The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for May 19, 2023

Renewed emphasis upon the Ascension is “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). The church no longer has a privileged place in American society. It’s not hard to find discrimination against practicing our Christian faith. Media pushes morality that is not Judeo-Christian. “Selfies” are all about me, not you. In this society, new and scary for many of us, Ascension takes us back to the future.

Something profound happened in the fourth century A.D. Before the fourth century, there was widespread discrimination and persecution against Christians. “For two hundred and fifty years from Nero to Constantine to be a Christian was in itself a capital crime, always liable to the severest penalty, even when the law was not enforced” (Gregory Dix, “The Shape of the Liturgy,” 145). Living under threat of death, what we today call the “church calendar” was a simple thing with one main purpose: Looking ahead to the return of Jesus Christ to rescue His followers from their sufferings and danger.

But under Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, Christianity first became legitimate and then became the official religion of the empire, a “strange new partnership between church and state” (Douglas Farrow, “Ascension and Ecclesia,” 115). That relationship is called “Christendom.” Although America has the “separation of church and state,” we’ve had a cozy relationship with the prevailing public culture. That profound change also changed the church calendar. Things weren't quite so bad any more for Christians. The Christian worship that had been yearning for the coming of Jesus became instead a remembrance of historical events and saints.  Pastor says, “Today we remember…” fill in the blank.  

Moving the Ascension out of its relative obscurity can unite us in looking to the future, to Jesus’ return and all that He will bring us. Ascension Day services and Ascension awareness throughout the year can help us “recover something of the significance of the primitive liturgical cycle, which was essentially eschatological, its festivals proclaiming and manifesting the fact of Redemption and representing the inauguration of the world to come, rather than a series of historical facts” (J.G. Davies, “He Ascended into Heaven,” 56). Back to the future; “For such a time as this!”

The Meyer Minute for May 18, 2023

Before you read on, think about this question. Who holds church leaders accountable?

In practice, it seems to be bishops and boards, constitutions and bylaws, and ultimately churchwide conventions. But Ascension shouts, “No!” “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). When Jesus comes in glory, the time of final accountability has come for us all. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Who holds the church and its leaders accountable? The Lord of the Church.

I vividly remember one gathering of church leaders at a St. Louis hotel. Breakout sessions had begun, but I was a bit late. Looking for my group, I walked into the wrong room. About a dozen church officials were in deep silence, each with his head into the bylaws of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. “Whoops, wrong room,” I said, and then, always going for a joke, “I see you’re deep into Bible study.” No reaction. Constitutions and bylaws, boards and officials have their place, “all things decently and in order,” wrote Paul, but he immediately proceeded to talk about the resurrected Christ who is soon to return in judgment (1 Corinthians 14:40-15:28).

When someone finishes service to the church, you’ll often hear this verse. “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). But is that for us to say? Who is Lord of the Church right now? Ascension reminds us that we are accountable to Jesus Christ. N.T. Wright: “What happens when you downplay or ignore the ascension? The answer is that the church expands to fill the vacuum… The church is not Jesus and Jesus is not the church” (Surprised by Hope, 109, 112).

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).

The Meyer Minute for May 17, 2023

A Ukrainian soldier wrote “For Uman” on the projectile he was about to launch toward a Russian position. Uman is a city where Russian attacks killed more than two dozen civilians. In a world of injustice, we yearn for justice. Sometimes we realize that justice won’t come in this present, fallen world.  A Ukrainian mother who lost her 33-year-old son in the war wrote, “Burn in hell for our children.” It’s not just victims of war. We all yearn for justice, and for as many reasons as there is sin and suffering in our lives. Justice is one of the promises of the Ascension.

When we Christians look to the future only by looking to the general resurrection at the end of time, we mute the promise of the Ascension that justice is coming. Jesus Christ “ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead” (Nicene Creed). N.T. Wright: “The picture of Jesus as the coming judge is the central feature of another absolutely vital and nonnegotiable Christian belief: that there will indeed be a judgment in which the creator God will set the world right once and for all…. In a world of systematic injustice, bullying, violence, arrogance, and oppression, the thought that there might come a day when the wicked are firmly put in their place and the poor and weak are given their due is the best news there can be. Faced with a world in rebellion, a world full of exploitation and wickedness, a good God must be a God of judgment.” (Surprised by Hope, 117).

One widow of the war described her feelings about writing messages on projectiles. “Personally for me it’s a tiny bit of revenge.” (New York Times, May 16; A11). Understandable, to be sure, but that’s not the Spirit of the forgiving Christ. God “desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). To have that Christ-like attitude toward anyone who has hurt us takes no small amount of struggle with feelings and prayer, prayer based on the Ascension promise that one day we shall see that “within the kingdom of His might / All things are just and good and right” (Lutheran Service Book, 819:2).

The Meyer Minute for May 16, 2023

The Ascension of Jesus is a faith-strengthener for us in our personal struggles and can be an energizer for the church, sometimes a lethargic church, in its life and mission. This Thursday the calendar of the church observes Ascension. Thursday Ascension services used to be common but for various sociological reasons are less frequent and less attended. The positive impact of the Ascension doesn’t come from having one service, but from emphasizing the Ascension throughout the year.

The Resurrection was God’s approval upon the passion of Jesus for our sins. Since sin brought death into the world, a successful payment for sin would undo death (see Romans 5:12-21). That’s Easter. “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). The Ascension is different. It’s the exaltation of Christ. Christ now fully exercises the divine power and majesty He had temporarily set aside when He was born of Mary, lived, suffered, and died for us and our eternal salvation. That’s what “sits at the right hand of God” means. Ascension teaches us to believe Jesus is now in control of all things.

I don’t hear that very much, at least in my circles. Ascension is throughout the New Testament, in liturgy and in hymns, but minimized in contemporary preaching and teaching. By minimizing the Ascension, we make a deist Jesus. The deists believed that God created the world but then left us on our own. Minimizing the Ascension makes for an absent Jesus, or at least a Jesus who is around in some vague way but not in control. Devotional writer Os Guiness: “In short, the modern world quite literally ‘manages’ without God. We can do so much so well by ourselves that there is no need for God, even in his church. Thus we modern people can be profoundly secular in the midst of explicitly religious activities. Which explains why so many modern Christian believers are atheists unawares.” Parker Palmer says church leaders fall into the trap of “‘functional atheism,’ the belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us.” Ouch!

Jesus’ ascension is not a little appendage to His resurrection. “Where’s God when I need Him?” The Ascension is a powerful answer to that faith-seeking question.

The Meyer Minute for May 12, 2023

One of the many things I miss about Mom was her hugs. It was one of her ways to show us unconditional love. Of course, there were times when we kids tested the limits of her love, many times. Out late one Saturday night, she roused me the next morning. “I don’t care how tired you are, you’re going to church!” As Americans remember our mothers, we followers of Jesus have something more than memory. We’re looking forward. We shall again hug those we love.

Christianity was born into a society that did not believe in bodily resurrection. There’s a touching scene, to us Christians a sad scene, in Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey. One of the adventures of Odysseus was descending to Hades, the place of the dead. There he saw and spoke with the ghost of his mother. Naturally, he was “longing to embrace her and tried three times, putting my arms around her, but she went sifting through my hands, impalpable as shadows are, and wavering like a dream. Now this embittered all the pain I bore, and I cried in the darkness; ‘O my mother, will you not stay, be still, here in my arms, may we not, in this place of Death, as well, hold one another, touch with love?’” (Odyssey, IX)

“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” “The dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:19, 52-53). “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep… and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, 17-18).

“O Christ, do Thou my soul prepare / For that bright home of love

That I may see Thee and adore / With all Thy saints above.”

(Lutheran Service Book, 673:6)

The Meyer Minute for May 10, 2023

“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32).

One of my faith struggles is knowing that Jesus is with me now, with me in a real, “I’m here for you” sort of way. The Emmaus disciples didn’t know that the stranger was Jesus, but He indeed was with them. So often we live by sight more than by faith (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:7). Part of my problem is that I value what is seen more than what is unseen (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:18). Look around, what’s going on in the unseen world around you?

“I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32). What Jesus said to Peter applies to us as well. Isaiah prophesied, “He bore the sin of many, and makes intercessions for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). “He always lives to make intercession for them” says Hebrews 7:25 about us who draw near to God through Jesus. “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).  “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:16-18). Jesus, who prayed to His Father for the disciples, is the “same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). “He lives to bless me with His love; He lives to plead for me above” (Lutheran Service Book, 461:3).

The resources of faith are inexhaustible and come from the unseen One who walks with us today. The Emmaus disciples finally did see Jesus, only for a moment, but they didn't need to see Him to experience His presence through the rest of their lives. The resurrected Jesus often stepped from the unseen world into the lives of His disciples, always for their assurance, "I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). “Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible” (1 Peter 1:8). Feel the burn?

The Meyer Minute for May 9, 2023

People talk, that’s what we do. We talk when we get together face-to-face. We talk on phones. We “talk” through our posts. We share what’s going on in our lives. We give our opinions. And when the talking is around church or at the Seminary, we talk about religion and God things. A former Seminary professor was known to say in religious conversations, “That’s stupid.”

Shortly after the unspeakably awful shooting in Texas, a congressman was asked on CNN about people who say prayers aren’t working. He said, “Well, those are people that don’t believe in an almighty God who is absolutely in control of our lives. I’m a Christian. I believe that He is.” I’m sure the congressman is intelligent, but that was a stupid thing to say. Yes, the Bible teaches that God and the ascended Christ are in control (Colossians 1:15-20), but the Bible also teaches that God for a time lets us pursue our own ways; we can disregard His will and commandments (Romans 1:28-32). Though we are saved by grace, we are commanded to do good works for the welfare of our communities and nation (Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Jeremiah 29:5, 11). And, looming over us all is divine, eternal judgment (1 Peter 1:17; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

The Latin word “stupidus” means (1) “physically dazed,” (2) “numbed by an emotional shock, stunned, spell bound” and (3) “Foolish, dull-witted, brainless.” (Oxford Latin Dictionary). It's on all sides of the political spectrum. A couple of friends shared separately that they were filling out forms for their doctors’ appointments. One question asked about their preferred gender. “Uh, you’re a doctor and you don’t know?” “Nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

When we Christians say things about faith and life that are not true, we sin (Second Commandment) and hurt the mission of the Church. A vital part of our life in the church should be teaching and learning. Sermons that edify through teaching and encouragement, Bible classes and studies that explore the mysteries of faith, honesty about how little we know… I doubt we can reduce stupidity in the world but gathering around the truths of this world’s Creator can at least help us recognize stupid when we see it. “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children” (Matthew 11:25).

The Meyer Minute for May 5, 2023

It’s common to hear that religion is a private matter, something between you and God. Churchgoers are tempted to compartmentalize, “I have my church life; I have my work life.” Preachers contribute to this deception when we only stress personal faith in Jesus for eternal salvation. That can leave church people unable to see current events through a lens of faith.

For example, “Four members of the Proud Boys, including their former leader Enrique Tarrio, were convicted on Thursday of seditious conspiracy for plotting to keep President Donald J. Trump in power after his election defeat by leading a violent mob in attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.” (New York Times, May 5, A11). Is there a biblical way to understand this and other police and judicial news?

Yes, I believe there is, the Law of God. Lutherans are big on Law and Gospel, but we could be much better with both. When I ask seminarians, “What’s the purpose of God’s Law,” they’ll say to show us our sin. True enough, but we err when we minimize the Law because we now believe the Gospel. God never intended His Law to be minimized. Seditious conspiracy, mass murders, human trafficking, white collar crime… The first purpose of God’s Law is this, “Whoever you are, think twice before you commit a crime. You’ll be caught and punished.” 1 Timothy 1:9-10, “The law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane…” (1 Timothy 1:9). Call it the “curb purpose” of God’s Law, to deter coarse conduct through the threat of punishment. To our distress, more and more people are “jumping the curb” of God’s Law through conducts that show no sense of sin or shame.  

It's a civics teaching moment for the church.  “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.” (Yuval Levin, “The Fractured Republic,” 204).