The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for May 31, 2017

Jesus is one with His Father. Are you one with Him? “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). A proving ground of being one with Jesus is the life of service.

Jesus did not assert His rights, though He had them. How often do you and I assert our rights as an excuse not to serve one another? Jesus did not see life through the lens of self-interest, but how often don’t you and I think, “what’s in this for me?” Jesus did not look at life with the individualism that marks us Americans. He had come to do the Father’s will, and when that was hard, hard to the point of being mocked, scourged and crucified, He said, “Thy will, not mine be done.” “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

Service is a life, not a job. It’s who the Spirit makes you through the word of Jesus. You go out the door in the morning with an agenda to accomplish but God interferes and puts someone before you who needs a good work from you. What’s your first reaction in that moment? Grouse about the interruption? Help grudgingly?  “A servant is not greater than his master” (John 13:16). Those are law-gospel moments. How far I am from oneness with Jesus! Forgive and make me more like You! “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37, 39). God doesn’t need your good works but your neighbor does. One with Jesus.

 

The Meyer Minute for May 30, 2017

Jesus prays that “they might be one, even as we are one” (John 17:11). In our contentious times, think about just some of the blessings available to you from being one with Jesus and with all who follow Him.

One with Jesus and therefore one with one another turns disappointments into faith-growing experiences. You have times when you’re disappointed with someone or about something. Is that a surprise? Who among us is perfect? Only One, and we point one another to Him. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

One with Jesus and therefore one with one another fills failures with hope. Failures come, even when you haven’t sinned, and we get down, even despair. Followers of Jesus surround us with hope because we know One whose “failure” became the victory of Easter. “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God” (Psalm 42:11).

One with Jesus and therefore one with one another comforts us in grief.  God “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:4). Followers of Jesus are different in grief, “that you may not grieve as others do who have who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

So many more blessings come from being one with Jesus and with His followers. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). And people question going to church?

The Meyer Minute for May 26, 2017

Memorial Day… We are to honor those who died in the service of our country, but for many that’s a passing nod. What commands us is the start of summer, outdoor activities, a slower pace of life. I wonder, what do people huddled in churches do the rest of the week for the good of our nation?

The creed has three articles. In my tradition we put greatest attention on the second article, I believe “in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord” and the third, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” The first article gets short shrift, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” That imbalance can lead us to think that the only thing the church can do for the nation is tell people about Jesus, and while that’s the best thing, it’s not the only thing. Jesus teaches the Father in heaven “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Our Creator loves and cares for all people, those in and outside the church, those who know Jesus and those who don’t. We don’t have a monopoly on God’s love.

I’m preaching this weekend for the ordination of a recent graduate. The text is John 13:1-20, Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. “You also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all” (Martin Luther, “Christian Liberty”). What can the church do for the nation? “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). God doesn’t need our good works, but our fellow citizens do.

The Meyer Minute for May 25, 2017

Armies and battles, miracles of nature and healing, Jesus’ ministry in real places. When you read the Bible and go to church, you hear about them but what do you picture? Do you imagine Capernaum like your town, or the Judean desert like New Mexico or Arizona? When pastors preach and teach Bible class, do we fully appreciate the geographical and historical background of Jesus’ visible ministry? You can learn these things from books, but how much better to go there and actually experience it.

Yesterday a group of 15 left Concordia Seminary to study for two weeks in Israel. This is much more than a sightseeing tour. Assignments beforehand and two days of class on campus preceded the trip. In Israel the days are filled with assignments and on site presentations. What does it mean when David said, “He makes me lie down in green pastures”? (Psalm 23:2). What was the setting when a demon-possessed man cried out, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). “Many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:3). Why does it say “up”?

Obviously the ministries of those in the class will be enhanced, as will be the understanding of those they’ll teach in years to come, but the mere fact they’re doing this reminds us our faith is an on-site faith. All the millennia of Bible history culminate in the incarnation of the Son of God, His coming into flesh in time and history. Today’s main takeaway is God is with you, Immanuel, in your specific place today, now. As Jacob said at Beersheba – where’s that? – “Surely, the Lord is in this place!” (Genesis 28:16). Open this link to see a video of a previous trip:

The Meyer Minute for May 24, 2017

German theologian Oswald Bayer said, “Every sermon has the function to set free, to free the sinner, and to say you are free, don’t fear.”

Did you hear that last Sunday, that Christ has set you free, as Paul says in Galatians 5:1? Or as my favorite Easter hymn puts it, “My heart from care is free; no trouble troubles me. Misfortune now is play, and night is bright as day”? (TLH 192, 5).

If you did thrill last Sunday to freedom from sin, death and devil, your spirit may still be slogging through the middle of this week. On the very first page of a new commentary from Concordia Publishing House, Dr. John Kleinig writes, “In 13:22 the author of Hebrews describes his letter as a “word of encouragement” (page 1). That made me think of 1 Peter 5:12, “I have written briefly to you, exhorting (or encouraging; the Greek word is parakaleo) and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.”

“Encouragement provides a wide range of emotional comfort…such as consolation in bereavement and freedom from guilt, cheer in unhappiness and relief from pain, solace in discomfort and release from anxiety, courage in weakness and liberation from despair. God’s encouragement of his discouraged people results in a change of emotional state, a change of mood, from sadness to joy, from fear to hope, from grief to jubilation, from uncertainty to confidence. Its purpose is peace (Isaiah 57:18-19)” (page 194).

“Every sermon has the function to set free,” Bayer said. No pastor can lay out all the ramifications of trusting in Jesus, they are so many, but they all come together in the last word the pastor speaks to you in the service, “And give you peace.”

The Meyer Minute for May 23, 2017

Transport yourself to Africa, to Mozambique on Africa’s east coast. You’re watching the baptism of new Christians, plural, because the church is growing rapidly in Mozambique. You’re in Bible times. “The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). You hear traditional baptismal questions, beginning with “Do you renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways?” “Yes” comes the group’s answer but before the next traditional question, “Do you believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth?”, Pastor Carlos Walter Winterle added his own question. He asked if they renounced the fear and worship of their ancestral spirits. The group answered they did; one old woman shouting above the others, “Nevermore, nevermore, nevermore!” What a witness to us! “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

Pastor Winterle preached this weekend at our church, Holy Cross in Collinsville, Illinois. He was here to receive an honorary doctorate from the faculty of Concordia Seminary. He said, “a new Pentecost is happening in Mozambique and God is adding more and more people to His family.” Here’s the encouraging picture. In 2015 the Lutheran church in Mozambique had 10 congregations when the first eight pastors graduated and were ordained. Now, there are more than 80 churches. Two new classes of 30 students each have been prepared for ministry, one since 2015 and the other since 2016.

From 1,000 church members in 2015, they have now more than 5,000. And the church is also spreading from the villages to the cities. Winterle said, “The doors are open to the Gospel and God’s kingdom is growing very fast.” Who among us can’t be energized?

The Meyer Minute for May 22, 2017

“Alexa, what’s today’s weather forecast?”

“Alexa, how’s traffic?”

“Alexa, play the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

Does Alexa live in your house? You’re either thinking “Yes,” or you’re wondering, “What’s Dale talking about?” Alexa is the computerized female voice on the Amazon Echo. Echo is a small cylindrical device, we’ve got her sitting on an end table, and you ask her – really “it,” because it’s just a device – You ask it questions. Literally. “Alexa,” you say, she lights up and you ask your question. Immediately she gives you the answer she’s retrieved from the cloud. Alexa is another astounding proof that we’re in a revolution in communications, the greatest since the invention of the printing press 500 years ago. And this has consequences for the church.

“Alexa, give me today’s Bible verse.” That’s what I asked last evening and she quoted Isaiah 58 from the King James Bible. That’s spiritual sustenance, but think further about this communication revolution. You can go to Concordia Seminary’s online resources and get all kinds of theological learning, from devotional writings to learning Greek and Hebrew. You no longer have to attend seminary to learn theology, although I hasten to add there are real reasons for having seminaries. Anyway, you can learn theology on line…

…and through online access you can conceivably learn as much theology as a minister. “Alexa, what does that mean for the future of the church?” Alexa might answer, “It means that the ‘priesthood of all believers’ will not simply be something preachers talk about, but a teaching that will become real like never before. The clergy’s role will no longer simply dispensing theological knowledge.” So, what might that mean for the relationship between ministers and their congregations in the future? A fascinating future awaits as the Lord leads us forward!

The Meyer Minute for May 19, 2017

How can Christians witness in a culture that is… what? Less friendly to the church? Less interested in the church? Could care less about the Bible? Could care less about Jesus?

Many church-goers Sunday will hear an inspired passage for witness in our day and age. “In your hearts, regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience” (1 Peter 3:15-16).

Peter was encouraging Christians living in northern Turkey. They were not citizens. Today anyone born in America is a citizen but not then. Some were slaves, who might have kind or harsh masters. They couldn’t file a work grievance. Some were women who believed against the will of their husbands. Many were poor, lusting for money. Regarding “Christ the Lord as holy,” they would refuse to participate in many civic ceremonies and festivals which worshipped false gods, including Caesar. No separation of church and state back then, not to participate was subversive. For all those reasons this minority, and they were a small minority, attracted suspicion and slander. What could they do in a culture that was against them?

Do good, Peter says, “so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame” (3:16). “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evil-doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (2:12). In other words, “What is it about you? You’re different!” And then you gently share the hope that is in you. Good advice for witness today!

The Meyer Minute for May 18, 2017

Yesterday a tent went up at Concordia Seminary – a large tent in the garden setting next to the President’s House. It’s there a reception will be held this evening for graduates and their families. Commencement is tomorrow.

You see people every day who place no value upon an education; that’s sad, but often it’s because that’s the way they were raised. Under the tent we say, “Thank you” to all those parents who kept asking their little children, “What did you learn at school today?” and kept hearing, “Nuttin.” “Then why are we sending you to school?” ‘I dunno.” Slowly it dawns on the child that he or she has learned something, and by college or graduate school has learned a lot.

Years ago I sat in a crowded corner in a hot gymnasium and watched our daughter Elizabeth graduate from Valparaiso University. The feeling was overwhelming. My parents grew up in the Depression when so many people had to go without so many things that today we take for granted, including higher education. Watching my daughter graduate, I understood like never before why my parents always and earnestly asked, “How was school today?”

“He who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (Ecclesiastes 1:18). Perhaps so, but the education parents provide can orient their children to heaven so that they truly value their blessings on earth. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).

The Meyer Minute for May 17, 2017

“Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). You can have peace when there is no conflict, but peace in the midst of conflict is difficult. Amidst things swirling all about us, disturbing us to the core, to that Jesus speaks. “Let not your hearts be troubled.”

Unending controversies from Washington shake our trust and feeling of security. What news reports can we trust? Does it make a difference anyway? The government is to be a servant to us for good, Romans 13:4, but partisans don’t agree on what’s good and what’s to be punished. Can God save the state? “Let not your hearts be troubled.”

Maybe your heart is burdened with family problems. Home is to be a secure place, a safe place, but it may be conflict in the closest relationships, perhaps financial stress, maybe emotional health… You literally feel the weight. “Oh, blest the house whate’er befall”? “Let not your hearts be troubled.”

“The rate of technological change is now accelerating so fast that it has risen above the average rate at which most people can absorb all these changes. Many of us cannot keep pace anymore.” (Thomas Friedman, “Thank You for Being Late,” 31) Routines are disturbed by change. We cannot envision the future for ourselves or our children. “Let not your hearts be troubled.”

Let faith be your calm. “Believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1).  Things troubling you are things of sight, of sense, of flesh. Faith is different; it’s heart hanging onto the promises of Jesus. “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3).  “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). “Let not your hearts be troubled.”