The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for December 5, 2013

God is calling, not just to Christmas but to our eternal home with Him.  So we are people in exile who can’t see God but hear Him calling, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  Holiness describes the inmost nature of God, His transcendent perfection.  God’s being, His holiness, is not simply an intellectual concept to be grasped.  It can’t be anyway.  What God’s holiness should produce in us is an emotional reaction, fear.  This is not slavish fear.  This is not cowering fear.  Nor should His coming lead to the opposite extreme, flip familiarity before God.  Advent fear is an awe, a reverence, a shut-me-up stillness at (1) the holiness of God but (2) especially that the Holy One comes to us in His Son and teaches us to call Him “Father.”  We will come before God at our last heartbeat, a fearful thought, but the fear of Advent is our amazement that He already is coming to greet us, to greet us like the father greeted his prodigal son, coming to us while we are still on the way, coming to us in Jesus.  “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

The Meyer Minute for December 4, 2013

In Advent we hear about John the Baptist, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord.’” (Matthew 3:3)  But whose voice is really calling?  It is God’s, God calling you and God calling me.  Calling us to what?  Repentance is the obvious answer because Advent is a penitential season and repentance is what we do in penitential seasons.  But repentance can be superficial; doing is not enough.  “As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’  And if you call on Him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear through the time of your exile.” (1 Peter 1:15-17)  Are you one of God’s people?  If so, Advent reminds us that we’re in exile from our true home, exile fraught with dangers and deceits.  That we might arrive safely, God is calling, calling to our true home, calling us to Himself.  So the call of Advent is to be holy, not just to content ourselves with doing things that appear holy.  How?  Tomorrow.

The Meyer Minute for December 3, 2013

Last week our consumer culture reached new levels of insanity.  That’s the way it goes when acquiring stuff becomes your way of salvation.  Thank heaven for the times we have with family, friends and by ourselves to be at peace.  “In repentance and rest is thy salvation; in quietness and confidence is thy strength.” (Isaiah 30:15)

There’s plenty of complaining about consumerism dominating Thanksgiving, some stores forcing workers to come in on the holiday to work.  Acquiring stuff instead of enjoying stuffing.  Peggy Noonan wrote in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, “Oh, I hope people didn’t go (to shop).  I hope when the numbers come in it was a big flop.  I hope America stayed home.”  (A13)  Apparently the numbers were not good but don’t expect things to change.  Powers that be want money and poor souls deluded into thinking that stuff is salvation will continue to pay.

How sweet the contrast, to lament the insanity but to find contentment with Jesus and dear ones.  “One thing is needful and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42)  Good for you, good for me.  We’re with Mary.

 

The Meyer Minute for December 2, 2013

The house is quiet now, except for an occasional bark from Ferdie.  The five grandsons and their wardens have gone home but Wow, when they were here!  Friday night was raucous.  I called the zoo to see if they would take them, but the zoo keeper declined, saying that they don’t take undomesticated wild things.  I called the police to see if the SWAT team could restore order, but the commander suggested I call the governor to send out the National Guard.  The governor didn’t answer my call.  So Diane and I just sat there and watched the boys, enjoying every minute of it.  No, loving every one of them as they played.

It’s in the family that we see the reality of sin.  “Give that back to me.  That’s mine!”  We see apologies taught.  “Give that back to your brother and tell him you’re sorry.”  And we see siblings and cousins genuinely caring for one another, loving.  Children learn, or should learn, basic conducts that will grow into more mature faith in God and love toward one another.  It’s the goodness of God, who “sets the solitary in families,” Psalm 68:6.