The Meyer Minute

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.

 

The Meyer Minute for April 24, 2012

John DiIulio writes about Charles Colson in today’s Wall Street Journal.  Mr. Colson was convicted of obstructing justice in the Watergate scandal, “got religion,” served his time, and then, in 1976, founded Prison Fellowship.  Mr. DiIulio writes, “Where criminal justice was concerned, he was God’s good man, not Nixon’s bad man.  He gave his ministry most of his adult life and almost all of his money….”  Mr. Colson died Saturday.

I’m teaching the first class on preaching to ten seminarians.  Yesterday the topic was how a preacher can get into the hearer’s heart.  There was a time when the minister could simply announce, “Thus says the Lord” and most people would pay attention.  (Whether they’d act on God’s word is another matter!)  Things are different today.  Among other things, we Americans are preoccupied with all the things in our daily lives.  We’re cluttered, over-loaded with information and addicted to multi-tasking. So how does a preacher get to the heart of the hearer?  More important, with all the things that swirl in your mind, pulling your thoughts in countless directions, how can you focus your life more on your destiny, which is God?

Mr. Colson showed the answer.  Plunging into the problems of people’s lives (aka Christian love), focuses Christians on God’s will and working for the redemption of people (aka God’s love for us in the suffering servant, Jesus Christ).  “‘Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?’  Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:36-39)

 

The Meyer Minute for April 20, 2012

It hurts when life goes against our will and our wishes.  I'm not thinking now of evil things we might want to do but about the good things, the innocent hopes that godly people have for themselves and for others.  Our hopes are pricked, we hurt and get discouraged.

Encouragement at such times is common but it doesn't enable us.  "You tell me to hang in there...but I can't.”  If Jesus is only an encouragement to bear up under adversity, you're still the one bearing your burden.  But if Jesus dwells in you...Remember, "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20)…then His ability to bear the cross becomes your ability to bear adversity...and bear it to a good outcome.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

"It is not the sharpness of the thorns that we should dwell on, but the sweetness of the rose” (Alan of Lille, 12th century).

 

 

 

The Meyer Minute for April 18, 2012

Sunday marks the anniversary of a great exercise in hope.  On April 18, 1942, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle led the first bombing raid on Tokyo in World War II. 16 B-25 bombers, normally land-based planes, took off from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet.  That incredibly difficult mission was an exercise in hope. Coming 5 months after Pearl Harbor, Doolittle's raid encouraged America to sacrifice toward victory.

Activate hope in your life. Grow it with the conviction that the Christ who conquered death can certainly bring you through present problems to a heavenly victory. Apply it to the special problems in your life. Pray it for others and for our troubled world. Hope, without specific prescriptions but with this confidence: "For those who love God all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28). Hope is a lively thing, says 1 Peter 1:3) when it's focused on the right object, on God who raised Jesus "from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God" (1:21). Out of such hope in the God of resurrection we make our own raids on the enemy of despair. The flowers on last Sunday's lilies are fading, but your hope?  Let it bloom! 

 

The Meyer Minute for April 17, 2012

Jesus says, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22:21).  Today we're getting rendered!

Through most of western history, people have been wary of left-handers.  The Greek word for the left is translated "well-named," a euphemism to ward off the evil thought to be associated with the left hand.  The Romans were blunt.  The Latin word for the left hand is "sinister."  Today we often regard government as sinister, especially when Uncle reaches deep into our pockets.

Interestingly, in theology the government is sometimes referred to as the "Kingdom of the left" (The Church is God's kingdom of the right).  That reference is not a slam.  While no form of government or administration is perfect, the Bible makes clear that God intends government to bless our earthly life.  Government "is God's servant for your good" (Romans 13:4).

So today we "Render unto Caesar," which means to give government their due (and maybe more!).  The word "render" also means to melt-down fat by heating, like rendering lard.  It might be a good thing if today's 1040 burns down our expectations from all that government should do for us to the lean truth about government in the Bible: "Rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad" (Romans 13:3).

 

 

 

The Meyer Minute for April 16, 2012

The Bible has a good story for Monday morning…or any morning when getting up and going to work is less than thrilling.  It’s from John 21 and happened not long after Easter.  Peter told some other disciples, “I’m going out to fish,” and they went with him.  They fished all night but caught nothing.  So when early morning came, they must have been weary, just as we sometimes wake up not really rested because we’re anxious about the day ahead.  Coming toward shore, a stranger calls and asks if they’ve caught anything.  “No.”  He calls back, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”  I wonder how I would have taken to that unsolicited advice.

Timothy Dudley-Smith has put the rest of the story into a hymn.  “So they cast, and all their heaving cannot haul their catch aboard; John in wonder turn, perceiving, cries aloud, ‘It is the Lord!’ Peter waits for nothing more, plunges in to swim ashore.” 

And then Mr. Smith draws the moral.  “Christ is risen! Grief and sighing, sins and sorrows, fall behind; fear and failure, doubt, denying, full and free forgiveness find.  All the soul’s dark night is past, morning breaks in joy at last.

“Morning breaks, and Jesus meets us, feeds and comfort, pardons still; As His faithful friends He greets us, partners of His work and will.  All our days, on every shore, Christ is ours forevermore!”  (Lutheran Service Book, 485)

 

The Meyer Minute for April 13, 2012

Do a quick memory check of all that has happened in the hundred years since the Titanic sunk.  That ship, heralded as unsinkable, couldn’t even complete one voyage.  In 1937 the great German airship Hindenberg went down in flames in New Jersey.  In 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff and in 2003 shuttle Columbia blew apart during its descent to earth.   In 1979 there was a nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and the world’s worst nuclear disaster occurred in Chernobyl in 1986.  How many product recalls have there been over the years?  How many lawsuits because of accidents from defective design in manufacturing?  Did you ever own a Corvair?  “Unsafe at any speed” was the way Ralph Nader dubbed it. 

The list could go on but here’s the point: the last century has taught us that science and technology are not infallible.  We’ve become skeptical.  And we’ve become skeptical about other things.  The inevitable progress of humanity?  How about two world wars, the Holocaust and other genocides?  The blessings of big central government?  We’re skeptical about that too.  The institutional church?  Our critics point to sexual scandals, accommodation to culture, fiscal mismanagement, hypocrisies, irrelevance…  Here’s what it comes to: We’ve seen too much to be trusting.  We’ve had a century of putting our hopes in something or other, only to see our hopes dashed.

What a great blessing such disappointment can be!  Our skepticism brings into clear focus what it means to trust Jesus Christ, to have, using the religious word, “faith.”  Can we prove to every skeptic that the promises of Jesus Christ are true?  No, but that’s what faith is, hanging on to Christ and to the words of His promises, sometimes in spite of what we see and experience.  “We live by faith, not by sight.”  (2 Corinthians 5:7)