The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for June 12, 2015

This weekend many of us will display the flag, Sunday being Flag Day.

I vividly remember the day when my mother… Mind you, this wonderful woman who gave me birth, who kissed my “owies” and told me it would be OK, who lovingly guided my growing, this woman who showed me unconditional love… Got the picture? This woman announced to me that I had turned 18-years-old and she was going to take me up to City Hall to sign me up for the draft. “The draft? You mean like going into the Army?” “Yes, unless you stay in school.” “You mean like going to war?” “Yes.”

That was 1965, the year I graduated from high school. Some of my classmates went on to college; others entered the service. Some of my friends were killed in Viet Nam. As we fly the flag, we fly the symbol of so much, of victories and of terrible losses, of aspirations and hopes and also bitter disappointments, of justice but also sadly the injustices which still persist in this great and unprecedented but sin-filled nation. The draft ended in 1973, which may or may not be a good thing. America is still involved in conflicts around the world but many young people grow up without realizing the heavy price that must be made so that the “star-spangled banner” can “still wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” We can be thankful as the flag flies, that the Spirit of the Suffering Servant inspires service in His people.

“As You, Lord, have lived for others, so may we for others live.

Freely have Your gifts been granted, freely may Your servants give.

Yours the gold and Yours the silver, Yours the wealth of land and sea;

We but stewards of Your bounty held in solemn trust will be.” (Lutheran Service Book, 842, 2)

The Meyer Minute for June 11, 2015

One more Minute about the wonderful ability to read, remembering that most people in history couldn’t and many in the world still can’t read. Humbling, that we’re so blessed.

I’ve noticed an interesting thing about public speaking. When I’m scheduled to deliver a sermon or speech, I think my topic through on the basis of a biblical text, prepare an outline, and then, if there’s time, write out the sermon or speech word for word and memorize it. That, incidentally, is how the ancient Greek and Roman orators did it. What I’ve learned over 40 years is that I don’t own the topic until I’ve spoken it out loud in front of people. Speaking out loud results in revisions in my understanding and more depth of thought about the given subject. The point is I don’t own the subject until I repeatedly speak it publicly.

Augustine, the fourth century church father, was surprised when he happened to see Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, reading. “When he was reading, his eyes ran over the page and his heart perceived the sense, but his voice and tongue were silent” (“Confessions,” 6.3.3). What surprised Augustine was that Ambrose read silently; people read out loud. “It was not until the Age of Enlightenment (the eighteenth century) that reading generally became a silent affair” (Thomas Winger, “The Spoken Word: What’s Up with Orality?” Concordia Journal, April, 2003; 136).

Learning that, and remembering that I’ve grown spiritually from speaking out loud, I wonder if our personal devotions and Bible studies would be more helpful if more time were spent listening to God’s Word spoken out loud? We usually read the text and then turn to our own thoughts. Perhaps more time letting the spoken word impact us? “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13).

 

 

The Meyer Minute for June 10, 2015

Today most of us take literacy for granted but in the early days of the church most people couldn’t read or write. Are we better off today because we can read? Yes, but…

The Greek philosopher Plato, who lived in the fourth century before Christ, wrote this about the invention of writing. “This invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding” (“Phaedrus,” 275B).

Ponder it this way. Because we now print the Word of God, bind it in a book, and put it on the shelf, we are tempted to think of God’s Word as a source of information. Looking for some religious information? Got a problem and want a spiritual fix? Find something in the book. But God never intended His Word to be only a source of religious information. “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Since most of the first Christians couldn’t read, they would memorize the Word far more than people do today. That Word in them transformed their lives in ways words on the shelf do not. “These words that I command you this day shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6).

“Always (be) prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Or do we say, “I’ll get back to you as soon as I do some religious research?”

The Meyer Minute for June 9, 2015

Summer finds our professors (1) doing in-depth studies and writing in their areas of specialization and (2) speaking to conferences all over the country. I was in Colorado the last five days, two days of travel and speaking eight times the other three days. That’s physically and mentally consuming, hence I didn’t write Minutes those days. Could I have mailed my speeches and sermons and stayed home? Yes, but there’s something about a speaker speaking and an audience hearing.

Acts 2:47 tells us that 3,000 people joined the church on the day of Pentecost, but today many of our churches are plateaued or in decline. Consider this: Scholars have estimated that only 5-10% of the population in the Roman Empire could read. When you go to worship, the Bible readings are probably printed out in the bulletin or projected on a screen. Not so back then; most of them couldn’t read!

So, how did the Spirit of the Lord Jesus get deep down into their hearts? By public reading, reading, reading, speaking, speaking, speaking, and hearing, hearing, hearing. That’s why Paul says in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes by hearing.” Look it up, read Romans 10:14-18 and you’ll see that the verbs are about oral communication of the saving Gospel, not reading. In 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We walk by faith, not by sight” meant ears that hear more than eyes that see print. So I’ll leave you with this thought. How deep does the Spirit go when we assume the Word of God is printed, the Sunday bulletin is thrown away, and the Bible is closed on the shelf?

  

The Meyer Minute for June 3, 2015

“Hi, Christian and Connor!  Where’s Toodles?”

“Oh, he wandered off again. Nick, come here! Opa, Nick gets into trouble when he wanders off.”

“Like what?”

“Well, Mom took us to work on Saturday. She had to finish up a project. When we were leaving the big office building to go home, Nick wandered off, saw something red, pulled it, and off went the fire alarm. Opa, don’t laugh! The alarm was scary loud and the fire trucks were big.”

“Boys, that’s what you call ‘ramifications.’ Our actions can have consequences far beyond anything we imagine. “Who can discern his errors?” says Psalm 19:12.”

“Opa, the ram… whatever you called it, were scary. We didn’t know what was happening. We don’t want that to happen again.”

“And how might we do that? People often say, ‘We better make a law or a rule about that.’ They think a new rule will make things better. I see that in churches all the time. People put all their energy into church rules.”

“Does that help?”

“Somewhat, but one of the ramifications is that Jesus and His Good News get moved aside and the focus becomes rules. Think about it. That’s scary too.  Say, where’s Nick?”

“O Toodles!”

 

The Meyer Minute for June 2, 2015

When you hear the word “church,” what pops into your mind? Maybe a building? Maybe a worship service? “We go to 8:00 church.” Or maybe you think of a congregation. “We belong to Trinity.” Whatever pops into your mind, most of us probably think of some aspect of the institutional Christian church.

At the first Pentecost there was no institutional church, at least not the way we often think of “church.” In fact, the word “Christian” hadn’t been invented. (That comes later, in Antioch, in Acts 11:26). The first believers were a new and small group within Judaism. They still participated in synagogue worship on Saturday but also gathered on Sundays, the “Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10) to worship Jesus. They were known as “People of the Way” because they consciously and publicly followed the One who says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Acts 9:2; John 14:6).

In its essence, the church is “holy believers and ‘the little sheep who hear the voice of their shepherd’” (Martin Luther, Smalcald Articles, 12). Pentecost began the miraculous growth of the church. Acts 2:47 says 3000 were added that one day alone! Today the church continues to grow around the world, but in the United States? My own denomination has lost 18% of its membership in the last 40 years, and we aren’t alone. Might part of the reason be that we think of the “church” institutionally rather than as committed and public followers of Jesus?

 

The Meyer Minute for June 1, 2015

Over the years you’ve seen spectacular photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Wow! They leave me totally awed by this universe.

Yesterday the church celebrated the Holy Trinity. Although the word “Trinity” is not used in the Bible, the Bible has many passages that present the Father, His Son Jesus, and the Spirit as the three persons of God. We can say that the teaching is a mystery, and that’s not wrong. Two plus two equals four but three separate and distinct persons in one God doesn’t fit our logic, and if you think you can explain it logically, you’re wrong. It’s a mystery. But it’s not the teaching that’s the mystery as much as it is God Himself. “We know precious little about God,” said my colleague Francis Rossow, “but the little we know is precious.” The Father sent His Son into this world for our salvation, and the Spirit who proceeds from Father and the Son works saving faith in us. Wow, out of the unfathomable mystery comes love, to me, to you, our hope and deliverance.

What might this mean as you step out the door this morning and into a new work week? Look up into the heavens and know that Hubble took the pictures but God set the stage. “Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?” (Psalm 113:5-6)

A hymn about Isaiah’s vision of the heavenly throne room puts it this way: “Holy is God the Lord of Sabaoth (hosts)! Holy is God the Lord of Sabaoth! His glory fills the heavens and the earth! The beams and lintels trembled at the cry, and clouds enwrapped the throne on high.” (Lutheran Service Book, 960)