The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for January 31, 2013

The economic news is not good.  Another quarter like the last and we’ll be back in recession.  Is your family feeling the economic pinch?

Blame the economy on whomever you want; the Bible puts our troubles in a larger context.  “Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it?”  (Amos 3:6)  That doesn’t mean that God caused the Great Recession and this sputtering recovery.  Like so many other troubles we have, our self-centeredness, our undisciplined stewardship of our lives and resources, our prodigal ways, even our unknown faults (Psalm 19:12), in short, our sinfulness brings trouble upon us.  We do it to ourselves; “God tempts no one.” (James 1:13)

God could use His omnipotence to remove our problems but He doesn’t.  Instead He shows Himself a Father, not a doting but a loving Father who uses our troubles to mature us.  The pain of our lives, economic or whatever it is for you, is the Father’s disciplining us in hope that we will see the dead end of our ways and the unending blessing of going the way of His commandments and faith.  “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11)  That’ll take patience, a view beyond today, and trust in your heavenly Father.  “Take not Your Holy Spirit from me!” (Psalm 51:11)

The Meyer Minute for January 30, 2013

Charles Leroux of the Chicago Tribune interviewed Professor James Leary, who's spent years gathering ethnic jokes. Every group has its jokes, but far and away the most famous are about Ole and Lena.

"Ole walks into work, and both of his ears are bandaged up. The boss says, 'What happened to your ears?' Ole says, 'Yesterday I vas ironing a shirt ven da phone rang and I accidentally answered da iron.' The boss says, 'Well, that explains one ear, but what happened to your other ear?' Ole says, "I tried to call da doctor.'"

There's a goodness from God when we get together and laugh. David Reid told about a young Scottish minister who spent all his time studying theology and no time socializing with normal people. "When asked how he like his new parson, an old Scot said that he supposed he was all right, in the main, but six days he was invisible and the seventh day he was incomprehensible" (in For All the Saints, II, 776).  Far better to while away some time in idle chatter and laughter. God created us for community.

Speaking of community, Ole and Lena are planning a trip to New York. They're going to look for the big apple (Chicago Tribune, January 8, 2003; Sec 2).

 

 

The Meyer Minute for January 29, 2013

What are we going to do about all these illegal aliens?

Moses named one of his sons Gershom, “for he said, ‘I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.’” (Exodus 18:3).  Later, as Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, he said, “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it…you shall go to the priest and say…, “A wandering Aramean was my father.  And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.  And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor.  Then we cried to the Lord….” (Deuteronomy 26: 1-6)

I don’t know precisely what politicians should do about illegal aliens but I am reminded that we followers of Jesus Christ see ourselves as sojourners.  “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which war against your soul.  Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable.” (1 Peter 2:11-12)  “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” (Hebrews 13:14)  You do see yourself as a sojourner, don’t you?  That will be tested today every time you have an opportunity to “love your neighbor as yourself,” whether the neighbor is from Mexico or next door.   (Matthew 22:39)

The Meyer Minute for January 28, 2013

We had some hearty laughs the other day as we reflected on the foibles of husbands.  Seven of us were sitting around the table at a conference, all of us married many years.  One husband recounted that in the earliest days of marriage his wife prepared pancakes, not just any pancakes but a recipe handed down in her family.  Can’t you imagine, the glow still on the wedding vows and she shared her best for him?  The new husband took a bite and blurted out, “This could choke a horse!”  It was a long while before she offered him that meal again.  Another veteran of marriage confessed that in the first years of marriage he thought, “Why can’t she think like me?”  As the years passed, thoughts about his wife changed to, “I’m OK; she is what she is.”  Finally, more years passed and he surrendered, “It’s good that she is what she is.”  Slowly we Neanderthals learn, step by step.

What a gift God gives husbands when He blesses us with wives who keep their wedding vows.  Our hearty laughs about husbands came from people all married about 40 years.  If husbands get wiser, that’s a big if, we let down our defenses and admit that Christian marriage changes us for the better.  To laugh about our foibles comes out of forgiveness and patience, and that’s good for the next generation to see, marriage wisdom “caught” more than “taught.”  And should Christian marriages multiply enough, American society will become healthier.  For all that there is hope this Monday morning, because God has blessed so many families with wives and mothers who keep their vows. Husbands and fathers should do the same!   

The Meyer Minute for January 25, 2013

Sometimes a verse puts your troubles into a few short words. Psalm 34:19 begins, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” You’re on the short end. Someone is spreading lies about you, cheating you in some deal, using you, not following the Golden Rule…. These are the afflictions that trouble sincere and godly people.

For that the psalmist gives this promise, “But the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Sometimes you’ve seen this promise kept in your own lifetime. You’ve seen people who have wronged you finally get what’s due them. But much damage was done and now, right now, you may be suffering because of some wrong being done to you. These troubles can drive us two ways. One is toward retaliation. Don’t go there, the psalmist says, but instead trust the promise. “The Lord delivers him out of them all.” God sees; God knows; God hears your prayer. “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears toward their cry.” So if people are doing you wrong, if you can’t get them to stop, and if, this is a big if, if you’re not retaliating but trusting God to set things right, this verse, Psalm 34:19, is for you. It’s affirmation as you walk the way of Christ.

The Meyer Minute for January 24, 2013

Psalm 34:19 is strangely comforting verse.  It begins, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”  Isn’t that the truth!  “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”  Before throwing a pity party, does this verse even apply to us?  Are you righteous?  Am I?  Psalm 143:2 says, “Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living is righteous.”  We’re disqualified, this verse isn’t for us, unless…..  Unless God gives you righteousness, which makes it His gift not your merit.  Jeremiah 23:6 – “The Lord our righteousness.”  St. Paul says that God made Jesus, “who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  (2 Corinthians 5:21)  Yes, the verse is for us.

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”  If you think about it, sincere Christians are troubled by more things than people who don’t care about God and things eternal.  Striving to follow God’s word, we see and experience things that threaten our walk with Christ.  Those temptations trouble us but are of no importance to people who are spiritually apathetic.  These first words of Psalm 34:19 affirm the life you and I are trying to live.  “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”  More about the verse tomorrow.  

The Meyer Minute for January 23, 2013

Jesus says, “Here am I, and the children God has given Me.”  (Hebrews 2:13)  Can parents say that of themselves and their children?  Can the church say it?

Seminarian Clayton Sellers shared a disturbing fact of modern parenting.  “Sometime shortly before Christmas we, my wife, our son, and I were standing in line to see Santa at the mall.  While we were in line 85% of the parents were looking at their phone, at very important Facebook updates at 10 AM on a Saturday while their children tugged at their parents’ pant legs begging for attention.  A time to be Family is now.”

When the commandment says that children should honor their parents, it is obviously implied that parents be worthy of honor.  Why would a parent choose a screen over participating in a child’s flesh-and-blood anticipation of Santa?  And what does that neglect teach the child?  When the first commandment tells adults to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, it follows that we need times away from society and in solitude, away from our devices to be in stillness before God.  Why would we not choose quantity time with our heavenly Father?  We are addicted to these devices, to our own harm and to the harm of those entrusted to us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Let him who cannot be alone be aware of community.  Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.” (“Life Together,” 77)

Here am I, and the children God has given Me?  

The Meyer Minute for January 22, 2013

I didn’t sleep well last night, was awake for several hours when I should have been blissfully asleep.  I was fretting over the list of things I have to do.  No one wants much of time; everyone wants a little and that adds up. 

The biggest load on my chest was our students.  Some of them are feeling beat up by the demands of classes.  Some are worried about student debt.  Some are battling the flu.  Others are just carrying the heavy load of school, work and family.  Is it the moon, the alignment of the stars, cold sunless January, or maybe just life?  What most worries me (please don’t write back and say I shouldn’t worry; I understand that but I do) is that they seem to be looking for someone to ease their burdens.  If I’ve gained any maturity in 66 years of life, these are in fact the times when God Himself is breaking us, remaking us, and fitting us for His service in this world.  “But we know, as children should, that the cross is for our good,” runs a line in some hymn, the title I can’t remember.  I don’t hear the seminarians pouring out their problems with the insight that God is at work in their lives through their cross carrying.  These are our future pastors.  They will have parishioners share problems with them just as they have shared with me.  They will find that they can’t fix everyone’s problem, just as the president of the Seminary can’t fix theirs, much as I might like to.  They will need to teach and preach how God is most at work when the cross is heaviest on our shoulders.  One of my frustrations with Seminary life is that we do talk about God, Jesus, cross, resurrection in classrooms and chapel but it’s academic, understandably so.  We don’t personally own these themes until life beats us up.  Oswald Chambers: “The Bible has been so many words to us—clouds and darkness—then all of a sudden the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us in a particular condition.”

If you will, please say a prayer for our students.

When I can’t sleep, I get up and pour a glass of milk.  As I sat in the darkness, I heard the Spirit.  “Instead of crying in your beer, or milk, see this day’s problems and worries as your Father’s gift of spiritual maturation.”  “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?  Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” (Psalm 42:5)  

The Meyer Minute for January 21, 2013

O eternal God, You sit mysteriously in the highest heavens but assure us of Your interest in our earthly lives.  You have instituted governments for the good of all people.  On this Inauguration Day, where can we turn for help except to You, O Lord, You who are displeased with us because of our sins?  Can entrenched interests turn America?  Can political partisanship that seeks its own good more than the common welfare turn America?  Is there hope if citizens dismiss reasoned discussion of the common good in favor of our own entitlements?  The grave issues facing us will, we pray, make us humble in heart, cooperative in political conversation and intent upon wise stewardship of this nation during our time for the sake of all who will come after us.  If we must be further divided and broken in order that America become a repentant people in whom righteousness flourishes, then so be it.  Should that be our prospect in the next years, then we beg that Your Spirit to comfort us even as we learn the hard lesson that the chastening is for our good and only in You is our hope and continued life.  Give to all our leaders, especially to President Obama and the Congress wisdom beyond their own insights.  Make their rooms large enough for partisan friends and foes alike.  Unless You, O Lord, build the house, we labor in vain to build it.  Unless You keep the nation, our leaders watch in vain (Psalm 127:1).  We ask this for America, not according to our merits but according to Your mercy, through Jesus Christ.  Amen.   

The Meyer Minute for January 18, 2013

If you go to church this weekend, and I hope you will, be careful.  Churches have ways of teaching us how to hide our impurities and sins.  Not that they mean to; it just happens.  “God, I thank You that I am not like other men…  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” and whatever other ways you might sit in church and think you don’t need a Savior quite as much as some other people you know (Luke 18:17).

Jesus once said, “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.  If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.” (Mark 2:21)  Look as good to others as you may, you can’t put a patch of being religious on an impure and sinful heart.  The devil uses the ways of churches to deceive us into thinking that our shows of being religious are compatible with our self-serving heart.  It won’t work, “the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.”

“Put off the old self…and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”  (Ephesians 4:23-24)  Be careful in church lest the devil game the system and deceive you.  Pray in church, pray always, that the Spirit make you new within, a person of one cloth, clothed in true righteousness and holiness.

How loudly does the church bell ring in your ears?  Jesus says, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”  (Mark 2:17)  “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  (Luke 18:13)