The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for November 14, 2018

“Hey, Jake! Come here. Stop running and come here, just for a minute.”

“Thanks. Let me see your mouth.” “Lost your two bottom teeth? You’re 6-years-old; it’s time, but I’m wondering. Did they get knocked out?” “Opa, what?” “Jake, you’re as physical… no, rambunctious as any boy I’ve ever seen. Were you wrestling with your brother and he knocked your teeth out?” “No, Opa. Fell out.”

“Don’t race off. I’ll grab your arm. Opa wants to teach you.” “Opa!” “Jake, you’re growing into your name. The name ‘Jacob’ in the Bible has been explained as the ‘supplanter.’ The first Jacob was a twin. His brother Esau was born first but later the clever Jacob stole Esau’s birthright. ‘Esau said, ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing” (Genesis 27:36). You and your brother Drew love each other, but I’ve seen you ambush your brother and start fights.” “Opa, can I go?”

“Hang on, one more thing. The first Jacob was also a wrestler. The Bible says, ‘A man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day has broken.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ Jake, he was wrestling with God and the Bible says God blessed him. You’re a jokester and a wrestler. You’re growing into your name.”

“Opa, let me go.” “Did the tooth fairy bring you money?” “Two dollars.” “Hmmm, the tooth fairy has more money than when I was a kid. Jake, go. And like your namesake, may God bless you.”

“And he’s off, chasing his brother around the house.”

The Meyer Minute for November 12, 2018

“Thank you for your service.” You heard that many times, perhaps said it yourself to someone in military uniform. We’ve learned since the Viet Nam War to thank our military personnel, whether we agree with our current conflicts or not. No doubt our soldiers, sailors and airmen would rather be safe at home with loved ones, but they live mission-conscious in our chaotic and dangerous world.

“Thank you for your service.” If someone said that to you as a civilian, what would they be thanking you for? What service are you offering that in some small way makes your community and our country better? Americans’ attitudes have changed drastically since 2 million of our young men went to fight in World War I. When the Barna Organization put this statement before people, “The highest goal of life is to enjoy it as much as possible,” 84 percent of Americans agreed and 67 percent of practicing Christians agreed (Barna Trends 2017). If life is all about you, why bother with others who need your help, let alone go to war? How different from the Ten Commandments, which show our duties toward others for the good of community and country. The morality of self-fulfillment weakens us.

At the end of the war, President Woodrow Wilson wrote to Senator Henry Ashurst, “I am now playing for 100 years hence.” Wrote Ted Widmer of the City University of New York, “He would be dismayed at all the ways in which our world resembles his” (New York Times, Sunday Review, November 11, 2018; 10). If you disappeared tomorrow, or if your congregation suddenly disappeared, would people in your community care or even notice? No one said, “Thank you for your service” to the religious, to the priest or Levite who passed by the man beaten by robbers. Jesus’ approval went – Imagine, being approved by the Son of God! – to the Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).

The Armistice ending World War I was signed at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Eleven-o’clock signals there’s not much time left. God only knows how much time self-absorbed America still has, but it’s high time for followers of Jesus to be more mission-conscious than ever. “Christians live not in themselves, but in Christ and their neighbor” (Martin Luther, “Freedom of a Christian”). “Thank you for your service?”

The Meyer Minute for November 2, 2018

I’ve written hundreds of devotions over the years, but the following from “Timely Reflections” is one of my favorites. I’ve thought of this devotion countless times as Diane and I have marveled at the wondrous colors on campus this autumn.

“Euonymous alatus compactus,” the botanists call it. For us commoners, it’s the “burning bush,” and here on the Seminary campus it’s providing a spectacular display of fall color. True to its common name, its leaves have turned a brilliant red. The popular name comes from Exodus 3: “The angel of the Lord appeared to him [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed” (Exodus 3:2). God said, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).

How many people, I fear, are missing the awe of creation? How many are obsessed with the screen on their smartphone, computer or tablet? “When through the woods and forest glades I wander,” I have my attention focused on a screen? Duh! In this most beautiful time of the year, we’re obsessed with our own problems? Could it be that autumn is God’s billboard advertising that He is able to help you with your problems? “Earth’s crammed with heaven / And every common bush afire with God: / But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, / The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries.” (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

“And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned’” (Exodus 3:3). Be a child again, a child of God, and take a long look. Marvel. And when you turn aside and look at a burning bush, you’ll see that old “Euonymous alatus compactus” has ridged branches, not round and smooth. I wonder why? Perhaps for no practical reason, save the Creator looking down with delight as you and I with childlike wonder marvel at nature. “And God saw everything the he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). So many opportunities to marvel at God’s creation, but what do we do? Rush on to the next meeting, click the next link, pluck our iPhone or what have you.

The Meyer Minute for October 31, 2018

A moral man of wealth, a man upstanding in every way, asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life” (Mark 10:17). Jesus’ answer, give it all up and follow Me, discouraged the man. He walked away sad. Well, thought the disciples, if such an exemplary person doesn’t have it, “Who can be saved?” (Mark 10:26).

Reformation celebrates the answer. Martin Luther said in his explanation of the Second Article, “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins….” “Who can be saved?” We are saved only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, which is a Lutheran way of expressing what Jesus said to the rich man. Our lives of sanctification don’t save us; God’s gift of justification through faith in Jesus does.

Church-goers often overlook this fact: the hard question of eternal salvation is irrelevant to many people today. “Who can be saved?” assumes a final accountability for how we live, a judgment of our life and works. And that assumes that we will give an answer to someone greater than we are, the Creator of all things. You and I believe that but surveys show most Americans do not. They find their answers by looking within themselves. “You have your opinion; I have mine. Who are you to tell me that I’m wrong?” “Who can be saved?” That’s a question our contemporaries are not asking.

How do we lead others to be concerned about judgment, grace and the gift of eternal life? C.S. Lewis wrote, “Christianity now has to preach the diagnosis—in itself very bad news—before it can win a hearing for the cure.” That means, in Reformation terms, the use of the Law. Our contemporaries are like Narcissus of Greek mythology, so in love with himself that he died, but our contemporaries don’t know their hurting lives are the effect of God’s Law. Luther: “God’s love does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. Human love comes into being through that which is pleasing to it” (Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 28). God’s love is the cure. “Come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). Sharing God’s Law and love with our contemporaries will take our considerable time with them and our own selfless love for them.

The Meyer Minute for October 29, 2018

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks that. The question doesn’t come from the lottery, doesn’t come from the government, and doesn’t come from the credit card company that wants you in debt for their prosperity. The question was first asked by someone who showed His sincerity by giving His life for you. “What do you want me to do for you?”

One reason Concordia Seminary is a great place is daily chapel. My sorry soul needs all the spiritual help it can get, and daily chapel is a blessing. Last week Rev. Paul Sieveking preached on Mark chapter 10 and pointed out that “What do you want me to do for you?” is asked two times in the chapter. First, Jesus asks it of James and John. Their request was theology of glory: “’Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you’re asking’” (Mark 10:37-38). The second time is when blind Bartimaeus cries, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” This is theology of the cross. He’s asking Jesus for an act of loving kindness for his less than glorious daily life. “What do you want me to do for you?” and he answers, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight” (Mark 10:51). Something specific, a mercy, given a poor sinner by all-powerful Jesus.

What you pray for reveals much about yourself. How do you decide what to ask Jesus for? Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “The most promising method of prayer is to allow oneself to be guided by the word of the Scriptures, to pray on the basis of a word of Scripture. In this way we shall not become the victims of our own emptiness,” like James and John. “According to a word of Scripture we pray for the clarification of our day, for preservation from sin, for growth in sanctification, for faithfulness and strength in our work” (Life Together, 84-85)

Come, my soul, with ev’ry care, / Jesus loves to answer prayer;

He Himself has bid thee pray, / Therefore will not turn away. (Lutheran Service Book 779, 1)

“What do you want me to do for you?” Glory or mercy? Jesus is waiting for your answer.

The Meyer Minute for October 26, 2018

There are many church-going grandparents who are distraught because children or grandchildren have walked away from church and worship. They carry this grief silently, when in fact encouragement and guidance are available. One helpful resource I’d recommend is Faith Family Reunion. Check it out at www.faithfamilyreunion.com. Our five-grandchildren, the Cinco de Meyer, do go to church. They’re young and their parents make them go, but what will they do when they’re grown and on their own? Opa thinks about that a lot.

It’s helpful to ask, where does the worship of God take place? If young people are led to believe that worship is only in the Sunday sanctuary, we’re increasing the likelihood they’ll eventually walk away. After a lackluster service or two, they’ll wonder how relevant the Sunday service is to real life. But limiting worship to Sunday is a distortion of the Bible. Thinking of commandments four through ten, how we deal with others day-in and day-out, Phillip Melanchthon wrote, “We should learn that the works of the Second Table are truly the worship of God, that is, when our works are guided by the fear of God and by faith.” (In Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, 716)

Eugene Peterson died this past Monday. You may know him from his most popular book, “The Message,” a paraphrase of the Bible. That’s no small task, but Peterson had the credentials, a master’s degree in Semitic languages from Johns Hopkins and he taught Greek and Hebrew at New York Theological Seminary.  In 1962 the Presbyterian Church USA asked him to plant a mission church in Bel Air, Maryland. “I thought, ‘Wow, the church is a lot more interesting than the classroom,’” he told Religion News Service in 2013. “There’s no ambiguity to Greek and Hebrew. It’s just right or wrong. And in the church, everything was going every which way all the time – dying, being born, divorces, kids running away. I suddenly realized that this is where I really got a sense of being involved and not just sitting on the sidelines as a spectator, but being in the game.” (New York Times, October 24; B12).

www.concordiatheology.org has a new program with a telling title, “Word and Work: An Intersection.” Eugene Peterson found that intersection to be an adventure. I hope you do. Modeling for young people that worship is both in and out of the Sunday sanctuary might help keep them coming to church.

The Meyer Minute for October 24, 2018

The Meyer Minute for October 17, 2018

October is “Pastor Appreciation Month.” Here’s one of many reasons.

Your congregation is a practical link between individuals and the wider community. However, in recent decades two contradictory trends have weakened that mediating role. On one hand, there’s hyper-individualism. “I have my opinion; you have yours. Who are you to tell me I’m wrong.” On the other hand – and this goes against American’s rampant individualism – people have grown to rely upon centralized institutions, like government and big business, to fix their needs. Institutions in the middle, like congregations, have been weakened.

Social commentator Yuval Levin describes it well. “Individualism tends to weaken mediating power centers that stand between the individual and the nation as a whole—from families to local communities (including local governments), (and) religious institutions…. In their place, it strengthens individuals, on the one hand, and a central government, on the other, since such a government is most able to treat individuals equally by treating them all impersonally. For this reason, a hyper-individualist culture is likely to be governed by a hyper-centralized government, and each is likely to exacerbate the worst inclinations of the other. (The Fractured Republic, 99-100)

Pastors lead congregations in gathering individuals around a personal message, Good News from God for you and for me, and that Word has implications for how individuals live with others. Law and Gospel help us understand ourselves as sinners and saints and then see how we as individual members of the Body of Christ should relate to others. Levin: “The ultimate soul-forming institutions in a free society are frequently religious institutions. Traditional religion offers a direct challenge to the ethic of the age of fracture. Religious commitments command us to a mixture of responsibility, sympathy, lawfulness, and righteousness that align our wants with our duties. They help form us to be free.” (204)

We can show appreciation to our pastors by helping make our congregations lively and loving places of God’s Good News to individuals in our communities, not only to church members but also to the community. “Putting them (soul-forming institutions) within the reach of as many of our fellow citizens as possible must be among our highest and most pressing civic callings.” (205) Most important, it’s Jesus’ mission through us!

The Meyer Minute for October 15, 2018

Watching the baseball playoffs last night, Houston’s pitcher was in trouble. So the pitching coach went to the mound to talk, and, you’ve seen this, the players huddle around the coach and pitcher and hold their gloves over their faces so others can’t know what they’re planning. Their secretive conference over, everyone returns to his place and they put their secret strategy into place.

Don’t we often conceal with our words? Talking with a competitor, you don’t lie but you also don’t tip your hand to what you’re really planning. In a conversation, you pick your words carefully so that your true thoughts won’t be known. “Plausible deniability” they call it. I never said that, but you know you thought it. When is careful speech actually deceit?

“Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil” (Proverbs 12:20). Jesus says the same in Mark 7:22, and it rises to our words and faces. Instead of gloves over our mouths, facial expressions and clever words hide our true thoughts. That’s why the Second Commandment, about words, follows immediately after the First Command, about what’s in your heart. Now if Jesus is in your heart as Lord, you’ll speak lovingly and not deceitfully. “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:21-23).

Are there times when, figuratively speaking now, we put our mitt over our mouth to conceal our words, times when we don’t tell all we know? Yes. The question is what’s in your heart.  Are you secretive for the sake of your own advantage, to one-up the other person, or because you’re speaking carefully out of Christ-like love for the person you’re talking to? “Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy” (Proverbs 12:20).

“Upon your lips, then, lay your hand, / And trust His guiding love;

Then like a rock your peace shall stand / Here and in heav’n above.

(Lutheran Service Book, 737, 7)

The Meyer Minute for October 12, 2018

Several weeks ago I was in Paris, thoroughly enjoying my time. Away from the daily grind, I had time to take in the sights. That included a leisurely walk, time to think, when I came upon a scene I share with you. Looking up at the great steeple of St. Mary’s church, I noticed a lightning rod was affixed to the cross. That stopped me in my tracks. Don’t we hear about the sufficiency of faith in Jesus? If that’s true, why does this symbol of the church have a lightning rod? Are we hedging our bets? But then I thought of 1 Peter 4:17, “It is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.”

There’s no lack of suffering in life, and sometimes it comes from nature. Sometimes the heavenly Father “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45), but Hurricane Michael teaches in an awful way that sin has corrupted nature with devastating results.

Peter, however, isn’t talking about natural disasters. He’s talking about discrimination because you publicly confess Jesus. In “Clearly Christian,” soon to be released by Concordia Publishing House, Trevor Sutton teaches that Christianity is deeper than outward goodness. It is rather clear confession that each of us is so corrupted by sin that our only hope is a dramatic rescuer, the total grace of a Savior. Confessing that among people who think more highly of themselves than they ought will bring discrimination, even persecution. Jesus’ cross was and still is a lightning rod for the self-righteous.

Since judgment begins with us, daily repentance is in order. “It is impossible to hope in God unless one has despaired regarding all creatures and knows that nothing can profit oneself without God. Since there is no person who has this pure hope…and since we still place some confidence in the creature, it is clear that we must, because of impurity in all things, fear the judgment of God” (Heidelberg Disputation, Proof 11).

“Do we pass that cross unheeding, Breathing no repentant vow?

Though we see You wounded, bleeding, See your thorn-encircled brow?

Yet Your sinless death has brought us Life eternal, peace, and rest;

Only what Your grace has taught Calms the sinner’s deep distress.

(Lutheran Service Book, 423, 2).

You can have some deep thoughts walking in Paris, Illinois, or wherever you live.