear Faith Family,   

"'Well done, good and faithful servant... Enter into the joy of your master."
(Matthew 25:21)

The words spoken by the master in Jesus' final parable before he, like the master, leaves the company of his disciples, are words we all long to hear. To know that our efforts of daily living have been done well and true, adding to the abundance of life of our master (and thus our community), is soul-satisfying.

Something deep within every human desires a life of plenty, yes, after all, plenty is the starting point for each of the servants in the story (Matthew 25:14-30), but also a life of purpose, where our place in the story matters, and we produce something good and lasting. This particular soul-level longing is not unique just to those who call Jesus Lord. 

Throughout recorded history, across every tribe, society, and civilization, people have striven to live a life for the approval of their god(s) or fellow humans. A life that was worthy of appreciation, a life that was, by some standard, good. And the word the ancients used to describe the affirmation of a life of plenty and purpose, a life lived well and true, was glory. 

Now, we know as Christians that we are supposed to seek the glory of God, and that is exactly what this parable promises those who put to use what has been precisely given to them on behalf of their benefactor. For, as C.S. Lewis discovered, our faith has long taken,

"heavenly glory quite frankly in the sense of fame or good report. But not fame conferred by our fellow creatures--fame with God, approval or (I might say) 'appreciation' by God. And then, when I had thought it over, I saw that this view was scriptural; nothing can eliminate from the parable the divine accolade, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant.'... For glory meant good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last."  

This "fame," or "approval" that our souls crave and which we long to enter, is not the product of our autonomous efforts, but instead, as the parable reveals and Dylan described for us on Sunday, the fruit of partnership: the servant's abilities and the master's livelihood (or "talents") coming together to bring more abundance into the land. A fruitfulness that this year's Kingdom Epiphanies have described and led us to expect as the natural order of life lived in the Kingdom of God. 

Yet, Lewis rightly concludes that this certainty of glory is a kind of "weight or burden, which our thoughts can hardly sustain." Perhaps that is why "the divine accolade" is extended to only two of the servants in Jesus' final story. Perhaps the thrid servant could hardly imagine that they'd be able survive the settling of accounts not merely as cog in the machine of the master, but as, "...a real ingredient in the divine happiness [the joy of the master]...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son..."

After all, that is the real difference between the first two servants and the last: who they understood their master to be (his character) in relation to them. And so, the third servant, out of misguided presumptions of life in the master's charge, chose to set aside partnership and just do what he could do on his own, which was probably quite a bit. Remember, the master did recognize his ability and entrusted the servant with his talents (25:15).

However, it seems that the third servant missed the ancient understanding of the rewards of glory, of the efforts for a good life: "The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consumation." The story begins with partnership; partnership is the glory and brings us into joy. 

I wonder, what will you and I choose today? I am praying that we will choose glory, as incredible and weighty as it might seem.

Love you faith family. God bless.