The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for January 30, 2015

“Complaining is not a strategy.” So says Pastor Tim Runtsch of Colorado and I’ll add my agreement. We church people are very good about complaining. Preachers lambast decay in American culture. Parishioners complain about changes in church practice. Unending war, abortion, assisted suicide, legalized marijuana, homosexuality, immoral levels of debt, civil strife, urban gangs, and what am I missing? There’s much to complain about but what does that accomplish?

Coming up with a strategy forces us down into the facts, like it or not.  Now we’re going to have to deal with “those people” we’ve been complaining about. Now faith is going to have to be put into action.  And now, theologically, we’re going to move from broadside accusations of the Law (“Thou shalt” or “Thou shalt not”), to thinking about how we can persuade someone that something is wrong, move toward forgiveness and reconciliation with God and others, and in so doing make room for the Spirit to change lives. Making room for the Spirit in the troubles of our world will bring us into a new place, a place of listening and collaboration, a place of stimulation and purpose, a place of hope in God that isn’t afraid to open church doors for witness to the world. Wouldn’t that be a brand new place to many religious people? Thanks, Pastor Runtsch. “Complaining is not a strategy.”

 

The Meyer Minute for January 29, 2015

Their gratifications are small, often delayed. They’re caught between idealism and the realities of long hours, low pay, and less time with their own families. They are teachers.

Many years ago a family friend died. Diane and I took daughters Elizabeth and Katie to the visitation. Katie was maybe five or six at the time, Elizabeth ten or so. On our way home, the girls were talking very quietly in the back seat. I butted in. “What are you talking about?” Elizabeth answered, “Katie is wondering how Alfred (our friend) can be in heaven and the funeral home at the same time.” Well, faster than Clark Kent slipping into a phone booth, I slipped into my super pastor role and explained that his soul was in heaven and his body waiting here until the last day and the resurrection of all people.

I thought I did a marvelous job of explaining it so a child could understand but there was no immediate reaction from the back seat, only silence. Finally, Katie said, “I think I will ask my teacher.”

Thank God for all our wonderful teachers!

The Meyer Minute for January 28, 2015

It’s that time of year when Roman Catholics and Lutherans celebrate and promote their parochial schools. Are Christian schools worth the cost?

I may not remember this accurately, but it’s close enough to reflect how American culture has changed religiously. It seems that an on-the-street reporter asked a passerby what Easter is about. “That’s when Jesus comes out. If he see his shadow, we have six more weeks of…”

Lifelong educator Daniel Aleshire wrote, “Our culture is less than convinced that religion is a cultural asset” and more and more people “do not know the tradition or understand it.”¹ Parochial grade school wasn’t just a positive influence in my life; it formed me into the person I am. The teachers, the parents, the church… all joined in a purpose-filled community of faith and learning. And when we went on to public high school and university, surprise! We had been holistically prepared.

Of course, these schools take effort above and beyond taxes. Aleshire says, “The question about cost is really a question about value.” No parochial school close to you? People of faith teach and learn and serve in public schools as well. Parochial or public school, the question necessarily comes home. Do you value Christian education in your home? Do you prioritize it where you worship? Are you yourself a lifelong learner? Your answers are “yes,” “yes,” and “yes,” if you know what Easter is truly about…

 

Lord, bless all the schools in our country and those who support them. May Christian schools prove themselves Your special blessing to our communities and nation. May Your people who teach and learn and serve in public schools radiate the blessings that come from You. For Your sake! Amen.

The Meyer Minute for January 27, 2015

Diane and I gave up going to movies when we were raising our daughters. Yesterday we went, the first time in many years, and how things have changed! Automated purchase of tickets – that challenged us. Theater seats – as comfy as our easy chairs at home.  Yesterday’s movie was different too.  In 2003 we saw Seabiscuit; yesterday we saw “American Sniper.”

“American Sniper” left me with nothing to say. The horrors of combat, the killing and wounding, physical and psychological wounds, soldiers and families…shut me up.  I can only pray.

O God, the horror of war! It is not the garden You gave to Adam and Eve but it’s where evil forces our military to live. They sacrifice their lives to stop the devastation of this evil. If we know someone serving, give us your Spirit to pray for their physical, emotional and spiritual safety. If we have lost a loved one, keep us mindful that they served honorably to protect us and surround our grief with the presence of Your loving people. If a loved one is wounded, break through any anguish and despair with the hope You especially can give. And for those who have no close connection to someone who serves, by Your ordering of all things break through complacency so that we might beseech You daily for courage in the face of evil, that we demonstrate a spirit of intercession, and receive Your inspiration to pursue justice in our lives and world.  Lord, have mercy upon us all.  Amen.

The Meyer Minute for January 26, 2015

Congratulations to Coach Mike Krzyzewski on winning his 1000^th NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball game. Immediately after the game, a Fox Sports reporter asked, “How have you changed over the years you’ve coached?”  “I’ve changed a lot,” Krzyzewski said. “You have to change with the culture of the kids you’re privileged to coach.”

Himself a Baby Boomer, Krzyzewski in 40 years has coached players from the Baby Boom (1946-1964), Gen-X (1965-1979), and Millennial (1980-2000) generations. He knows that each generation of young people has its own peculiarities. You know it too. They’re our generation’s children, not our clones.

When church people talk about responding to generational and cultural changes, there are always a dependable few quick to speak but slow to hear (cf. James 1:19) who jump to the conclusion that being sensitive to culture means accommodation to culture. That’s not necessarily true. In the 1950’s, it took 20 church members a year to reach one person for Jesus Christ. Today it takes 85 (Thom Rainer). That suggests to me the problem isn’t accommodation as much as church members’ failure to listen. Krzyzewski says it’s a privilege to coach young adults and we should consider it a privilege to get out of our old comfort zones and listen to them.  “Meet them where they’re at, but don’t leave them there.”

The Meyer Minute for January 21, 2015

Nathaniel was cynical, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But when Jesus told him that He saw him under the fig tree, that He knew Nathaniel when Nathaniel didn’t know Him, Nathaniel’s life was changed (John 1:43-51). The eye of God is always on us.  “Lord, you know everything” (John 21:17).  Browse through the Psalms or read in the Gospels how Jesus interacts with people. You have no emotion that will not surface somewhere on those pages. In fact, those pages will surface things about yourself that you didn’t realize. After all, it’s not just the Bible; it’s the Word of God, of the God who knows you and me more than we can imagine.

Do you know Him? Not know about Him, not be familiar with the stories, but do you know Him intimately? Adam and Eve knew God that way in the garden, until sin substituted other loves. David knew God in his heart; read Psalm 139. When Peter said, “Lord, you know everything,” he added, “You know that I love you.” If you have any relationship today that takes precedence over Jesus, you show yourself cynical about God. “Are you drawing your life from any other source than God Himself? If you are depending on anything but Him, you will never know when He is gone.” (Oswald Chambers)

The Meyer Minute for January 20, 2015

A headline in today’s Wall Street Journal: “The Week Resolutions Die: Look for Gyms to Get Less Busy; What It Takes to Make a New Routine Stick.”

That’ll preach. Long ago, a line from a prayer got into my head. “Our deeds do not perform what our words promise.” Are your Sunday professions matched by your sanctified life during the week? “Although we know that we are weak and our deeds do not perform what our words promise,” the prayer adds, “give us faith’s courage and hope to try anew.”

That gap between Sunday promises and weekday actions is forgiven by God for Jesus’ sake. That’s forgiveness but that’s not full repentance. Repentance becomes full when you change your behavior. For that amendment of life, since “we are weak and our deeds do not perform what our words promise,” we put biblical words of life direction into our heads and hearts, and ask the Spirit of God to enable us to live by them. Amendment of life: “Lord Jesus, think on me / And purge away my sin”!

“The Week Resolutions Die” also reported “People who falter on their resolutions in January don’t necessarily wait a year to start over.  Last year, gym check-ins on Facebook in March surpassed even those for January” (D1). That’s an encouraging sign. “Give us faith’s courage and hope to try anew.”

 

The Meyer Minute for January 19, 2015

Here’s how Martin Luther King reacted to a late night, threatening phone call.

I got out of bed and began to walk the floor. Finally I went to the kitchen and heated a pot of coffee. In this state of exhaustion, when my courage had almost gone, I determined to take my problem to God. I am afraid … I am at the end of my powers. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.

At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never before experienced Him. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying, Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth. God will be at your side forever. Almost at once my fears began to pass from me… (in “For All the Saints,” III, 978-979)

Jesus doesn’t call you to die for Him as much as He calls you to live for Him. Be a living sacrifice today, deny yourself, and heed the servant call of Christ. When we’re brought low, we can best hope in the promise, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

“Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. / The Lord is on my side; I will not fear” (Psalm 118:5-6).

 

The Meyer Minute for January 16, 2015

Jacob “dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.  And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.  The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring… In you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 28:10-22).

Jacob didn’t wake up and say, “That was weird!”  No, he took the dream seriously.  So said Rev. Larry Vogel yesterday in chapel at Concordia Seminary.  He then told about Nam, a former South Viet Nam army officer who languished in a war camp for ten terrible years. He lost all hope, and believing what Buddha said, “Accept the things to which fate binds you,” Nam decided to take his life the next morning. But he had a dream that night, Jesus standing on a sea shore and telling Nam not to kill himself.

Years later, escaped and in America, Nam walked into Pastor Vogel’s church. He wanted to know what that dream meant.  Vogel: “It was one of the greatest joys of my ministry to catechize Nam, to share with him the simple clarity of God’s Word and promises—a clarity that answers the very human, ever repeated question, ‘What does this mean?’ Nam never repudiated his dream—why should he? But he didn’t cling to it for his certainty.  No, in the Word he found certainty and clarity—it was in the Word that Nam, like each of us, heard God speaking in total truth.”

Thanks, Rev. Vogel.  Cling to the promises!

The Meyer Minute for January 15, 2015

A man named Harold Hamm has taken out a big personal loan.  “Mr. Hamm’s move comes just days after his ex-wife, Sue Ann Arnall, cashed a check for nearly $975 million, meant to satisfy the couple’s recent divorce decree. Both Mr. Hamm and Ms. Arnall are appealing the judge’s ruling in the divorce, with Ms. Arnall saying she is entitled to more and Mr. Hamm arguing he should owe less” (WSJ, B2).

A woman once told me that she had to write a check to the government for several million in taxes. I asked, “Do you sit down and write out that check the same way the rest of us write out our checks for little amounts?”  Yes, she said, but fitting it all on one line was hard.

A friend who is financially blest gets upset when we preachers put down wealth and those who have it. He’s right. It’s not the amount you have but who’s your master. Ask yourself, “What is it that’s outside of me that commands most of my thought? That’s what your heart will follow. Obsess about money? Or focused on God’s rule in your life? (see Matthew 6:19-24). You don’t have to write out or receive big checks to be deceived by money (see Mark 4:19).