The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for December 20, 2013

Busy last days before Christmas, maybe even frantic.  Restful times just around the corner.  May you take in all that is good, family, friends, and faith.  May your body be refreshed and your mind renewed by the kindnesses of God.

“How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.  So God imparts to human hearts the blessing of His heaven.  No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.”  Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Concordia Seminary closes and classes will resume January 6^th.  Diane and I will take that time off.   Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Be safe and well.  Despite whatever, we are blessed people.

The Meyer Minute for December 19, 2013

"Mom, Dad...uh...uh...I'm pregnant but don't worry, it's OK."

"You're WHAT?  No, it's not OK, not by any stretch."

"No, it really is!"

"Who is it?  Wait 'til I get my hands on that..."

"Dad, Mom, it's God.  I haven't slept with anyone.  God did it."

"Mary, are you crazy?  How in the world do you expect us to believe that???"

I don't know if a conversation like that happened, but the Bible does give us hints that some folks in town didn't believe Mary's story.  In fact, one anti-Christian tradition says she had made herself available to a Roman soldier.  But no, the conception was miraculous and Mary did believe the angel's amazing announcement.  "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the One to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered.  "May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38).

Heavenly Father, help me these days before Christmas to follow the example of the virgin mother of our Savior and hear Your words and, even when they seem amazing, to believe Your words.  Amen.

 

 

The Meyer Minute for December 18, 2013

“Pray without ceasing”? (1 Thessalonians 5:17)   Asked to explain God, 8-year-old named Danny Dalton talked about prayer.

“God’s second most important job (God’s first job is making people) is listening to prayers.  An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime.  God doesn’t have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this.  Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.”

The famous preacher Charles Spurgeon spoke about prayer to his students.  “There is…an absolute necessity for prayer.  Necessity!—I hardly like to talk of that; let me rather speak of the deliciousness of prayer—the wondrous sweetness and divine felicity which come to the soul that lives in the atmosphere of prayer.” (In “For All the Saints,” III, 84)

Young Danny again, this time about the Father and the Son: “You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.”  “Sweet hour of prayer!”

The Meyer Minute for December 17, 2013

Ah, the blessings of sleep!  Then again, maybe you sometimes have trouble sleeping through the night and don’t wake up feeling refreshed.  Mine is not an easy job and I often fall asleep with knotty problems on my mind.  Either way, I’ve come to believe that God really brings blessings and guidance during those nighttime hours.  “He who keeps you will not slumber.” (Psalm 121:3)

Lying in bed, you’re postured for grace.  Grace means God gives, quite opposite from what we achieve by our working.  Worrying in bed is work and gets you what?   Handing your problems over to the Lord is the way through, your help from His grace.  “Ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.  Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.” (Psalm 4:4)

When we live our waking hours conscious of His words and ways, He’ll use the gracious hours of the night to show us how to face the problems of the day.  “It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127:2)

The Meyer Minute for December 16, 2013

1 Peter 1:8 says, “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.”  Is that true?  Do you love Jesus?  I don’t mean do you know about Him in your head.  Of course you do.  No, do you love Him?  The story goes that a married couple was going someplace in their car, the husband driving.  The wife was lamenting that the romance of younger days had gone out of their marriage.  She recalled that when they were first married they used to sit close together in the front seat of the car.  To that the husband smiled and said, “I haven’t moved away.”  Do you love Jesus?  I can only answer for myself.  Yes, I love Him but I certainly don’t love Him the way I ought.  Sometimes I move away from Him.  The themes of Advent, that Christ came, Christ comes, and Christ will come again to take you home to God, are a great opportunity to rekindle our first love.  “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 1:9-9)

 

The Meyer Minute for December 13, 2013

Greeting people at the church door, I'm in the habit these days of stooping down and asking the little children if Santa is coming to their house.  Their eyes light up, they beam a smile from ear to ear, and these little children, who are usually silent when the big old minister talks to them, now shake their heads and say "yes.”  Sometimes they'll tell me what they've asked Santa for, but the church line is long so old Scrooge moves them on.  That unbounded excitement for Christmas is one of the dearest memories I have of raising our children.  Now it’s our grandchildren.  God's great big universe is too small to contain their excitement.

Things change.  You who are parents have seen your children get older and become more adult about Christmas.  They become like us.  Jesus once told adults, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).  Thanks, little children, for reminding us.  "Create in me a pure heart, O God...Restore to me the joy of Your salvation” (Psalm 51:10, 12).  "Christmas was made for children, for children like you and me."

 

The Meyer Minute for December 12, 2013

Where do you worship God?  You might say at St. So-and-So Church or at St. Mattress Church or whatever.  We are conditioned to identify worship with some place, but…

Philipp Melanchthon, right-hand man to Martin Luther in the Reformation:  “For the first law does not say, ‘Seek solitude, or your pleasure, or take your ease, but it says, ‘Honor your father and your mother, respect your government, and render obedience.’  Therefore we should learn that the works of the Second Table are truly the worship of God, that is, when our works are guided by the fear of God and by faith.” (Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, 716)

There are, after all, Ten Commandments.  So as you, a believer, go about the tasks of today, you’ll be into those commandments that tell us how to act with other people.  Help and serve them, as God in Christ has served you, and you are worshiping God.   Difficulties and problems with others?  That’s an incentive to go to church and have the love of God come into the realities of your life.  So where do we worship God?  Not in a building but in all our life.

The Meyer Minute for December 10, 2013

Christmas commercials try to rouse envy within you.  If a marketer can stir resentment about not having idyllic Christmases like those you see on TV, the commercial has hooked you to spend money.

The Greek legend of Damocles fits here.  Damocles was a “yes-man,” a flatterer, who fawned over the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius.  Damocles told him no one else on earth was more blessed because Dionysius had such abundance, possessions and majesty.  To that Dionysius replied, “Do you want, O Damocles, to taste this life and to try my fortune?”  So Dionysius had Damocles led to a golden couch and young servants brought in a banquet meal adorned with gold and silver.  Great!  But then the tyrant ordered a sword to be hung over Damocles’ head, the sword held up by only one thin horsehair.  Scared to death, Damocles wanted out and Dionysius had demonstrated that nothing is a blessing to a person who lives in fear.  (Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, 5.20.57-58)

The same can be said of envy.  “Thou shalt not covet.”  Imagine what might happen if American consumers would stop lusting for things we think will content us?

The Meyer Minute for December 9, 2013

How it happens I have no clue, but there is hidden heavenly knowledge revealed only to my wife, who in turn lays it on me.  It was revealed to her that Saturday was the day to buy our Christmas tree.

My mom once let my Dad buy the tree all by himself.  Great tree he got.  You could see right through it.  He probably liked the price.  Mom was not happy and when Mom’s not happy…

In my own marriage there were some years when I wanted a big tree.  Great trees…but no space left in the living room.  Now I’ve learned to say, “Oh, Diane, I like that tree you’ve picked.”  Saturday I acquiesced in only 5 minutes.

There are sacraments, ways God gives and strengthens faith.  There are also sacramentals, human rituals that point us to the grace God gives us sinners in the sacraments.   I think Christmas trees serve that function.  As a kid growing up, I stood with mouth-open wonder at the huge Christmas trees in church.  Those great trees made an impression.  There’s something bigger than normal life here, something that puts even grown-ups in awe. 

 That’s still true today.  God’s grace is coming down in Jesus.  Happy tree-hunting!

 

The Meyer Minute for December 6, 2013

Nelson Mandela’s time in prison, 27 years in harsh confinement, reminds me of Joseph in the Bible, Genesis 37-50.  Mr. Mandela was imprisoned for guerilla activities that grew out of the injustice of apartheid, whereas Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and then falsely accused of attempted rape.  In jail, they had plenty of time to think and could have obsessed about revenge.  When they were released, both came into positions of power.  Mr. Mandela as President of South Africa and Joseph as the second most powerful man in Egypt, second only to the pharaoh.  Now each was in a position to take vengeance on their enemies but did not.  Mr. Mandela sought peace with his enemies and Joseph told his brothers, “Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.” (Genesis 45:5)  Forgiveness doesn’t mean opening jails but forgiving others results in emotional and mental freedom from the people who have wronged you.  The One who earned our forgiveness teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”