The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for August 30, 2013

Frantic, frenzied, feverish, fast, furious…  How often do those words describe your life?  “The level of impatience in American culture is almost pathological,” said cultural critic David Shi years ago.  He traces our 24/7/365 impatience to the ASAP immediacy of the computer.

This holiday weekend is a gift to you, an extended time to disconnect and be restored by quiet time with God.  “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:9-10)  Discerning when to work and when to rest, when to go and when to stay at home is so important  – get this – that God actually ordered a man put to death for going 24/7 and not observing rest.  You can check it out in Numbers 15:32-36. “To everything there is a season.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). 

Lord Jesus, You invite all “who are weary and heavy laden to come to You for rest” (Matthew 11:28).  “Teach us to number each of our days so that we may grow in wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Amen.

 

 

The Meyer Minute for August 29, 2013

“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  We pray that because we know that we are sinners.  Your outward conduct may well be OK but our thoughts and heart conceal sin.  We pray that God will forgive us for Jesus’ sake.  If Americans had given us this prayer it wouldn’t be directed to God but instead to other people, “Forgive me my trespasses so that I can go and do whatever it is I want to do.”  And the American prayer continues, “I won’t necessarily forgive those who trespass against me.  I want to hang onto your guilt as a club I can use against you whenever I want.”  But Jesus says, “I earned forgiveness for you even though you don’t deserve forgiveness.  So I ask you to share My forgiveness with others.  I’m not saying you should condone the wrong that was done to you.  I’m not saying that we should not pursue justice.  I am saying, don’t let the person who wronged you keep emotional control over your life.  Forgive as I have forgiven you.  Forgiving the person who wronged you will bring you freedom.”

The Meyer Minute for August 28, 2013

Do you ever notice contradictions between rhetoric and reality?  When President Roosevelt called upon Americans to sacrifice for the war effort, he promised “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear.”  Many African-Americans, excluded from jobs and from the military, concluded that Roosevelt’s freedoms wouldn’t extend to them, a contradiction between his rhetoric and their reality.

Young Philip Randolph, raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, saw the same contradictions between the rhetoric of American democracy and reality.  As a child he saw his father and others stand watch outside a southern jail to prevent a black man from being lynched.  Years later this Randolph called for a March on Washington and was the official leader when it finally happened 50 years ago today.  (William Jones, “The March on Washington”)

When some people see contradictions between rhetoric and reality, they jump to a condemnation of other people’s hypocrisy.  The Bible teaches the pervasive presence and deceit of sin and urges us to personal daily repentance.  True repentance means confessing sin, receiving forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and, often forgotten, changing your sinful life.  That change is where we begin to address the contradiction between rhetoric and reality.  

The Meyer Minute for August 27, 2013

Ed and Donnie Wallace were married 50 years ago at St. Paul CME Church on Chicago’s south side.  Ed had gone downtown to the Palmer House and reserved the bridal suite, putting down about $400 in today’s money.  But wedding day brought a shock.  Quoting Ed, “What is this? You could almost stand in the center of the room and touch the walls.  The bed looked like a twin bed, when I’d wanted a king-sized bed.  It had a little bathroom.  And there was no window, no decorations – no nothing.  They thought I was this dumb black guy who didn’t know what the bridal suite looked like.  During college I worked in room service at the Morrison Hotel and I’d seen the honeymoon suite and the other rooms.”

Daughter-in-law Paula Wallace contacted reporter Dawn Turner Trice.  Result: The Wallace’s celebrated their Golden Anniversary in a luxury suite in the Palmer House. “I find it extraordinarily touching that these people who were likely not even born when the original incident happened would work so hard to change the experience and make up for it.” (Chicago Tribune, August 18; 1, 14)

“God is no respecter of persons.” (Acts 10:34) 

The Meyer Minute for August 23, 2013

Chemical weapons in Syria, Christian churches burned in Egypt, Egypt generally, an Australian student murdered by bored teens…  I needed some good news and it came in yesterday’s mail, thanks to International Student Ministry of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. 

Shan Lu was kidnapped, beaten and robbed near Arizona State University, but Pastor Gary Boye walked with him through all personal and legal consequences of the attack, shared faith and last year he became Christian and was baptized.

Ana Paula from Brazil, a Ph.D. student at Iowa State University, wrote, “I used to feel very, very homesick and sad” but Hanna, “introduced me to other girls at the Bible study group, and since then I have met a lot of nice people at the church….  Even now, when my work has been so time consuming, I keep going to the Bible study group.  This Bible study meeting is the best time in my whole week.”

In Sunday’s Gospel lesson, Jesus will tell us, “People will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 13:29)  Bad news isn’t stopping God’s good news. “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”  (Galatians 6:9)

 

 

 

The Meyer Minute for August 22, 2013

Get into the Gospels and you’ll meet people disappointed with Jesus.  Religious leaders were disappointed to the point of hatred because Jesus challenged their self-righteousness.  People who didn’t get a quick fix to their problems, a healing, were probably disappointed too.

Have you ever been disappointed by someone, by a spouse, a child, a parent?  Disappointed by a doctor, a hospital?  By a pastor, a church member, a denomination, a seminary?  Of course, we all have.  They’re guaranteed to disappoint because they’re fallible sinners full of foibles and faults.  We all are.  So we shouldn’t be surprised at all when people disappoint us, shouldn’t let it fester into anger and bitterness.

Ever been disappointed with Jesus?  Didn’t get the answer to prayer you wanted?  Felt abandoned?  He pulls alongside us and says, “O foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25).  He came to preach an eternal kingdom, help and hope for time and, a longer perspective, for eternity (Mark 1:14, 15, 38).  Give Jesus time and He’ll show you that He did not fail you nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6).

The Meyer Minute for August 21, 2013

“Give us this day our daily bread.”  The American prayer says, “I’m entitled!  Gramps, I want my inheritance now, just like my ancestor the Prodigal Son did.  Gimme!”

“Give” isn’t “gimme.”  It is a suppliant prayer from children who know our ultimate dependence upon our Father.  Our paycheck, our benefits, our retirement income, our ability to make money…  Who gives us all this if not our Father?

“Give us.”  Material things are not simply mine.  They are gifts to “us,” meaning that we should share with those in need.

“This day.”  Remember the farmer who built bigger barns so that he could secure his future?  “But God said to him, ‘Fool!  This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’” (Luke 12:20)  “This day.”  Whatever we plan for tomorrow is for others, “us.”

“Our daily bread.”  With “our” Jesus reinforces “us.” With “daily” Jesus reinforces “this day.”  “Daily bread” is the stuff we need.  Ah, American consumer culture makes us confuse needs and wants.

The Prodigal Son came to his senses and returned to his father.  This petition teaches us not to leave.   

 

The Meyer Minute for August 20 2013

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

It’s back to school time most places, and quality of education is an ongoing concern. Parents, grandparents and other followers of Jesus want young people to experience growth in faith during their school years. That involves the second great commandment, loving your neighbor as yourself, the Golden Rule. An extensive survey of the spiritual and religious growth of college students shows that caring for others tends to grow during the college years with one exception. “Only one student activity appears to impede growth in…caring and connectedness: watching television. In many respects the act of watching television, in which one’s attention is entirely focused on external sounds and images, is anathema to the mindfulness and self-awareness that is involved in meditation and reflection.” (“Cultivating the Spirit,” Jossey-Bass, 80)

“Children learn what they live.” Do our TV habits undermine the growth in faith we desire for young people?

The Meyer Minute for August 19, 2013

Yesterday I preached at Lamb of God Lutheran Church in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.  Here's how I began the sermon.

"I drove up here from St. Louis with things on my mind, personal concerns, work worries, you know how that goes. Then I cross from Illinois into Wisconsin and see a big green sign with white letters, "Pleasant Prairie."  I have arrived!  A place where my concerns and worries can be gone, Pleasant Prairie!  (Smiles and chuckles from the crowd.)  No?  Pleasant Prairie isn't heaven on earth?  (Pause). That's why we're here in church. Deep down in our hearts we're all looking for a "Pleasant Prairie."

Then I spoke about our daily need for help and hope, ending the sermon thus: "So where is "Pleasant Prairie?"  It is here, in the heart of everyone who trusts the promises of the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever may be going on in the outward circumstances of your lives. "Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me."  If you don't see it now, trust and wait on the Lord. One day you too will say, He has done all things well." (Mark 7:37)

The Meyer Minute for August 16, 2013

Christianity seems sidelined in public life today, "post church" America some call it.  Yes, the Church no longer has a privileged place in our common culture but what a blessing!  It brings into focus what it means to follow Jesus Christ.

Sunday many people will hear Jesus say, "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?  No, I tell you but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." (Luke 12:49-53)

Jesus didn't come to break up families.  We've done that.  The "division" He brings is about lordship. Do you believe He came to suffer and die for you because you're lost without Him?  When many of us grew up, almost every one claimed to be Christian.  It was deceptive; faith seemed so much easier.  Today the question cannot be escaped: What do you think about Jesus Christ?  It's a blessed time!