Remarks at the Sumner's Fiesta

  I was touched to be asked to speak at the fiesta in which we in Dallas celebrated Bishop George Sumner and his wife, Stephanie Hodgkins. What I ventured was a little “Sumnerian” frame, a miniature of theology. It was a sunny and pleasant Saturday afternoon; it was November 22; we were gathered outside on the cathedral green. But November 22 is a sober day. It is the day that, 63 years ago, the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was killed; the assassination took place in Dallas. But there’s more. Seven hours earlier that same day Aldous Huxley, a then-famous skeptical agnostic, died of painful oral cancer. Then just an hour before the President was shot, C. S. Lewis collapsed in his bedroom, dying of end-stage kidney failure. 

    Within a few hours: a man of great political power, a sharp philosopher, and the author of the Narnia tales. Put those three in one frame: each of them points to an aspect of the decade George and Stephanie have spent amongst us. 

    President Kennedy stands for political power, and in a sense for our country. But there is of course a country, a kingdom, that supercedes all the countries of this world, the king being Jesus Christ whose Gospel is for every person the world over. From the world over George Sumner has brought many bishops to spend time with us in Dallas, and he has encouraged missionaries and other connections be made by us with our fellow citizens of the kingdom of God in other lands. This is a light which shows the importance, but also the relativity, of our American political commitments. We note that even as he is leaving us, Bishop Sumner has asked that we give support to our diocesan missionary family in Egypt.

    Turning to the philosopher: A couple of years ago I received one of the bishop’s famously cryptic emails, to the effect that we should invite the diocese to see a film and to talk afterwards. The film was called “Freud’s Last Session,” an imagined encounter and argument between a young C. S. Lewis and a Sigmund Freud who was dying—as Huxley later did—of oral cancer. The relationship of psychology (or philosophy) and Christianity is something Bishop Sumner has thought about long and hard. We need not fear these encounters: God’s truth is always true, and God does shed light on every aspect of human existence.

    Turning to Lewis the Christian: That film showed Lewis moved to compassion when he saw the pain that Freud lived with. We know also that Lewis was often anonymously generous when he saw someone in need. He wanted everyone, even children, to understand that God valued their lives and that they were capable of great things. This compassion for our neighbor has been encouraged amongst us in many concrete ways this past decade.

    Kennedy, Huxley, and Lewis point to three marks of the Gospel here in Dallas, here in 2025. (1) We belong to an international kingdom. (2) We bear the truth of a Gospel that will prevail over skepticism. (3) And our hearts are continually being converted, with Jesus, to see and love the least of these our brethren.

    I give thanks for what the bishop and Stephanie have allowed God to give our diocese through their life among us.

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    Out & About: This Sunday—Advent Sunday, Nov. 30—I am to be the preacher at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas. The services are at 9 and 11:15 a.m. At 10:20, between the services, I will speak on Book VII of Augustine’s Confessions. 

    Sunday, Dec. 14, I am to preach at Church of the Epiphany in Richardson, Tex.

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

Parish Groups and Bible Study

  It used to be the case that people just got the “Christian story” in the course of life. It may not have been a deep understanding, but it was there. For instance, think of Christmas plays in the schools. It was once not a social faux pas to wish people, whoever they were, a merry Christmas. And not just Christmas: the characters and structure of the broad story were known to many people. You might tell someone who helped you change your flat tire, “Thanks for being a good Samaritan,” and the person would get the reference.

    But for many decades, this has not been the case. I’m not writing to bemoan the loss—it doesn’t matter whether I bemoan it or not, the fact just is that people don’t pick up the Christian story these days unless we intentionally tell it. Here’s my first point: Churches need deliberately to work on biblical literacy. As a new priest I realized that telling the story was going to be the most important thing I did, that biblical illiteracy was the ailment to which I most needed to apply my energies.

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    On the other hand, priests have a zillion things that impinge upon their time. People will be sick, facing surgery, dealing with birth and death, love and discord, family strife, and so many other things. Pastoral care summons priestly attention. Then there is the organization of the parish: the finances, the building, the worship, relations with neighbors. This takes a lot of attention too. Also of major importance is how a parish relates to the needs of the community around it and the wider world, what we call “outreach” and which might include food ministries, or youth programs, or “neighborhood organization” to address larger problems, not to mention prayer and financial support of particular missionaries. 

    This is only a very short list. The real list is as endless as the needs and possibilities of humanity. So how, given all these things that demand the attention of clergy—how are we to have time for that basic need of awakening and deepening biblical knowledge?

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    There is a simple way, and it is my second point. Every time any parish group meets, let them begin by studying something from the Bible.The vestry can begin their meetings with Bible study. Likewise the grounds committee, the choir, those who gather to distribute food, and so forth. This study can be coordinated for the whole parish, so that, say, for a few months everyone is studying Matthew. In this way the various members of the church, in various ways, would be studying and (potentially) talking to each other about Matthew. 

    My proposal is not well-detailed, and I’m sure many could easily improve upon it! Still, I think it is profound in a simple way. Just as much as our bodies need food, work, and rest, so our souls need the story of creation, fall, redemption, and glorification, the story that runs from Genesis to Revelation, the story that gives meaning to everything we do and are.

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    Out & About: The talks on Augustine’s Confessions continue: this Sunday (Nov. 23) at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas, on Books V and VI, in the Great Hall at 10:20 a.m. 

    The following Sunday, November 30, I am to preach at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, at 9 and 11:15 a.m. (with another class on theConfessions at 10:20).

 

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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