The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for January 31, 2017

I thought Michael Gerson of the Washington Post wrote a masterful Christmas editorial last month. “By any standard, this is an odd scenario for the entrance of divinity – to an occupied country, of disputed parentage, forced to flee as a refugee, living and working 30 years in silence, eventually betrayed by a friend, judicially tortured, and dying in utter abandonment. On a small planet, near an average star.”

Pro or con on the President’s executive order, followers of Jesus know the refugee and immigrant crisis touches one of our core beliefs.  

“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial… He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:17-19).

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me… Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” (Matthew 25:34-40).

“Though he was in the form of God, (Jesus) did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6)

The Meyer Minute for January 30, 2017

Since my job at the Seminary often has me traveling, I pack lightly. One thing I almost never take with me is an English Bible. Thank you, Gideons! Those great people make sure I can open a drawer in almost any hotel and find an English Bible.

Last Thursday I arrived at yet another hotel, unpacked, opened the drawer next to the bed and there was the dependable Gideon Bible. Picking it up, it seemed brand new. How many people read these Bibles? I got my answer quickly. Opening this Bible, I found a handwritten note stuck in the Psalms. “May whoever finds this be a small blessing to you. And may God bring you many more blessings. God bless.” With that little note were two $5 bills.

You don’t know what you’ll find when you open the Bible. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:44-45). The “kingdom of heaven” means the reign and rule of God. The Spirit of God will deliver those treasures into your life when you take and read your Bible. “How precious is the Book Divine, by inspiration given!”

If you go to the Doubletree in Tempe, Arizona, ask for room 130. I added another $5 bill!

The Meyer Minute for January 27, 2017

Professors, fellows at prestigious institutes, think tanks, seasoned hosts of political and economic shows… These are the public intellectuals who shape the thoughts of many Americans. How smart are they?

“In the 20 years or so since the term ‘public intellectual’ became current, the members of this self-appointed club seem to have learned nothing from their failure to predict the collapse of communism or make sense of its aftermath. They didn’t see 9/11 coming, nor the 2008 financial crash, nor the Arab Spring. In the past two years they missed the emergence of Islamic State, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and, most recently, Brexit and the victory of Donald Trump.” So wrote Daniel Johnson in a book review of “Public Intellectuals in the Global Arena” (Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2016; A15).

Johnson is critical of the book because it overlooks many people who shape thought, including “priests and rabbis.” This weekend millions will hear their ministers speak. Some will give avant-garde earthly wisdom in the name of religion, but many will offer studied reflections on faith and life from what they believe, I do too, is the inspired Word of God.

Paul and Silas, two intellectuals, spoke in the synagogue in the Greek town of Berea. “The people received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). The sermon was a spark to Bible study and discussion, not only in Berea but throughout the Mediterranean world. “These men…have turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). What will you hear Sunday that gets into your head, that motivates you to search the Scriptures, and share your thoughts with others? Do you think of your congregation as an influential center of thought for your community?

The Meyer Minute for January 26, 2017

Why should our churches be different from all else around us? Because we are graced. If you believe that you are saved by grace, nothing about you that merits God’s favor, only His gift in Jesus, then grace is for all. You don’t own it. The institutional church doesn’t own it. God gives it freely. In my sermon for the “Multi-Ethnic Symposium” I spoke about the importance of our graced lives and churches being different from all else around us. From that sermon:

“Contrast the rhetoric of the last presidential election. In a national survey of over 10,000 educators, 90% of respondents said that the election had a negative impact upon their schools. “40 percent had witnessed episodes in which minorities and other marginalized students were targeted, intimidated or harassed” (New York Times, January 22, 2017, Sunday Styles, 8). Concordia Seminary intends to be a safe place where the Body of Christ puts out big arms, welcoming arms to all people. We strive to provide pastors and deaconesses and continuing education and other resources that help the church be different than anything else people experience in their communities and contemporary culture.

“God intends for our congregations to have a different kind of reputation from other groups, other organizations, other value systems in our world. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

If this seminary, if your church disappeared tomorrow, would anyone in your community notice?

 

The Meyer Minute for January 25, 2017

What kind of reputation does your church have? That was the title of my sermon last evening when I preached for our “Multi-Ethnic Symposium.”

The text: May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. (Romans 15:5-7)

Shouldn’t there be something different about our churches? Shouldn’t we be so welcoming to one another on Sunday that it flows out to others when we leave church? Shouldn’t the word be out in your community that the people in your church are different from all the other groups, all the other gatherings, all the other affiliations we have in our stressed and chaotic lives? Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. Who has more welcoming arms than Jesus Christ? “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). If Jesus’ arms are wide with welcome, how then should it be with us who are the Body of Christ? Are we present in our communities as a welcome alternative to all the other groups, all the other gatherings? What kind of reputation does your church have?

The Meyer Minute for January 24, 2017

Police officer Steven McDonald was buried on January 13^th. In 1986 he approached a group of teen-agers in Central Park, New York, to ask about bicycle thefts. An innocent inquiry, but a 15-year-old, Shavod Jones responded by pulling out a gun and shooting officer McDonald three times. He was paralyzed from his neck down. For the rest of his life, he breathed with a respirator, used a motorized wheelchair, and traveled in a specially equipped van.

At the time of the shooting, his wife was pregnant and in time gave birth to son Conor. “When Conor was baptized in 1987, Officer McDonald asked her to read a statement declaring that he forgave his attacker and hoped that Mr. Jones could ‘find peace and purpose in his life.’” Monsignor Seamus O’Boyle said, “We all know how amazing that statement was, how important it was for the streets of this city.”

That’s a thought-provoking statement. How is your forgiveness toward others important to the well-being of your community? Does forgiveness extend beyond the walls of your Sunday sanctuary?

According to New York City police Commissioner James P. O’Neill, Officer McDonald often said “the only thing worse than taking a bullet to the spine would have been nurturing revenge in his heart.” Forgiveness is not only your duty, and it is your duty, forgiveness is healthy because it gets the poison of resentment and bitterness out of your soul. “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15). Let it go. The good that results will be your joy. (New York Times, January 14, 2017; A17).

The Meyer Minute for January 23, 2017

While watching Green Bay lose to Atlanta, I skimmed an article in the New York Times and thought, “not for me,” but then had second thoughts. The headline tells it: “Writing What They Know: Married parents, one transgender, are the authors of a book series popular with teenagers longing to escape their own bodies.”

The article is about Allison Glock and her husband T Cooper who have written a series of novels for young people. In their first book, 13-year-old Ethan wakes up one day in the body of a pretty cheerleader. Ethan has now become “Drew.” In the second book of the series, “Drew” becomes “Oryon,” an African-American, who experiences inequality and the nagging sense of being in the wrong body. In book three, Ethan has now become the overweight and rebellious “Kim.” Author Ruth LaFerla writes, “Each character is given the task of chronicling his or her experiences before moving on to the next identity, and they are expected to settle by the end of four years on one of those identities, without the option of returning to the person they were at the start.”

Are we instilling in the young people of our congregations a sense of who they are in Jesus Christ? Is our vastly changed culture overwhelming the efforts we have traditionally used? We’re not in “Christian” American anymore. Ms. Glock speaks for the culture that is swamping us: “Choosing who you want to be – that’s the ultimate choice.” The church has a different message about identity, less self-absorbed, less anguishing, more filled with joy and hope for our young people. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20; New York Times, January 22; Sunday Styles, 1, 8).

The Meyer Minute for January 18, 2017

The Inauguration will be Friday. Pro-con Trump talk. Some in congress staying away from the festivities. What would Archer Alexander think?

I’ve been sharing his story with you because it humbles me. “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). I can barely imagine walking in Archer’s shoes, if he had any. Born a slave in Virginia, taken to Missouri, beaten (I didn’t share those stories), lost his beloved wife “Louisa” under suspicious circumstances… Liam Otten’s article in the magazine of my alma mater, Washington University, has captivated me.

What would Mr. Alexander think about the Inauguration of a new president? Remember that he had the courage to tell Union soldiers that southern sympathizers in Missouri, a slave state, were planning to sabotage a bridge. Archer fled for his life. He found protection with Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot, Jr., in time was reunited with Louisa, but then learned their son, Tom, had been killed fighting for the Union Army. Archer said, “I couldn’t do it myself, but I thank the Lord my boy did it.” Alexander learned how to read, even quoting Shakespeare, and worshipped at Eliot’s church, the First Unitarian Church in St. Louis. My hunch is that Archer Alexander would stand in awe at the peaceful transfer of power we will see Friday, but also saddened by the contention.

One last thought: Washington University was chartered in 1853. The university has no historical connection with President George Washington, but Rev. Eliot, its founder, chose the name because the name Washington was a positive symbol of union in a time, the 1850’s, when the nation was sorely divided. That’s worth remembering these days.

The Meyer Minute for January 17, 2017

After Archer Alexander told Union soldiers about a confederate plan to sabotage a bridge, he fled to St. Louis.  Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot, Jr., took Alexander in but slave catchers kidnapped him. “They had caught him, sure enough, and had probably got him far beyond my reach already. But, if so, it should not be for want of effort, on my part, to rescue him.” He did.  

One day Eliot read Archer a letter from his wife Louisa. “My dear husband, I received your letter yesterday, and lost no time in asking Mr. Jim if he would sell me, and what he would take for me. He flew at me, and said I would never get free only at the point of the (bayonet), and there was no use in my ever speaking to him any more about it. I don’t see how I can ever get away except you get soldiers to take me from the house, as he is watching me night and day.”

Alexander knew a German farmer who would help. “On a moonlit night, Louisa and Nellie, the couple’s young daughter, climbed into an ox-drawn cart and hid beneath the corn shucks. A horseman soon rode by. He grilled the farmer: ‘Have you seen Louisa and Nellie?’ ‘Yes, I saw them at the crossing, as I came along, standing, and looking scared-like, as if they were waiting for somebody,’ the farmer coolly replied. ‘But I have not seen them since.’ Mother and daughter arrived before dawn. Alexander paid the farmer $20.” (Liam Otten, Washington University, Spring, 2016).

“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). Eliot, Archer, Louisa and the farmer remind us duty to God is not always easy.

The Meyer Minute for January 16, 2017

“Who hopes for what he sees?” (Romans 8:24). This Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a reminder of how some people have had almost nothing but hope, the story of Archer Alexander.

Archer Alexander was born into slavery in in Virginia in December, 1816. He was the son of a white man named Alexander who owned Archer’s mother. Young Archer was brought to Missouri in 1829, sold several times, and ended up working on a farm outside of St. Louis. He “married” a fellow slave named Louisa, “married” in quotation marks because marriages between slaves were not recognized by law. They raised 10 children, but the youngest, born in 1862, was the son of James Naylor, Louisa’s owner.

Missouri was a slave state. When Archer learned that Naylor was conspiring to sabotage a bridge, Archer slipped out from his quarters and warned Union soldiers. Archer’s great-great-grandson, Dr. Errol Alexander, said it was not only bravery but also retribution for the treatment of Archer’s wife Louisa. (Liam Otten, “Of Friendship and Freedom,” Washington University, Spring 2016)

Those of us who have had far easier lives may think of salvation as something more of the soul than body, of some future going to heaven, but when you read the Gospels, you see that salvation is total, body, soul and spirit. Jesus’ healing miracles are the sign that He is the ultimate deliverer from every evil of body and soul. The story of Archer Alexander reminds us that “we…groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).