The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for March 31, 2015

I’m trying this Tuesday morning to stir up struggle in my soul.

Everything is going routinely. The national news is focused on the nuke deadline with Iran and on the uproar over Indiana’s religious freedom law. Reporters say we’ll know by the end of the week. That’s what makes me pause and think that routine is wrong, at least this week. By the end of the week we’ll be in church remembering with silence that Jesus died for our sins, especially mine.

I got home last evening from California and watched O’Reilly talking about “Killing Jesus.” (By the way, we watch “Morning Joe” on MSNBC in the morning; we follow left and right to try to get our own fix on the news). But talking about the death of Jesus is not me, not you seized in our souls by the somber realization that you’re damned, I’m damned without His death.

“Ye who think of sin but lightly nor suppose the evil great Here may view its nature rightly, Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed, See who bears the awful load; ‘Tis the Word, the Lord’s anointed, Son of Man and Son of God.” (Lutheran Service Book 451, 3)

When I did my performance review for the Board of Regents, I listed my main priority for the new year: to grow in the fear of God. Fear of the just judgment of God against my sin and shut-me-up awe that He rescues me from what I truly deserve. And that’s why I’m struggling this morning to shift from the routine to awe. God intends this week to be holy.  

The Meyer Minute for March 27, 2015

Iran continues to rise, fomenting trouble in Syria and Iraq, where the United States is helping Iran try to retake Tikrit. Iran has helped destabilize Yemen, prompting Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan and others to attack Yemen, a move against Iran that is supported by the U.S. Meanwhile, Israel fears for its existence and has tense relations with the White House. Very worrisome news.

 

Will Sunday's worship offer any insight? It will be Palm Sunday, Jesus riding into Jerusalem to the praise of the crowds but knowing that He will suffer, die and rise again. We've observed decades of Palm Sundays but this year it comes amidst "wars and rumors of war" (Matthew 24:6).

 

St. Matthew presents Jesus' triumphal entry as the fulfillment of Zechariah 9. That chapter promises - key word, promises - judgment on the violence of nations but promises deliverance to God's people. "No more shall an oppressor pass through them, for now I have seen with My eyes. 'Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Jerusalem! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation.... The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be from sea to sea" (9:8-11).

 

Then Zechariah describes us who worship Sunday amidst worldly worries. "Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you" (9:12). That's what to take with you from today's Minute; we are "prisoners of hope."

The Meyer Minute for March 26, 2015

We talk about heaven in church, but have you ever wondered if death is the end, if there is nothing more when you die? No more living, good days and bad. No more life on earth or in heaven. Just nothingness. In fact, you wouldn’t even know that there’s nothing because you wouldn’t be there to know. Years ago I visited Jerusalem and picked up the English language newspaper. I was struck by how the obituaries announced death: “John Doe is no more.” I confess I sometimes have these thoughts as I get older. It’s not just doubt; it’s also fear of leaving this precious experience we call “life.”

This occasional wrestling in my soul between doubt and faith makes me appreciate the adjective, the modifier that we often add to the word life, “eternal.” “Eternal life” is standard church jargon but it speaks to my understandable fear, “Dale Meyer is no more.” The promise comes from Jesus Himself: “My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28). That’s an outstanding promise, “I give them eternal life.” Your bank accounts don’t make the promise, your career and reputation don’t, your work for the church doesn’t. Only Jesus, only the One who has gone through the valley of the shadow of death and now lives to lead you and me to the other side when our time comes. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

 

The Meyer Minute for March 25, 2015

We celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25, even though we don’t know exactly when He was born. Carefully calculating back nine months, the Church today celebrates “The Annunciation of Our Lord.”

“The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph…. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!’ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High’” (Luke 1:26-32).

Some Christians do not believe that the limited, finite things of our human life can contain the things of the infinite, most high God. Hence Baptism and Holy Communion can only be symbols, they reason, not God breaking into our lives. Is forgiveness only heavenly, not earthly too? Jesus healed a paralytic “that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Mark 2:10). The Annunciation shows that God silently is present in our human life, working unseen to save us. 

A reminder that God is with us today, March 25^th, nine months before Christmas. “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

 

The Meyer Minute for March 24, 2015

We’re back! After about a three week absence, resurrection.  The company that sends out the Minute told Diane that they had a “catastrophic event.” What that means, they didn’t say and even if they had, I wouldn’t have understood it. Yesterday they told us they’re functioning again and so, good morning! We’re back.

It makes me wonder how vulnerable our society is to computer failure and internet hacks. Our power grid, our military defenses, our business connections… If the little Minute can be taken out, what about the big things upon which daily life depends? Civilized life one day; chaos and anarchy the next? And Judgment Day? Jesus reminded His hearers that people in Noah’s day thought the unimaginable couldn’t happen. “As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:37-39). “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” “In the Lord I take refuge” (Psalm 11:3, 1).

Thanks to those of you who have purchased “Timely Reflections,” a compilation of 365 Minutes. It’s available from Tri-Pillar Publishers. And thanks to you who have asked where the Minute has been these last weeks. We’re back!

The Meyer Minute for March 4, 2015

What fills your times of solitude? Assuming that you put away your devices, take the buds out of your ear, and leave the company of other people – that you are truly alone with yourself – what do you think about? Whatever occupies your mind is what you will take into your interactions with others. “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:20).

Abraham Lincoln pondered the guilt of Americans and the judgments of God. After his death, this was found in his writings: “The will of God prevails – In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for, and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is somewhat different from the purpose of either party.” (in Joshua Wolf Shenk, “Lincoln’s Melancholy”)

Lincoln’s took his private thoughts public in his second Inaugural Address. “Both (sides) read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. ‘Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.’”

Lincoln stunned the presumption of both North and South, that God was on their side, but his biblically inspired words hit the triumphalism of the North especially hard. From his inner life, he understood that the Law of God hammers our presumptions. After the speech, he wrote to Thurlow Weed, “Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.” (Wall Street Journal, March 1; C13). President Lincoln delivered his profound words 150 years ago today. “Pay attention to what you hear” (Mark 4:24). 

The Meyer Minute for March 3, 2015

I hadn’t thought about him at all, but why should I? He was all over the news years ago, but news is usually a spectator sport that we watch only to move on to our daily duties. So when Dennis Kozlowski was all over the news because of his crimes, held up for the scorn of us common people, I paid attention, smiled when he was sent off to prison, and then forgot him. Assuming you also forgot, Mr. Kozlowski was the prodigal head of Tyco who, for just one example, spent $2 million on a birthday extravaganza for his second wife. He was convicted for taking $100 million of company money. Now he’s out of jail, totally free, and says he’s changed. “I’m not that person anymore.”

Getting to the moral of today’s Minute: “Mr. Kozlowski tells the story of a man who recently stopped him in Grand Central Terminal. ‘Hey,’ the man asked, ‘Aren’t you Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft guy who just bought the Los Angeles Clippers?” Dennis Kozlowski smiled, turned, and continued on his way.” (David A. Kaplan, New York Times, March 2; A1, B4)

Sooner or later we get it, that the world doesn’t revolve around us. “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more” (Psalm 103:15-16). “The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25).

Thank You, Lord, for whatever teaches me, a creature of a day, to be humble and thankful for Your mercies. Amen.

The Meyer Minute for March 2, 2015

I trust you will follow the serious events this week in Washington D.C.  On February 20, 1948, Peter Marshall, Chaplain of the United States Senate, opened the day’s session with the following prayer. His words still apply these many years later and they put the spotlight, perhaps in an unwelcome way, upon the heart of officials before God. Lest we blame others, the prayer applies to us all.

“O God, be merciful when we pray with half our heart or listen with half our mind, and pity us that we are torn as we are and bedeviled with compromises. Vainly we long for life without such difficult decisions, yet we know that we have only ourselves to blame for the tensions in which we live. We need to pray that our own eyes be opened to the truth. Deliver us from the reservations that would pray: ‘Thy kingdom come—but not yet; Thy will be done on earth—by other people.’ Help each one of us to see that if Thy Holy Spirit is to lead America, He must be permitted to lead us. If Thy will is to be done, we must do it. O God, most merciful, consider not our cowardice, but forgive our failings. Harken to those prayers of our hearts which come to us in high moments when we forget ourselves and think of Thee. Amen.”