The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for May 24, 2012

We’re all experienced, too much so, in days when “the sun doesn’t shine.”

“You cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live,” said God to Moses (Exodus 33:21).  So at Mount Sinai, “a thick cloud (settled) on the mountain” (Exodus 19:16 ).  

God was as close as close could be, but veiled Himself so that His people would not die but live.

Here’s how He led them through the wilderness: “Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out.” (Exodus 40:36).   When Solomon dedicated the Temple, “a cloud filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:10 ).

When Jesus was transfigured and gave His disciples a fleeting glimpse of future glory, “A cloud came and overshadowed them…and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My Son, my Chosen One; listen to Him!’” (Luke 9:34-35).

On the day of the Ascension: “As they were looking on, Jesus was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9).  Not a Weather Channel cloud; the cloud of God receiving His Son into glory.

And there are clouds to come.  On Judgment Day, “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him” (Revelation 1)

“I am with you always,” says the exalted Jesus (Matthew 28:20).  So when the sun isn’t shining in your life, remember that God is especially to us on our cloudy days!

 

 

Meyer Minute for May 23

You sometimes hear of parents who let their children grow up without formal religion because they don’t want to impose upon them a particular faith.  That may be well-intentioned but it’s wrong-headed.  It instills in a child the attitude that faith is a result of our choice based upon our understanding.  No, taught St. Augustine.  It’s the other way around.  We do not understand in order to believe but we believe in order to understand.  Jesus says, “You did not choose Me but I chose you.”  (John 15:16) 

 

This Friday evening I’ve been invited to speak for the 8^th grade graduation of St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Chicago Heights, Illinois.  I graduated from St. Paul’s 51 years ago and count that education as one of the greatest benefits in my life.  Parochial school taught me to learn in the context of faith, faith seeking understanding.

In a 1938 sermon for the confirmation of young people, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said,“Confirmands today are like young soldiers marching to war, the war of Jesus Christ against the gods of this world.  It is a war that demands the commitment of one’s whole life.  Is not God, our Lord, worthy of this struggle?  Idolatry and cowardice confront us on all sides, but the direst foe does not confront us, He is with us.  “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.”  (Eric Metaxas, “Bonhoeffer,” 309)

So then, should we raise children spiritually unprepared and unarmed for the life ahead of them?  God bless our parochial schools!

 

 

The Meyer Minute for May 22

Today’s topic is economy and politics.

The book of Genesis tells how a young man named Joseph was sold into slavery, got thrown into jail, and ended up being the second most powerful person in Egypt.  Coming from Illinois, we often joke that many of our powerful politicians end up going to jail.  Anyway, the reason for Joseph’s ascent was his God-given ability to interpret dreams.  When he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh, that there would be seven years of good national economy followed by seven poor years, Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of the economy.  “During the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly, and he gathered up all the food of these seven years…and put the food in the cities.  And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured.  The seven years of plenty…came to an end, and the seven years of famine began to come.  There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.”  (Genesis 41:49-54)

Will our children and grandchildren live in good economic times or bad? 

Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. has just written a book about the economy and politics, “The Debt Bomb.”  Dr. Coburn writes, “America is already bankrupt.  We may not believe it.  We may not yet feel its full effects.  But we are effectively bankrupt.  Our debt now exceeds the size of our entire economy.  Our payments on our obligations—our unfunded liabilities—exceed our income as far as the eye can see.  No amount of obtainable growth or tax revenue will be enough.  There simply is no possible way we can finance our long-term liabilities with fundamentally reimagining what government can do in the twenty-first century.” (p. 12)

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” the Bible teaches (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39).  Aren’t coming generations our neighbors too?  Joseph seems to have had almost dictatorial powers over the Egyptian economy.  Our founders gave the power to us, normal, pay-your-bills, common sense citizens.  Don’t wait until the last minute to get to know the candidates.  Christian love is not limited to the Sunday sanctuary.  The lean years seem to have already begun.

 

The Meyer Minute for May 21

Yesterday many churches observed the Ascension.  Jesus rises from the ground, ascends, and when a cloud covers Him, He is no longer seen.  Still today, no longer seen.  If it strikes you as a strange story, the disciples who actually were there thought it strange too.  “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here gazing into the sky?”  (Acts 1:11)

People of faith wrestle with experiences that don’t fit our understanding of how things should work.  Just as people don’t rise from the ground unaided, many of our natural experiences in life don’t seem to fit with the idea of a close, personal God who cares for us.  When we find ourselves not seeing the goodness of God in our lives, we have only faith, only God’s promises of His goodness to us.  We don’t see God.  We don’t see Jesus.  “No one has ever seen God.”  (John 1:18)  “You cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live.” (Exodus 33:20)  Since a hidden God, like rising from the ground unaided, goes against our natural desire to see and hear, to touch and experience, some people build idols and Americans worship worldly power, consumerism and celebrity.  Living amidst worshippers of what is seen, we followers of Christ can only trust the promise.  “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”  (Acts 1:11)

When you have gone through tough times, I mean really tough, and had nothing to hang onto except the promises of God, then in hindsight you see that God, though hidden, truly is personal, close and caring.  Faith does sustain us.  Hymns say it; the Bible teaches it.  “When all things seem against us to drive us to despair, we know one gate is open, one ear will hear our prayer.”  “Faith shall cry as fails each sense, Jesus is my confidence.”  “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

 

The Meyer Minute for May 11, 2012

Look around.  Can you find the Word of God, pick up and hold up the Word of God?  Years ago I heard a former executive of CNN speak.  I can’t remember his name but he obviously understood the world of broadcasting and he was a committed Christian.  He spoke to us about the “Gutenberg captivity of the Word of God.”  His point was that we’ve let ourselves think that the living and active Word of God is confined, captive to the print and pages bound in the Bible.

Acts 8:26-40 tells about an Ethiopian struggling to understand Isaiah 53.  Because the Ethiopian could not understand who the passage was talking about, the Good News was being held captive in the letters of the Isaiah scroll.  So an angel said to Philip, “Go south to the road – the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”  “Go” is a Great Commission word; so Philip went.  (Matthew 28:19)  The Spirit said, “Go and join yourself to the carriage.”  In other words, meet them where they’re at, and so Philip met the Ethiopian where he was at and initiated a conversation.  “Do you understand what you’re reading?”  When the Ethiopian showed his willingness to talk, Philip began with the Isaiah text and told the Good News of Jesus.  End result: They came to an oasis, the Ethiopian asked to be baptized and Philip obliged him.  The Word of God was no longer captive to print and pages. 

Will that Word be free in your life this weekend?  “Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.  Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord.”  Amen.

 

 

The Meyer Minute for May 8, 2012

Back in 1899 the editor of the New London, Connecticut, Bee, advertised, "Here various news we tell, of love and strife, Of peace and war, health sickness, death and life...Of old mismanagements, taxations new, All neither wholly false, nor wholly true” (Mitchell Stephens, A History of News. p. 201).

Things have changed dramatically since 1899.  Back then information came from the local newspaper and the talk you shared with neighbors and townspeople, limited sources of information.  Today the sources of information are unlimited and, this is so important, you can choose the sources that suit your preferences.  Like flipping through channels for a TV show we like or blogging with an affinity group, we make our own realities. 

A friend of mine down at the gas station used to say, "Dale, when the Big Guy calls me, I'm going to tell Him I'm a friend of yours."  To which I said, "You know, that won't be your normal audit.  H&R Block won't go with you.  You have to appear on your own." (see 2 Corinthians 5:10)

Here’s a special challenge to Christians today: To get God’s reality into the unlimited sources from which we can pick and choose our information.  They used to say, a newspaper in one hand and a Bible in the other.  Today you can have both in your smart phone at your finger tip, the Bible and “various news we tell, of love and strife, Of peace and war, health sickness, death and life...Of old mismanagements, taxations new.”  But is it all relative, “all neither wholly false, nor wholly true,” with you deciding your reality?  Really, take a look at 2 Corinthians 5:10.

 

The Meyer Minute for April 30, 2012

This is an intervention.  For your own good, check into the clinic.  You're addicted to speed.

Got your attention?  I'm not talking about doing drugs.  I am talking about how most of us are hooked on the ever-accelerating pace of life.  Monday morning and the questions will hit us again: Do you have a minute? Grab a quick bite?  Check your mail while you're driving?  This speed is killing us.

Yesterday was an anniversary in our ever-accelerating rush.  On yesterday’s date, April 29, in 1913 an inventor in Hoboken, New Jersey, named Gideon Sundback patented the zipper. Before the zipper, you buttoned or tied your clothes.  That was slow.  Then came the "separable fastener" as Sundback called it.  That was faster.  Now we've got Velcro, faster still.

I'm not suggesting you check into an Amish community, but for your own good, get your addiction to speed under control.  Even on workdays, check yourself into the clinic of regular quiet time with God, Bible and prayer.  Check in every day, even several times a day. "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength" (Isaiah 30:15).  Then the verse adds this about Israel in Isaiah's day: "But you would have none of it."

Will you? Speed kills. Rest with God recreates.

 

 

 

The Meyer Minute for April 27, 2012

This weekend many churches will observe Good Shepherd Sunday.  “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus says.  “I know my own and my own know me, and I lay down my life for the sheep.”  (John 10:14-15)

Uncle Er was a farmer.  Years ago…no, decades ago, I was in grade school…Uncle Er decided to sell his herd of dairy cows and buy sheep.  I remember how the family pictured it: Uncle Er sitting on one of the hills of his farm, wearing his shepherd’s robe, shepherd staff in hand, and with loving care watching over the sheep that depended on him.  In our imaginations there was an aura over the whole scene, the smoke from Uncle Er’s ever present cigar. 

I’ve heard there are cultures that have no idea about sheep and shepherds but the image does have a hold on western Christians.  Why else would I remember the story from long ago?  “Abel was a keeper of sheep.” (Genesis 4:2)  “Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law.” (Exodus 3:1)  The prophet Amos was a shepherd (Amos 7:14-15).  “The Lord is my shepherd.” (Psalm 23:1).  “My father,” Isaac said, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”  Abraham answered, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” (Genesis 22:7-8)  And the images lead to the announcement to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem, “There is born to you this day a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11).  “I am the good shepherd…and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:14-15) 

I guess it didn’t work out the way he had hoped.  After a year or so, Uncle Er sold the sheep and bought a new herd of Holsteins.  So much for earthly shepherds but our Shepherd says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.  Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen.”  (Hebrews 13:5, 20-21)

 

The Meyer Minute for April 26, 2012

Is the sun shining in your life?  That's the way we talk, describing a good mood and a happy soul as the sun shining.  Clouds, on the other hand, suggest a gloomy, overcast soul.

God came to the Israelites at Mount Sinai...in a cloud.  Exodus 19 tells us that they were frightened, understandably, but think about it.  God appeared to His people where they were, at that mountain.  He didn't show up someplace where they weren't, say at Pikes Peak.  And since no sinner can see God's glory and live (Exodus 33:20), God came to them veiled in a cloud.  He wanted to be close but didn't want to hurt the people He loved.  Important biblical stories, like the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, the Ascension, and Judgment Day include clouds.

So if your soul is overcast today, or any day, recall this Bible truth: It's on the cloudy days that God comes closest to the people He loves.

 

 

The Meyer Minute for April 25, 2012

The church calendar says today is the day of St. Mark the Evangelist.  That probably doesn’t grab your attention as you tackle the tasks of the day but perhaps a little fact from biblical scholarship will provide something to think about.

No one knows for sure where the Gospel of St. Mark ends.  Take a look at Mark chapter 16 in your English Bible, specifically looking at the footnotes.  Some ancient manuscripts stop at verse 8.  Other ancient manuscripts add verses 9 through 20.  Still others have different verses 9 and 10 that end the chapter.  Where Mark ended his Gospel is a long-standing scholarly debate.

Ending at verse 8 seems strange.  Verse 6, definitely part of Mark, reports that the angel said to the women, “Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen!  He is not here.  See the place where they laid Him.”  But verse 8 seems like a strange ending, a definite downer: “And they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed.  And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

Dr. James Voelz of Concordia Seminary is writing a commentary on Mark.  He thinks verse 8 is indeed the end, and a great way to end.  The women had only one reason to believe the resurrection: the word of the angel announcing, “He is risen!”  That is exactly the reason you and I believe, the word “He is risen!” has been announced to us.  Their story of fear and amazement is also our experience in life and so the word keeps coming to us from God, “He is risen!”  Take that with you today, this day of St. Mark the Evangelist.