The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for October 31, 2016

“The deplorable, wretched deprivation that I recently encountered,” began Martin Luther. He had made official visits to congregations in Saxony and Meissen from late October, 1528, to early January, 1529. The “deprivation” was that people didn’t know the Christian faith. “Dear God, what misery I beheld! The ordinary person, especially in the villages, knows absolutely nothing about the Christian faith, and unfortunately many pastors are completely unskilled and incompetent teachers. Yet supposedly they all bear the name Christian.”

Is that also true today? Most Americans identify themselves as Christians but how many can quote the Ten Commandments? You’ve heard people think they’re quoting the Bible, except what they quote is just some proverbial sentiment, not in the Bible. In recent decades our country has drifted away from its traditional center, and one reason is that people don’t know basic biblical teachings. And maybe they don’t care.

So Luther wrote “The Small Catechism” as a way for pastors to teach the faith to their congregations. In the introduction he gave teaching advice, including this: “Once the people have learned the text well, then teach them to understand it, too, so that they may know what it means. After the people understand the First Commandment well, then take up the Second, and so on.”

So his catechism begins, “The First Commandment. You are to have no other gods. What is this? Answer: We are to fear, love, and trust God above all things.” What do Americans “fear, love, and trust” today? “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching” (2 Timothy 4:3). A heritage of the Reformation: Always be teaching the faith; always be learning the faith.

The Meyer Minute for October 28, 2016

Sunday many churches will observe the Reformation. Its heritage is priceless, salvation by grace alone, not by works, including religious works, and that grace is received through faith. But observing Reformation as a celebration leaves me uneasy. Remember the two men who went to the temple to pray? One, prominent in worship, essentially says, “I thank Thee, God, that my life of faith is better than others.” Some ways of believing are in fact better than others, but “let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31, citing Jeremiah 9:24).

Martin Luther put it this way. “The works of the righteous would be mortal sins if they would not be feared as mortal sins by the righteous themselves out of pious fear of God” (Heidelberg Disputation, 1518). You lead a faithful religious life? Be humbled by your innate sinfulness; be awed that God nevertheless saves you. Keep your place. Your place is “pious fear of God.” “If you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed…not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:17-19).

Sunday I’ll be preaching in Sacramento, so of necessity I’ll be up front. Up front is a dangerous place to be. I pray my heart will be in the back, and your heart there too. “The tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Only those does God pronounce justified (Luke 18:9-14). Celebrate Reformation? Only “out of pious fear of God.”

The Meyer Minute for October 27, 2016

Please think this through. Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). Some ancient manuscripts read, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you are receiving it….” Whichever reading, we’re not dealing here with something that got goofed up in translation. Jesus clearly says that your prayer is answered immediately.

We usually think about prayer in time-bound ways. “I ask for something now and hope God will answer it in the future. Sometime down the road I’ll say, “Aha, finally, the answer to what I had prayed for!” But that’s not what Jesus teaches us. “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe…..” Believing is more than head knowledge; true faith knows but especially trusts what God has told us. It’s the way a child is with its parent. Pray to God in dependent, childlike trust, and you can know your Father is already answering. “Before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).

Down the road, sometime in the future we’ll see what the Father did for His children. “And it will be yours.” We see God’s mercies to us in hindsight, just as Moses could only see God after God had passed by (Exodus 33:21-23). What are you praying for today? Are you praying in childlike trust? Then know that your petition is being answered now. Sometime in the future you’ll see how wisely your Father has answered you. “Thy heart, O Father, kindly bendeth its fervent love and favor unto me” (The Lutheran Hymnal, 21, 5).

The Meyer Minute for October 26, 2016

“Euonymous alatus compactus,” the botanists call it. For us commoners, it’s the “burning bush,” and here on the Seminary campus it’s providing a spectacular display of fall color. True to its common name, its leaves are turning a brilliant red. The popular name comes from Exodus 3: “The angel of the Lord appeared to him (Moses) in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed” (Exodus 3:2). God said, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).

How many people, I fear, are missing the awe of creation? How many are obsessed with the screen on their smartphone? “When through the woods and forest glades I wander,” I have my attention focused on a screen? Duh! In this most beautiful time of the year, we’re obsessed with our own problems? Could it be that autumn is God’s billboard advertising that He is able to help you with your problems? “Earth’s crammed with heaven / And every common bush afire with God: / But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, / The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries” (Elizabeth Barrett Browning).

“And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned’” (Exodus 3:3). Be a child again, a child of God, and take a long look. Marvel. And when you turn aside and look at a burning bush, you’ll see that old “Euonymous alatus compactus” has ridged branches, not round and smooth. I wonder why? Perhaps for no practical reason, save the Creator looking down with delight as you and I with childlike wonder marvel at nature. “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). So many opportunities to marvel at God’s creation, but what do we do? Rush on to the next meeting, click the next link, pluck our BlackBerrys or iPhone or Android or what have you.

The Meyer Minute for October 25, 2016

One of my strongest desires for our grandchildren and their generations is that they be blessed with rich congregational life. A Christian family, healthy congregation, parochial education… these blessings shaped me. My passion for Concordia Seminary comes from the simple truth that seminarians who have both intellect and loving hearts will be God’s gifts to His people in generations to come.

Saxony Lutheran High School requires junior students to spend a day with an adult in a career they’re contemplating. So yesterday Mr. Anthony Kobak shadowed me.  We began at 8:00 by talking with my assistant about the day’s business, then walked to several offices (management by walking around), and went to chapel and coffee. After attending a class, Anthony had lunch with students and then another class. The day wrapped up at 4:00 with some questions for me. “What do you like most about your job?” Anthony asked. “The students,” I said. “I don’t even know what comes second. It’s definitely the students.”

We need more. 55% of American seminaries are struggling with low enrollments. We’re not in the 1950’s anymore, but generations to come still need the Good News of Jesus Christ. Can you encourage someone toward the ministry? By the way, because of the generosity of donors, the out-of-pocket cost a student pays for tuition at Concordia Seminary is almost zero. Anthony, I hope you’ll come our way. You have the gifts. “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4).

The Meyer Minute for October 24, 2016

I chanced upon this quotation about God: “His various names – not to be investigated, but to be savored and enjoyed. So, brethren, let prying dry up and let us multiply prayers, for though He is not related to us, He is though as of our race, and though He is utterly separate, yet He is over all and in all.”

From Ephrem the Syrian, a fourth-century theologian and hymn-writer, this quotation challenges how we think about God and use the Bible. About God, Ephrem believed there is a vast chasm between the Creator and us His creatures. Think of photos from the Hubble telescope. Wouldn’t we do well to confess that God is immeasurably beyond us? “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? (Isaiah 40:26). Because God is “utterly separate,” incomprehensible, we should dread speculating about God. “Let prying dry up.”

All we can know is what God has revealed of Himself, and that’s all centered in Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 4:6). Because the Son of God took on our human life, Ephrem says, “Though He (God) is not related to us, He is though as of our race.” God’s names, what He reveals of Himself, is “not to be investigated, but to be savored and enjoyed.” Bible study uses your brain but make sure your heart savors and enjoys the names. Father, Son, Jesus, Brother, Spirit… “Utterly separate, yet He is over all and in all.” “Let us multiply prayers.”

(Frances M. Young, “Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture,” 145-147).  

The Meyer Minute for October 21, 2016

Yesterday was a long day, but not without satisfactions. A highlight was dropping in on a class of the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology here at Concordia Seminary. EIIT’s brochure says it “offers a specialized program leading to ordination for men engaged in pastoral missionary contexts in ethnic immigrant and urban cultures in North America.” These are first generation immigrants to America who are preparing to share Christ in the urban settings they now call home.

I invited questions and share one. “Today we have people who are on the margins. As time passes, the people on the margins are increasingly moving into the center of American life. What do you think that will mean?” My answer was realistic, “Increasing friction.” You can see it in the presidential campaign, longtime majorities feeling threatened. Troubled relationships are the reason congregational life in Jesus Christ is so important for time and for eternity. Members of the Body of Christ strive to see all people with the love God brings us in Jesus.

St. Paul wrote that the Gospel of grace broke down hostility between Jews and Gentiles. Jesus Christ “himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility” (Ephesians 2:14-16).

If your faith life could use a charge, visit a congregation of immigrants who follow Jesus. Together we are members of the Body of Christ!

The Meyer Minute for October 20, 2016

One of my favorite psalms is 143. Do you know it?

“Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy!” When you “plea” for something, it’s more than a ritual prayer. It comes from a troubled heart that needs actual help, not just pity. “Mercy” means real help.

“In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!” “Faithfulness” means God keeps His promises to you. “Righteousness” is His justice through Jesus who makes us right with God. So we plea on the basis of what God has revealed about His mysterious being. God, You are faithful and righteous.

Not that we deserve it. “Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.” How ashamed you and I would be if other people knew the thoughts and feelings buried deep within us. Our Creator knows. He is Judge. Who are we to strut our religious stuff?

“The enemy has pursued my soul… My spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled.” Oh, how I want Sunday sermons that penetrate my weekday heart the way the psalms do!

“I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you.” Have you experienced the calm that comes when you ponder the psalms? That’s because they lead us to rest in our Father and Savior.

“Answer me quickly, O Lord! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me… Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust.” Can you identify with my feelings?

The Meyer Minute for October 19, 2016

 A person can only live with so much guilt. Judas Iscariot felt so guilty that he took his life (Matthew 27:5). Many people convinced of their guilt withdraw from the people they’ve hurt, feeling too ashamed to show up as if nothing had happened. Without forgiveness, that shame keeps the sinner away from the fellowship that claims to be welcoming and forgiving.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians about anyone who hurts fellow church members. “For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so that you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.” (2 Corinthians 2:6-7). If that known sinner in your church has confessed and been forgiven, the details of which are probably not your business, then who are you to keep swinging the club of guilt?

“What I have forgiven,” Paul goes on, “has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:10-11). A church culture of forgiveness keeps the devil at bay and your congregation at peace. You have to wonder if some people stay away from church because they don’t want to hear more about their guilt. Would more people come if the word got out that you’ll hear forgiveness and be welcomed in love?

“Oh, how blest it is to know: were as scarlet my transgression,

It shall be as white as snow by Thy blood and bitter passion;

For these words I now believe: Jesus sinners doth receive.

(Lutheran Service Book, 609, 5)  

The Meyer Minute for October 18, 2016

“A sower went out to sow. Some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil…, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.”

Oh, how Jesus’ words guide us in life! “How’s that?” people wonder. “Jesus’ parable of the sower, what does that have to do with my day-to-day life?” The key is to see everything, hear everything, experience everything through the lens of God’s Word. “CBL & Associates Properties Inc., the Mall of America, electronics chain HHGregg Inc. and Office Depot Inc.….said they would close on Thanksgiving Day this year.” “A few retailers, including Staples Inc. and videogame seller GameStop Corp., were closed on Thanksgiving last year.”  

“And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in….” “Desires for other things.” “The growing number of Thanksgiving store openings resulted in low morale among retail workers.” Plus, “extending Black Friday sales to Thanksgiving Day failed to give retailers the boost they hoped for.” Whether it be buying or selling, greed for stuff chokes the spiritual life. “Desires for other things enter in…and choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful.” Isn’t that relevant? “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:1-20; Wall Street Journal, October 14; B3).