The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for May 17, 2013

Today is commencement and the end of the 174^th academic year of Concordia Seminary.  This evening when students receive their degrees and certificates, all of them will be using their hard-earned knowledge in the service of the church and congregations.

“When He ascended on high…and He gave gifts to men.  He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers….” (Ephesians 4:8, 11)  On the day Jesus ascended, there was no Paul the great apostle, just Saul the persecutor.  On the day Jesus ascended, there was no Peter who knew that the Gospel was for Gentiles as well as Jews, no Peter who could stand up and preach boldly in defiance of hostile authorities.  On the day Jesus ascended, there was no Book of Acts, not yet the amazing spread of the Good News.  On the day Jesus ascended, there were no church fathers, no reformers, and none of the people who shaped our Christian faith traditions.  On Ascension Day so much was in the future.  The Great Commission had been given and God’s Spirit began at Pentecost to fulfill the promise, “This Gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world.” (Matthew 24:14)

We see the work of God in retrospect.  In the 2000 years since His ascension, our Lord Jesus has indeed given gifts and given pastors and teachers.  As seminaries hold their commencement exercises, God is still giving gifts to His Church.  Our prayer and our labor is that people generations from now will look back to these days and say, “The ascended Lord gave pastors and teachers.”

The academic year over, Diane and I are going to rest.  We’ll be back after Memorial Day.  Be safe.  Keep praying.

The Meyer Minute for May 16, 2013

“There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).  That’s helpful to remember when you can’t understand what God is doing in your life.

“Just as I am” begins the popular hymn.  “Just as I am, without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”

That’s all well and good, but how do you explain the tough struggles you’re going through?  If God loves you just as you are, then why, why is this happening to me?

“My child, don’t turn away or become bitter when the Lord corrects you.  The Lord corrects everyone He loves, just as parents correct their favorite child” (Proverbs 3:11-12).

Yes, God accepts you just as you are but He loves you so much that He doesn’t leave you just as you are.  In Christ He forgives you, He gives you hope, and He’s training you up for glory.  To everything a season.  In every season of your life, God loves you.

The Meyer Minute for May 15, 2013

“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  (Matthew 11:28)

So when you’re tired, too much to do and not enough time to do it, and worst of all, you’re feeling guilty because you can’t get it all done, that’s the way you were raised, then lift the burden off your heart by hearing, “Come unto Me.”

When you’re sad for whatever reason, in grief, in dejection, feeling sorry for yourself, and when you’re convinced nobody cares, maybe no one does but Jesus does.  When He calls God’s children to Himself, He puts His hand on you, on you, and blesses you.  “Come unto Me.”

When you’re fearful, anxious, worried…  Why are people so uncaring?  Why do they wave off my anxiety by saying, “It’s wrong to worry”?  When you can’t simply be happy, the One who is the same, yesterday, today and forever sees the outcome of the problem that worries you.  He’ll work it for your good.  “Come unto Me.”

 

When things are going well, so well that you don’t feel a pressing need to hide yourself in the Rock of Ages, when joy and bliss, when contentment and satisfaction, a sense of being accepted and loved are yours… then remember Who gave this pleasant season to you and heed this truth, “prone to wander, Lord I feel it; prone to leave the God I love.”  “Come unto Me.”

 

“Come unto Me, ye weary, and I will give you rest.”

O blessed voice of Jesus, which comes to hearts oppressed!

It tells of benediction, of pardon, grace, and peace,

Of joy that hath no ending, of love that cannot cease.”

The Meyer Minute for May 14, 2013

Do a quick memory check of all that has happened in the hundred years since the Titanic sank.  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.  Yes, there’s been amazing progress but the wheels keep falling off.  A few days ago Chrysler recalled over 400,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees.

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?  Scandals these last days are fueling that skepticism 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.

Disappointment?  Absolutely!  But why should we be surprised when science or humanity or someone close disappoints us?  They’re mortal, fallible sinners so of course they’ll disappoint us.  Disappointment encourages us to go to the One who is above our foibles and failures.  “Lord, to whom shall we go?”  (John 6:63)  Every time His disciples were disappointed, Jesus Christ showed in His good time that He can be trusted.  Our disappointments can bring into clear focus what it means to trust God, to have, using the religious word, “faith.”  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)          

 

The Meyer Minute for May 13, 2013

Democrats and Republicans are agreeing, not all of them but enough, that the IRS has to be held accountable for targeting conservative groups.  About holding government accountable…

A man named Naboth owned a vineyard next to the palace of the king of Samaria, Ahab.  Ahab wanted the property, made Naboth an offer but the offer was rejected.  All on the up-and-up, so far.  But when the king sulked, his wife said, “‘Do you now govern Israel?  Arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.’  So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal and she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city.  And she wrote in the letters, ‘Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people.  And set two worthless men opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’  Then take him out and stone him to death.’” (1 Kings 21:7-10)  And that’s just what happened.  Big government rolled over the little guy.  But Ahab and his wife Jezebel were held accountable.  When the prophet Elijah confronted Ahab, here’s a surprise because his name is almost synonymous with evil, the king repented.  God spared him for the time being. 

The IRS’ admitted abuses, the big guy bullying the little guy, will be dealt with in a secular way.  Prophets and preachers won’t be going to officials and preaching repentance, church and state kept distinct in our American system.  When accountability has happened, we all should be better off.  That said, there still is a religious dimension as the church watches the state practice accountability.  Christians pray that government officials in their heart of hearts know repentance and personal forgiveness, whatever public judgments and consequences take place.  After all, Christians follow the friend of tax collectors and sinners. 

The Meyer Minute for May 10, 2013

Years ago, over 25, a March day I think, I set out to drive to my mom’s house in Chicago.  When it started to snow, Interstate 57 quickly became packed with snow and slick, really slick.  Bitter cold winds were blowing across the open farm fields, blowing so hard that some semis were blown into the ditch.  Traffic crept along at 5 miles an hour.  Exit ramps were treacherous, so I couldn’t turn around.  I couldn’t call anyone, no cell phones then.   I was scared, white knuckles on the steering wheel…and I got angry.  My mother’s a stickler for being on time…I was angry about the tongue lashing I was sure to get.

What should have been a 4 hour trip turned into a 10 hour ordeal.  All that time I sharpened my tongue to answer every conceivable criticism for being late.  I convinced myself that I could answer anything, answer whatever she might throw at me with a sharp, edgy comeback.  So when I finally pulled into her driveway, I was ready for her...or so I thought.  She came running at me, tears pouring down her cheeks, gave me a big hug, and sobbing, gasping for air, she said, “I thought something had happened to you.”  I wasn’t ready for a mother’s love.

Scared, angry, defensive…  Because we easily forget that we are loved, we set aside this weekend to thank God for His love through our mothers.  “Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices, Who wondrous things has done, in whom His world rejoices; Who from our mothers’ arms has blest us on our way with countless gifts of love and still is ours today.”

The Meyer Minute for May 9, 2013

You go to Europe and you visit big old cathedrals that are little more than tourist destinations.  Some have even been converted into museums.  I think that many American Christians have a museum mentality about church.  A curious place, focused on the past, the keeper of ancient stories. 

Today the church celebrates Ascension Day.  It’s the day when Christ’s visible appearance was removed from human sight.  Christ Himself isn’t gone.  His ascension is not like “Elvis has left the building,” as Professor William Utech pointed out yesterday in Seminary chapel.  Jesus is still with us; “I am with you always,” He promised (Matthew 28:20).  It’s just that we can’t see Him…now…but we will in the future. “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky?” the angel asked the disciples after Christ’s ascension.  Reminds me of gawking in old cathedrals, but to the gawkers, to disbelievers comes a 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 1:10-11).  If we don’t hold that promise close to our hearts, our churches are likely to become museums of the past.  When He comes, we’ll truly understand why past generations raised those great cathedrals.

This is not to minimize the past.  Forgiveness for sin and the hope of resurrection comes from past events but like the eyes in your head, faith looks forward.  Are you?  “Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9)

 

 

The Meyer Minute for May 8, 2013

The news from Cleveland is terrible and good at the same time.  Three young women, abducted years ago by three 50-something brothers, are free.  What to say?

For us who try to live our lives by the Bible, answers aren’t easy.  Like today’s news, the Bible itself puts some stories before us that are impossible to explain away.  Take 2 Kings 2:23-24, for one example.  When Elisha “was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him saying, ‘Go up, you baldhead!  Go up, you baldhead!’ And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord.  And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore 42 of the boys.”  We were taught that story in parochial school as a lesson to be polite to our elders.

Here’s another one we weren’t taught in grade school.  “As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door.  And they said to the old man, the master of the house, ‘Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him,’ (know meaning abuse).”  The old man refused but said, “‘Here are my virgin daughter and his concubine.  Let me bring them out now.  Violate them and do with them what seems good to you…’  But the men would not listen to him.  So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them.  And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning.’”  The next morning, when the concubine’s master found her at the door, “he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into 12 pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.”  (Judges 19)

There are more inexplicable stories in the Bible, but as people say, too much information.  But one more story is worthy of note, the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus.  It ranks up there with the worst stories of brutality and injustice, and yet it’s from that story that we can at least begin to cope with the awfulness of life.  God sends His Son to identify with human suffering, amidst such suffering the Son commends Himself to the Father, and in the end God raises Jesus and gives us all hope.  Today the Associated Press reminds us of other young people who were abducted and eventually freed, like Elizabeth Smart.  So I don’t know exactly what to say but Jesus, that risen one, our leader of faith, teaches that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.”  (Luke 18:1)

The Meyer Minute for May 7, 2013

From a church newsletter I picked up the following “Diary of a Bible.”  The author is unknown.

January: A busy time for me.  Most of the family decided to read me through this year.  They kept me busy for the first two weeks, but they have forgotten me now.

February: Clean-up time.  I was dusted yesterday and put in my place.  My owner did use me for a few minutes last week.  He had been in an argument and was looking for some references to prove he was right.

March: Had a busy day first of the month.  My owner was elected president of the PTA and used me to prepare a speech.

April: Grandpa visited this month.  He kept me on his lap for an hour reading from 1 Peter 5:5-7.  He seems to think more of me than do some people in my own household.

 

May: I have a few green stains on my pages.  Some spring flowers were pressed in my pages.

It’s May.  How does the diary of your Bible read this far into the year?

 

 

The Meyer Minute for May 6, 2013

Over the weekend I spent a little time with the grandkids, watched baseball, and read the paper, among other things.  How quaint.

The Wall Street Journal ran a feature on the new Google glass, “the futuristic eyewear that puts a tiny, voice-controlled, Wi-Fi-enabled computer on your face….  Soon you’ll be able to view emails, text messages and maps on a translucent screen hovering in the upper-right corner of your peripheral vision.  Breaking news alerts will appear right before your eyes.  You’ll snap photos just by saying, ‘OK Glass, take a picture.”  (D1)

Yesterday’s New York Times ran an opinion piece: “Where do old cellphones and other gadgets go to die?”  Hmmm…  Will we end up sending Google glasses to underdeveloped nations?

Another feature in the WSJ was titled, “Why I Froze My Eggs (And You Should, Too).”  Sarah Elizabeth Richards wrote, “Egg freezing stopped the sadness that I was feeling at losing my chance to have the child I had dreamed about my entire life.  It sooth my pangs of regret for frittering away my 20s with a man I didn’t want to have children with, and for wasting more years in my 30s with a man who wasn’t sure he even wanted children.  It took away the punishing pressure to seek a new mate and helped me find love again at age 42.”

The horse is out of the barn.  Do you ever worry about where our out-of-control scientific advances are taking us?  Of course, great blessings in so many scientific advances but I for one sometimes get weary and usually am worried.  I did one other quaint thing this weekend.  I went to church.

“One thing’s needful; Lord, this treasure teach me highly to regard.

All else, though it first give pleasure, is a yoke that presses hard!

Beneath it the heart is still fretting and striving, no true, lasting happiness ever deriving.

This one thing is needful; all others are vain—

I count all but loss that I Christ may obtain.”

(Johann Schroeder; Francis Cox)