Showing items filed under “The Rev. Canon Dr. Victor Lee Austin”

Y is for Yearning

   God is what we yearn for, whenever we yearn for anything.
    You might think that the things your heart is set on are not proper things to pray for, and so you might edit your prayers. The late VictorWhite O.P. (no relation) would teach that the reason so many of our prayers don’t go anywhere is that we are praying for what we think we ought to pray for, rather than for what we in fact desire. But if we pray for what we really want—however pathetic it may be—God can use that to draw us into his love and transform us. But if we never tell him the truth, we are almost impervious to his approach (almost, but never completely).
    This is literally true. If you are yearning for ice cream, that is a desire that will lead to God. If you are yearning for a certain person to love you, the truth in the center of that desire is a desire for God. You might want a car, a job, an end to back pain, or even to see your competitor lose out: dig deep enough into that desire, and you’ll find it is, however twisted or concealed, a desire for God.
    Which means it’s okay to ask God for whatever you really want. God can work with that.
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    But it is also the case—and this is more mysterious—that God yearns for us.
    God wants to be our lover. Look at the Bible’s Song of Songs, which expresses a longing that runs through the Old Testament: God wants his people to long for him. Look at Jesus, weeping over Jerusalem which has repelled his overtures. Look at him at supper with the disciples, explaining that he is going to die for them because he and they are friends.
    Yearning goes two ways. The human soul longeth for God, like as the hart desireth the water-brooks! And God longeth for us likewise. This, a truth hidden from philosophers, is one of the deepest mysteries of the universe. The maker of all things yearns for you to yearn for him.
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    Out & About.  I am to preach on Advent Sunday, November 28, at Church of the Incarnation at Dallas, the traditional services at 7:30, 9, and 11:15 a.m.
    The next “Good Books & Good Talk” seminar is set for 5 p.m. that Sunday, November 28. We will discuss Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Anyone who reads the book is welcome to the conversation.
    On the Web. My latest “Pastoral Reflection” for the Human Life Review is “IVF Extras”: “She was telling me about her friend, a married woman who, having found it impossible to conceive a child, had turned to IVF. Two embryos were implanted in her womb, but as they were developing problems arose, resulting in a highly dangerous pregnancy from which she could have died. Her friend refused to give up, however, and eventually gave birth, prematurely, to twin boys. The boys had a months-long NICU stay, their lungs maturing with the help of machines. Their traumatic birth was not without lingering challenges, but there had been fewer difficulties than once feared, and the children, now school-age, were thriving.” You can read it all here: https://humanlifereview.com/ivf-extras/

 

X is for the Christ

    “Don’t take Christ out of Christmas.” That was commonly said decades ago within my hearing. It was back when Christmas was ubiquitous but people were starting to pull back from the religious side of it. It was back when “only ten shopping days until Christmas” did not mean that Christmas was ten days away, because not every day was a shopping day (stores were closed on Sundays). It was a different world.
    One focal point of opposition was the word “Xmas.” I heard adults railing against it: Look, they’re taking “Christ” out and replacing him with an X! Only long later did I learn that “X” is an old abbreviation for “Christ,” being the first letter of the Greek word Xristos (= Christ).
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    It is not good to poke fun at this kind of mistake; all of us fall into these errors because none of us knows everything. It is, however, at least interesting that what looks like an effort to eradicate Christian truth might be instead a deeper encoding of it.
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    In algebra the task is often to solve an equation for the X. What does the X equal? For what values of X would the equation be true?
    For a lot of human life, the unknown X turns out to be Jesus. Who can give rest to the weary? Who can bring peace?
    Problem: Solve the following equation for X. “X = a true human being.”
    Solution: “X = Jesus Christ.”
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    Back in the day there was a bumper sticker: “Jesus is the answer.” I used to wonder, if that’s true then what’s the question? I now think that for just about all the serious and important questions it just is the case. Jesus is the answer.
    In the divine alphabet, X is for the Christ.
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    Out & About. The next “Good Books & Good Talk” seminar is set for 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 28. We will discuss Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Anyone who reads the book is welcome to the conversation.
    My sermon on All Saints, given at All Souls in Oklahoma City, is here: https://allsoulsokc.com/sermons . I try to make sense of Revelation chapter 7 (the pause in which there is a vision of the saints) in terms of the whole book: Jesus reads the scroll of history.

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The Rev. Canon Victor Lee Austin. Ph.D., is the Theologian-in-Residence for the diocese and is the author of several books including, "Friendship: The Heart of Being Human" and "A Post-Covid Catechesis.: