The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for April 29, 2015

Dear Concluding Seminarians,

This evening you will receive the official documents of your Call into the Holy Ministry. When you first arrived on campus it was our privilege to welcome you; today we are deeply touched as you go forth to witness to the faith, hope and love that are in Jesus Christ. Strong in my heart this evening is a prayer that you’ll watch against a temptation unique to Seminary graduates.

“Academized Christianity, which is not constantly connected to the heart and puts its hope in knowledge and skill, can actually make students (seminarians) dangerous. It arms them with powerful knowledge and skills that can make the students think that they are more mature and godly than they actually are. It arms students with weapons of spiritual warfare that if not used with humility and grace will harm the people they are meant to help.” (“Dangerous Calling,” Paul David Tripp, 54)

Your Seminary has worked hard to provide you with a holistic view of ministry, not just in the classroom but in congregational settings, mission trips, athletics, social events and much more. Still, parish ministry is different than Seminary life. A veteran pastor recently said, “The Seminary gets you ready to be a pastor. You will become a pastor later.” This evening you will begin to step into that future of service, a future unknown, challenging, but a future that you can experience with the confident joy of faith. Go with head and heart united in devotion to Jesus Christ. He is your own Savior and Leader. Out of your personal discipleship, make the apostles’ conviction your own. “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

Stay your heart on Jesus. Otherwise, ministry “can finally all degenerate into a Christ-less Christianity that puts its hope in theology and rules and somehow forgets that if theology and rules had the power to transform the heart of idolaters, Jesus would never have had to come, live, die, and rise again” (Tripp, 55).

Blessings upon you!

Opa

The Meyer Minute for April 28, 2015

If a man owned sheep in Bible times, he might shepherd the sheep himself. If his flock was large, he’d hire someone to tend the sheep on his behalf. Because that hireling didn’t have the same personal investment in the sheep as the owner, he wouldn’t risk his own well-being. “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees…. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:12-13).

Who is your “hireling”? To whom do you, like a sheep, look for care? Many of us look to our job and career. There was a time when a person would spend his whole working life with one company. The company took care of him and upon retirement gave him a pension. How that’s changed! Workers today know that the company is not going to lay down its life for you. I suspect that most church workers look to the institutional church to take care of them. It was a terrible time when the Seminary did a reduction in force so that we’d weather the Great Recession but, as the CEO of a major company counseled me, you have to save the institution. No job, no career, no company and no institutional church is going to lay down its life for you. Only Jesus the Good Shepherd does. “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15).  

Thank You, Father, for the work we do and the employer through whom You give us our “daily bread.” Give us the insight that this hireling will sooner or later fail us and by Your Spirit prepare us for that day of disappointment by deepening our love and devotion for our Good Shepherd, Jesus. Amen.

The Meyer Minute for April 27, 2015

Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd.” That’s a dear image, especially when we think of children. “I am Jesus’ little lamb.” Is the image also relevant to you as you face your adult, real world issues today?

In the Good Shepherd passage, John 10:11-18, Jesus contrasts the Good Shepherd with a hired hand, a “hireling” as the King James puts it. The hireling isn’t necessarily bad; he just clocks in and clocks out but isn’t going to run any special risk for the sheep. He’s not going to “lay down his life” for the sheep, as Jesus three times says the Good Shepherd will do.

You and I are ultimately Jesus’ sheep, but we do have “hirelings” to whom we look for care. Marriage and family, job and career, education, medicine, excellence… The list is endless. To whom do you look to take care of you in the realities of your day-to-day life? Sadly, some of us look to hirelings who are destructive, like substance abuse. That we all look to some “hireling” to take care of us is the same idea that Martin Luther expressed this way: God “richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life” (Small Catechism). The sobering thought is that our “hirelings” won’t lay down their life for you and me; only the Good Shepherd does.

So to make the image of the Good Shepherd relevant to your adult life today, identify your current “hireling.” To whom or what are you looking to be taken care of? Sooner or later it will let you down; only the Good Shepherd goes all the way for you and with you.

The Meyer Minute for April 24, 2015

If you’re a pastor, I invite you to offer a public prayer. If you’re a layperson, I invite your personal prayers and perhaps a request to your pastor for the public prayers on Sunday. Please pray for our seminarians and their families who will receive their first calls into ministry this Tuesday and Wednesday. Some have hints where they might be going but no student will know definitely until his name is called out. “John Doe. Iowa District East. Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.”

It’s obviously a time of high anticipation and of many fears. Not only where in the world are we going, but… Big town or small town? Sole pastor or multi-staff? Good schools for our children? An adequate salary? Any help as I begin to pay off student debt? A place for my wife to work? Close or far from relatives? What will the congregation be like? What will neighboring pastors be like? And these students have fears about being personally attacked.  “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another” (Galatians 5:15). After the polite welcomes are over, will some parishioners and area pastors start stabbing me in the back?

This week we welcomed some 30 pastors to campus. They put on an event they named, “We Love the Sem.” They mingled with students, talked with professors, led chapel, put on a BBQ for the entire campus community, and talked about hands-on-ministry from their experience. We are deeply grateful for their realism, their encouragement, and their focus on Jesus Christ. “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21). Anticipation, fear…More than anything else, it is a time of Christ-centered hope.

So, please pray for these students. By the way, several seminary wives are expecting a baby and due this week. Can life be any more exciting?   

The Meyer Minute for April 23, 2015

Thank You, Lord.

Thank You for another day. I didn’t think much about it as a kid, and only now-and-then in my middle years, but I increasingly realize that my days are numbered. Teach me wisdom.

Thank You for the slow morning walk down the stairs, when I’m just awake and very, very stiff. You are giving me hope for the day when this perishable will give way to what is imperishable.

Thank You for my quiet time in the morning, and for all those times when I steal away from what’s swirling around me to be with You. “I will give you rest.” You do!

Thank You for work. Oh, there’s a lot to do; more than I’ll accomplish today. Let me see every task as a service to You and the stuff that doesn’t get done? It’s a testimony to grace over works.

Thank You for people. The nice people, of course; I like them. But thanks for those who are difficult and find me difficult. The Body of Christ has many members. Those difficult people aren’t the Head and neither am I.

Thank You for those outside our Christian faith. Dear God, don’t let me be a pulpit-pounder who condemns them but may Your Spirit move me to show them the patience and love of Jesus.

Thank You for troubles and afflictions and diseases. Make them incentives to prayer for myself and for those who suffer. May they be heavy on my heart so that I am compassionate to all.

God, forbid that I should set myself up as judge of what’s good and what’s bad today. In all things You work for good to those who love You. I do. Thank You for this day! Amen.

The Meyer Minute for April 22, 2015

If you think of yourself in a place, where is it? Perhaps in a factory? You mechanically crank out widgets – that’s what you do – and live for the end of the day and long for retirement. Perhaps a store? You are about stuff – necessary stuff and nice stuff – getting the new in and the old, dated stuff out. Perhaps a country club? Relaxing with friends, play – that’s the essential you! Home? You are warm and welcoming, protective of your relatives. As good as your places may be, is any totally satisfying?

Do those places inspire you, ennoble you, give you a sense of awe that makes your day-to-day tedium and troubles bearable? Is there transcendence in your soul that makes you agree with poet Paul Gerhardt, “No trouble troubles me. Misfortune now is play, and night is bright as day”?

On Earth Day, Christians remind ourselves that there is indeed such a place – a place that includes all the places of our lives. It’s the cathedral of God’s creation. Go outdoors. See the trees – pillars reaching up toward the vault of heaven. Lift up your eyes to the vault adorned with blue, with gray, with dark clouds and lightning. See the lights of the cathedral – the sun, the moon, the stars; windows that teach us. “The heavens declare the glory of God … Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:1-3). Isn’t this the place where you live?

And among the smaller places in the cathedral is your earthly church. It’s the place where transcendence becomes personal. “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). Without Jesus, creation is capricious. With Jesus, awe. “What is man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:4). Does your “architecture,” like mine, need expansion?

Today’s Minute comes from “Timely Reflections,” the compilation of 365 Meyer Minutes available from www.tripillarpublishing.com. 

The Meyer Minute for April 21, 2015

“The grass withers, the flower fades” (Isaiah 40:7). Not now! The grass is green and lush, enjoying its first burst of springtime growth. Diane and I spent Saturday and Monday mowing grass on campus, and in a few days we’ll be mowing again. Flowers are not fading; today the Seminary’s bedding plants are delivered and each plant will soon be planted and growing…and testifying to us about the splendor of the Creator’s world.

“Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God upon the lyre! He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 147:7-11).

Awe and reverence. Let that be the greatest growth for us in these spring days!

“You forest leaves, so green and tender That dance for joy in summer air,

You meadow grasses, bright and slender, You flow’rs so fragrant and so fair,

You live to show God’s praise alone. Join me to make His glory known.”

(Lutheran Service Book, 811, 2)

The Meyer Minute for April 20, 2015

The Boston Marathon runs today, two years after the bombing that killed four people.

Yesterday marked the 20^th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. 168 people were killed.

Last night I heard that there are new executions of Christians by ISIS, this time in Ethiopia.

It takes me to Habakkuk. That 7^th century B.C. prophet complained to God about the violence of the Chaldeans. “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?’ Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted” (Habakkuk 1:2-4).

God answers that He knows, and He gives Habakkuk a vision. “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). “Faith” here, in this specific passage, can be understood as “faithfulness.” Habakkuk, be faithful to the will and ways of the God of Israel.

And for us in our terror-filled world? Government has a different responsibility than does an individual citizen. Government “is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4). That doesn’t mean America should be a warmonger but it does mean military muscle will sometimes be used. For you and me individually, trust God and do good. “The righteous shall live by faith.” 

The Meyer Minute for April 17, 2015

Many of us Sunday will hear Luke 24:36-49, an appearance by the resurrected Christ to His disciples. After He convinces them that He’s not a ghost but still a real, flesh and blood human, He says something strange, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you.” He’s indicating that He will henceforth be with them in a difference way. He had been with them visibly for three years but now He’ll be with them by faith. Sure enough, He next leads them out and ascends into heaven, out of sight. They are left with His word, but that word of Christ dominated their lives. They “returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.”

Does His presence in the word dominate your life? Personally, I’d like to see Him with my eyes, and that time is coming. “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Do you want Jesus with you by special spiritual experiences? We have times when God seems especially close, but they are rare and you can’t build a sustained spiritual life on mountaintop experiences. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Now His Spirit is with you through the Christ-centered word of Scripture. Faith hangs onto the words of Christ in Scripture. Is that the dominating presence in your life? Or is it just an hour on Sunday, or the minute of this devotion? 

The Meyer Minute for April 16, 2015

Years ago I was in a field with a friend who is a farmer. He picked up a clod of dirt, played with it in his hand, and said, “Not yet.” He explained that when dirt will crumble easily in his hand, then it’s time to plow and plant. An illustration there: When you feel that your life is crumbling, it’s the time when God will plant big spiritual growth into your outlook on life.

Martin Luther wrote about God’s goodness, “The comfort is too great and the joy too glorious and the heart of man too small and narrow to have attained it.” How hard for us to know the comfort and the joy of God when our circumstances are crumbling!

That’s the right time – when passages from God’s Word can plant hope in our crumbled circumstances. “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul” (Psalm 94:19). Then we learn that God really means all – not some, but all. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). So Luther concluded, “Through suffering, we may finally succeed and attain this heart and cheer, joy and consolation, from Christ’s resurrection” (Easter Sunday, Second Sermon, Mark 16:1-8). Out of crumbling circumstances, new life, resurrection! “In Thee, Lord, have I put my trust; Leave me not helpless in the dust!” (Lutheran Hymnal, 524, 1)

Today’s Minute comes from “Timely Reflections,” a compilation of 365 Meyer Minutes. It is available from www.tripillarpublishing.com.