Hanging Up

She was not understanding me. I wanted to change an existing gift subscription, as allowed by this publisher, to a different child’s magazine. She did that, and then told me it would expire in April. But, I said, the existing subscription was to expire in September; why is it now cut short to April? We repeated, each what we had said, but in louder voices. I then said, let’s just forget all about it and go back to what we had. She said fine. And it would expire in May. Why not September, I asked; “Online, as I look at it right now, it says September.” She said it takes a few days for the online to catch up. But ... I’m starting to sputter ... this doesn’t make sense: it was September a few days ago, why isn’t it September now?
    She kept repeating. I hung up.
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    An ordinary event, in many respects, and not uncommon. I have been amused for years at the way we humans, when we’re failing to communicate, tend to repeat the same words but at higher volume. “Just saying it louder doesn’t make it true,” I have said. Yet here I was, self-trapped in a circle of escalating decibels.
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    The story of the flood and Noah can be read as a story of God deciding to hang up on us. He had had enough; he would take Noah, erase everything else, and start again.
    The story of Christmas is the opposite. When he enfleshes his Word, God decides to hang in with us. That’s the good news of Christmas: God has not and will not hang up on us.
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    And I’m not hanging up on you, but I am taking off a couple of weeks. The next post will be about a week after New Year’s.
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    Out & About. This Sunday, December 22, I am to preach at Incarnation in Dallas at the traditional services (7:30, 9, and 11:15 a.m.). My sermon title: “ ‘Rejoice always.’ Really?”
    Many people have mentioned their enjoyment—some re-reading it after years, others for the first time—of A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter Miller. If you haven’t read it, may I commend it again? I find it full of hard-won Christian insight, and, in perilous times, deeply hopeful. And if you read it by Sunday, January 26, you’re welcome to join the “Good Books & Good Talk” seminar on it, 6 to 7:30 p.m., at Incarnation in Dallas.

 

Posted by The Rev. Canon Dr. Victor Lee Austin with

The End of the Lord's Prayer

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” is not only the last line of the Prayer (apart from the closing doxology, of course)—it is also the point of the Prayer, and in a sense, the most important line of the whole thing. For it means, above all, Keep us in the faith to the end of our life.
    There are many contingencies in life, and there is not a person among us who knows for sure how he or she would respond if they happened to us.
    If I were captured and tortured, would I lose my faith?
    If I got very rich, would I continue a Christian? Or, conversely, if I lost everything and had to scrounge for work, even beg—would I persist as a Christian?
    If I lost some of my mental faculties, would I also lose my sense of being a child of God?
    Could something happen to me, perhaps slowly over many years, with the result that, gradually yet inexorably, I stopped praying? Could I gradually turn into an unloving person, a solipsist? Could I turn against my friends, and take delight in harming others?
    Might I stop reading the Bible? Might I grow tired of the church? Might I stop receiving Communion?
    I say, there’s not a one of us that can say with certainty that we will in fact persist as Christians to the end of our life.
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    If you’ve read Losing Susan, you already know this part of my story. I cared for my wife, sometimes in a good way (but not always), for several years of her decline. Still, in better ways and in worse, always with God’s grace and many times with the help of friends and children, I was able to do so. Nevertheless, had she lived longer, had her condition worsened in other ways, had her needs increased . . . I simply cannot say that I know that I would have been able to persist. I truly hope I would have! And I would have been calling on God’s help! But I cannot say to you that, of a certainty, I would have persisted to the end.
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    We must pray with supreme earnestness: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Our dear and good Father, whatever may come in our life, preserve us from turning away from you. Deliver us from that evil. It would be the worst thing that could happen to us, if we were to turn away from you.
    And that, Jesus assures us, is a prayer his Father will answer.
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    What Theologians Watch. Recovering from a recent tooth extraction, I saw for the first time “Safety Last!” It’s a silent film from 1923. If you’ve never seen Harold Lloyd, this is a delightful introduction to his amazing control of his body and facial expression, as one gag escalates into the next. I dunno if “safety first” was a motto already a century ago, but still, you can enjoy the guy who hangs from the hands of a large clock several stories above the street. I watched the Criterion Collection version with a wonderful musical soundtrack.
     I also saw “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”—a documentary about Fred Rogers who was actually the Reverend Mr. Rogers (a Presbyterian minister). If you never understood what was behind “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” watch this and you will.
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    Out & About. On Sunday, December 22, I am to preach at Incarnation in Dallas at the traditional services (7:30, 9, and 11:15 a.m.).
    The next “Good Books & Good Talk” seminar will be on Sunday, January 26, at 6 p.m. at Incarnation. The text: A Canticle for Liebowitz, by Walter Miller.

 

Posted by The Rev. Canon Dr. Victor Lee Austin with

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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.: 

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