The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for July 31, 2014

Religious conservatives often want their favorite issues to become the law of the land.  The left objects.  “Don’t impose your morality on us,” which means the left wants to legislate its favorite issues.  Both have in common a desire to use the government to further their own agendas.

July 30, 1619 America’s first representative assembly met in Jamestown, Virginia, and passed laws against drunkenness, gambling, and idleness.  Obviously didn’t have a lasting effect, did it?  How did Prohibition ever turn out???

Legislation doesn’t change hearts.  All the laws legislators pass can only force obedience, often unwilling obedience.  And the laws of God, all His “Thou shalts” and “Thou shalt nots” actually provoke revolt in our hearts, like a kid defying mom’s order not to get into the cookie jar.  The Law doesn’t change hearts; only the Gospel can.  Read Romans 7.  Only the goodness of God our Savior changes hearts and produces willing obedience to God’s commandments.

That’s why the Jamestown laws couldn’t stop drinking, gambling, and idleness.  And that’s why imposing the religious views of the right or the left will not bring this country together in a much-needed consensus on moral issues. 

 

The Meyer Minute for July 29, 2014

How sure of yourself are you spiritually?  Are you confident that you know right from wrong and will usually choose what is right?

I ask because Psalm 125 set me to thinking about my own gullibility.  The psalm contrasts people who live under righteousness with those who don’t.   Through the Christian lens: People who trust solely in the forgiveness of God (Ephesians 2:8-9) and follow the guidance of the Scriptures in doing good (Ephesians 2:10), they’re the “righteous,” contrasted to those who have not submitted to God through faith in Christ, the “unrighteous.”

Verse 3 is the challenge: “For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.”  “Lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.”  Make that personal: Though I’m righteous before God through faith in Christ, I cannot trust myself in “anything goes America” because in my unwarranted confidence (I’m still a sinner) I’ll go native and turn my heart or mind or hands to what is wrong.  For eternal survival, the scepter I need over me is the Lord Jesus Christ and His word. 

“Satan, who has marked his prey, is plotting to deceive me.  This foe with hidden snares may seize me unawares, if I should fail to watch and pray.  I walk in danger all the way.”

“Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”  (1 Corinthians 10:12)  I hope you find this scary, in a salutary way.  “I need Thy presence every passing hour; what but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?”

The Meyer Minute for July 28, 2014

Our front porch has two rockers and faces the street.  As the day winds down, Diane and I often sit there, talk about whatever, and enjoy each other’s company.  Oh yes, our dog Ferdie is there too, getting his own “happy hour” snacks.  “God settles the solitary in a home.” (Psalm 68:6) 

We wave at neighbors who drive by, say “hi” to those who walk by, and generally see what’s happening on the block. On the porch we come out from our private home and, by the same token, the street catches a glimpse of the people “who live there.”  Who knows whom we might greet?  “Some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2)

“The worst thing that happened to the U.S.,” says Rick Massie of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, “was the invention of the electric garage-door opener: It shuts down behind you and people don’t come out.” (WSJ, July 27; M8)  Well, probably not the worst thing, but your front porch is a good place, even a godly place.  “Love your neighbor as yourself” can start right there by seeing others, talking with others, and going over your own blessings.  On your front porch!

The Meyer Minute for July 25, 2014

You can think of yourself as a good Christian but still not really understand Jesus.

That’s one lesson from James, whose memory the church observes today.  Several disciples were named James, so today’s is called “James the Greater.”  One of the first disciples Jesus called (Mark 1:19-20), James was selected to be one of Jesus’ apostles (Mark 3:17), and with Peter and John was in Jesus’ inner circle (Mark 5:37; 9:2).  No question about James’ sincerity.

Like you and me, James brought his unique personality to the life of faith.  Jesus called him a “Son of Thunder” (Mark 3:17), maybe because he blustered, like asking Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven upon hostile Samaritans (Luke 9:51-56).  James was slow to learn self-denial.  When he asked to sit next to Jesus in glory, Jesus dismissed his request, “You do not know what you are asking.” (Mark 10:37-38)  But James grew to be more and more Christ-like, especially in sacrificial living.  He was the first apostle who was martyred (Acts 12:2).

That’s all irrelevant, unless it leads you to wonder what in your unique personality has not yet come to Christ-like maturity.

The Meyer Minute for July 24, 2014

A new survey claims that New York, Pittsburgh and Louisville are the unhappiest cities in the United States, while Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia, and Washington D.C. are the happiest.  While the Declaration of Independence promises us “the pursuit of happiness,” substantive Christianity teaches happiness is a superficial criterion for evaluating the circumstances of my life.

In the 19^th century the first president of Concordia Seminary told his students: “Do not forget that the blessedness of Christians does not consist in pleasant feelings, but in their assurance that in spite of the bitterest feelings imaginable they are accepted with God and in their dying hour will be received into heaven.  That is indeed great blessedness.”   

“It is, indeed, proper that in your sermons you depict the happy moments which occasionally come to Christians when they are given a foretaste of their future bliss; but you must tell your hearers at the same time that these are merely passing moments in the lives of Christians, sun-rays which once in a while find their way into their hearts.” (C.F.W. Walther, “Law and Gospel,” 312)

So may you be happy!  But more, may you know you’re blessed.

The Meyer Minute for July 23, 2014

Over the years, Diane and I have come to expect a mouse in the house in fall.  They’re like snowbirds; they seek warmer temperatures.  OK, understand, but this summer one, hope only one, came into our kitchen.  Hey, it’s comfy outside; you don’t need to come in! 

So Diane put out a mouse trap.  Should work, right?  Negatory.  Somehow Mighty Mouse eats all the peanut butter without triggering the trap.  Each morning we rise with expectation but all we see is an empty trap minus peanut butter.  Different kind of trap?  Same result.  This being a seminary campus, maybe Mighty Mouse is slipping into a classroom during the day, learning how to attain eternal life.  Diane expects some morning to find a little note by the trap.  “Thank you for the peanut better.  Really appreciate it!  Might you consider putting out some cream cheese?  That would be a nice change of menu.”

So what’s the religious point of this?  Maybe only this.  Seminarians, pastors, church-goers: Not every conversation has to be about church and religion.  To make your witness credible, show that you’re a normal guy with normal problems, including a mouse…or mice.

The Meyer Minute for July 22, 2014

I don’t know about you, but I find these very scary times.  Throughout the world anarchy reigns, boundaries mean nothing.  Homes in Israel and Gaza are not safe from enemy attack.  Islamic hyper-radicals are establishing a terrorist state, and killing Christians as they go.  Basic human civilities about the dead are ignored in the aftermath of the Malaysian shoot down, Putin is lying and Russians have been deluded into a nationalistic fervor.  Our own southern border is porous but we watch paralysis by partisanship.

So I wonder, are we sliding into the signs of the end that Jesus talked about?  Take a look at Mark 13.  “Nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom….  These are but the beginning of the birth pains.  …You will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, to bear witness before them…. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.”  And on and on the chapter goes.

When comes the end?  I don’t know but this I memorized long ago: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10)

The Meyer Minute for July 21, 2014

“And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.” (Genesis 1:16)

On July 20, 1969 God’s creatures got a new view of the magnificence of His creation.  “The Eagle has landed” and for the first time man stood on another heavenly body, that “lesser light” that rules the night.

Over the centuries religious zealotry has taken many forms.  Physical atrocities committed in the name of “God,” doctrinaire believers contemptuous of those who disagree, and now many contemporary Americans fashion their personal faith according to their own desires.

Washington University in St. Louis has an exact replica of a Mars rover, the University being involved in Martian exploration.  I regularly visit that replica for a moment of awe; it lifts my soul higher than a church steeple.  Apollo 11 landed at “Tranquility Base.”  The world today is far from tranquil, but we could take “one small step” in that direction by paying attention to pictures from light years away, by marveling at the creation closer to home, and thereby experience anew what modern man has largely forgotten, the fear of God.

The Meyer Minute for july 11, 2014

Years ago Dr. Oswald Hoffmann, former speaker of The Lutheran Hour, was inducted into the National Religious Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame, an honor well-deserved.  As I walked with Dr. and Mrs. Hoffmann to the banquet hall, he asked me how the NRB convention was going.

“Fine,” I said, but added, “I’ve noticed something here.”

“Oh, what’s that?” he asked.

“They speak a lot about the Lord’s work but I haven’t heard them talk about the Lord.”

“Is that so?” he said and dropped the topic.  So much for my opinion.

Later, the banquet meal over, Dr. Hoffmann stood up to accept his honor and he spoke about Jesus, not a word about the Lord’s work, only about Jesus.  He had that vast audience doing aerobics, one minute standing and applauding what he said about Jesus, the next minute they were down, doubled over in laughter at his hearty jokes.  It was a small glimpse of that time when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11).

Next time you hear a sermon, keep in mind the distinction between the Lord’s work and the Lord. Doing the Lord’s work might help save someone else but doing that work won’t save you. Only Jesus does.

Diane and I will be taking next week off.

The Meyer Minute for July 10, 2014

A good word from God, that’s what we all need, but often we get religious controversy.  “People came to Jesus and said, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast but Your disciples do not fast?”  Common people, genuinely puzzled.

Jesus’ calls, “Follow Me!”  “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?  As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.”  Another illustration: “No one pours new wine into old wineskins.  If he does, the wine bursts the skins and the wine is destroyed and so are the skins.  New wine is for fresh wineskins.”  (Mark 2:18-22)  Are churches more concerned about the fast than the feast, about the old vessels more than the new wine?  Are we so focused on the means that we minimize the grace?  Amidst religious disagreements, do you lift up your eyes to see Jesus only?  (Matthew 16:8)  The Bereans examined “the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”  (Acts 17:11)   “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” (Isaiah 55:2)   

Or have we never done it that way before?