The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for December 21, 2017

Company’s coming! Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are coming to the door of your heart and home. Let me tell you, they’re not boring, like some Christmas visitors to your home. This might surprise you: your company for Christmas is an engaging, relevant family.

Someplace along the line, we picked up the notion that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were an ancient version of the Cleavers. The manger scenes and carols and holiday greeting cards are so glazed over with sentimentality, so clouded with a longing for a simpler time, that the Holy Family seems unreal. The stable doesn’t smell any more. The straw in the manger doesn’t scratch the baby. The baby doesn’t cry. Mary and Joseph wear clothes that look like they’re fresh from the cleaners. No grime. No sweat. And therefore, no real relevance to the problems of our lives. We’ve turned them into the Cleavers and they’re not!

Mary had to explain her situation to Joseph. And what would she say to her family and to people in the little (and I suspect gossipy) town of Nazareth? The conception of the child was heavenly, but the effects were earthly and real. Joseph didn’t believe Mary at first. Would you? A pious person who believed in the old morality, Joseph was ready to end his relationship with Mary, until an angel appeared and explained the truth to him.

Your visitors this week had their problems, and we have ours. But it’s not the problems that make their company for Christmas so special. What’s so special about this company is the Child. Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us, can make you and your family members holy in the sight of God. Jesus comes to meet your times of despair with His hope, to cover your guilt with His Word of forgiveness. As Mary and Joseph welcomed the Child into their hearts and home, as the Child accompanied them in their marriage and life, welcome your company for Christmas!

Adopted from “Word Alive,” a new collection of sermons available from www.tripillarpublishing.com and Amazon. A blessed Christmas to you and yours! Lord willing, we’ll be back in the New Year.

The Meyer Minute for December 19, 2017

“Every minister has preached some lousy sermons, and I have too. Obviously we tried to keep them out of this book! This collection is eclectic – no pretension that these are the best I’ve preached.”

Those are the first lines of the introduction to a collection of my sermons titled “Word Alive!” It’s just published and available at www.tripillarpublishing.com and at Amazon.

Accompanying each of the 52 sermons is a Retrospective, often reflecting how the world has changed and how I might write the sermon differently today. I strove to be honest; growth in preaching is long and slow maturation, bumps along the way. Each sermon also has “For Further Reflection” with questions and Bible passages for further study. Looking back at old sermons, I faced the fact, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Apropos to these days before Christmas, is the conclusion from “Not a Creature Was Stirring,” preached December 4, 1985.

‘Twas the night before Jesus came, when all thro’ the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even my spouse;

Some stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

And, yes, thoughts that Saint Nicholas soon would be there;

But in our lives there was no Christmas clatter.

We are still before the Lord, what else can matter?

We’ve opened our Bibles, uplifted our hands –

and what to our wondering eyes has appeared?

God stirs up His power; Jesus is here.

The Meyer Minute for December 15, 2017

The angel gave Zechariah the word: “Your wife, Elizabeth, is going to have a baby.” He answered, “How in the world? We’re both old!” Angel: “You will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words” (Luke 1:20).

Religious though he was, Zechariah didn’t trust the word, and I’m not sure I do either. We’ve been through this Christmas drill so many times. Do we trust the word that this baby is my Savior, your Savior? The word to us about Jesus can seem as unbelievable as Gabriel’s word was to Zechariah.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3). The baby, who can’t even change his diapers, is the Creator of all? Do you believe that?

He’s also your eternal judge. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10). The baby will come back in all the glory of God and judge you. Your inmost thoughts, feelings, urges, sins… What you hide from others, everything will be laid bare before Him (cf. Hebrews 4:13). Do you believe that?

When Zechariah saw Elizabeth was pregnant, he realized the word of God is to be trusted (Luke 1:57-79). For me, I’m slow to surrender my own judgments to the Word. Martin Luther: “It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ” (Heidelberg Disputation, 18). “Teach me your way, O Lord; that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11).

The Meyer Minute for December 13, 2017

When you have your eyes on a goal, you’re annoyed by petty things. The busy-ness of these days before Christmas easily frays our nerves and we pop off against one another. Pause for perspective. What’s your goal this Advent? Try this: “Obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:9). What will salvation look like when you fully arrive? No rubbing one another the wrong way. “The wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). Peace. No rubs. No personal conflicts. Eyes on that goal, now you address relationship problems as quickly as you can.

The little child leads you. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10). Reconciliation is the in-breaking of Christ’s heavenly kingdom and it intends to change our relationships. Lay out the interpersonal problem in a spirit of forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn’t await an apology. God is judge; we’re not. Forgiveness doesn’t condone wrong. Pursue justice, peaceably. Forgiveness does free you from bondage to what was done. Forgiveness makes straight the path to God. “Come to terms quickly with your accuser” (Matthew 5:25). So here-and-now, when the personality conflicts, the stuff, the sins that come between us become our obsession, your energies aren’t going toward the goal. In the hindsight of eternity, we’ll see the energies we put into many of our conflicts was time wasted. We’re pursuing a goal; let’s get this, whatever it is, behind us!

“Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.”

The Meyer Minute for December 11, 2017

Every day millions of Christians begin the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father who art in heaven…” but then get to the Sixth Petition, “Lead us not into temptation.” That’s puzzled Christians for centuries. James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” What does Jesus really mean?

“Pope Francis said the common rendering of one line in the prayer – ‘lead us not into temptation’ – was ‘not a good translation’ from ancient texts. ‘Do not let us fall into temptation,’ he suggested might be better because God does not lead people into temptation; Satan does.” (New York Times, December 9; A4)

In 2006, eleven years before the Pope’s comment, Concordia Publishing House released a commentary on Matthew by Seminary professor Jeffrey Gibbs. “Throughout the history of the church, commentators have tried to show how a kind of ‘permissive’ force might be a way out of the dilemma: ‘Do not let us fall victim to temptation’ or ‘Do not let us be tempted.’ However, at the very least, that is not a normal force for the Greek verb to have; the proposed paraphrases end up changing the meaning…from ‘bring (someone) into’ to ‘to permit, allow someone else to bring (someone) in.’” (338-339)

Dr. Gibbs understands the Sixth Petition in light of the Seventh: “Do not bring us into temptation; rather, deliver us from the evil one.” “The Sixth Petition must not…be read or prayed apart from the Seventh, which is the real thrust of (Matthew) 6:13….The first clause acknowledges that God will send Jesus’ disciples into the fray, but the two clauses prayed together implore that he not only send them, but even more, be present to deliver them in the battle. This prayer acknowledges the ongoing character of the battle between Christ Jesus and Satan, the battle that will rage until the consummation of all things.” (345).

What battle against Satan and evil will you be brought into today? “Deliver us from the evil one!” Thank you, Dr. Gibbs.  

The Meyer Minute for December 8, 2017

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). Jesus was speaking about what we today call the Old Testament; the New Testament had not yet been written. Many people think Jesus is only in the New Testament, but here He tells us: You find Me also in the Old Testament.

The early church took that to heart. Jesus’ disciples scoured the Old Testament to find prophecies fulfilled by His coming. Go to church Sunday and you’ll hear evidence of their searching. In many churches the Old Testament reading will be from Isaiah, one Old Testament book the early church went to over and over again. “A voice cries, ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God’” (Isaiah 40:3). Then Sunday’s Gospel reading will be from Mark: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ John appeared....” (Mark 1:2-4). Mark quotes from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3. In John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, the early church found one fulfillment of prophecy.

Page through the New Testament and notice all the Old Testament quotations and allusions. This wasn’t an academic exercise for the first disciples. By His teachings, miracles, death and resurrection, Jesus convinced the disciples that He is, as Mark says, “the Son of God.” Faith motivated them to search the Old Testament to see Jesus. Might faith in Jesus motivate you to read about Him in Isaiah?

The Meyer Minute for December 6, 2017

I return to Isaiah 64, a marvelous chapter for your meditation. “You have hidden your face from us” (Isaiah 64:7). Out of sight, out of mind?

What can we see? Our sins. “In our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (64:5-6).

Add mortality to your sins: “We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” Here in St. Louis the leaves have been falling for weeks, and today cold winds are blowing them away. Each leaf blown away, my mortality, your mortality.

“There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you” (64:7). Here’s the essence of sin: Daily life without a conscious seeking of the One who created us. The specific sins we do – can you name yours? – spring from our willful wandering away from God. Fallen from Him, dried and blowing away.

God is hidden but not absent. You “have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities” (64:7). Remember the wicked witch in the “Wizard of Oz”? “I’m melting; I’m melting.” How do we theologically interpret the news? God is present, melting humanity in our sins. It’s God’s alien work that He does to bring us to repentance.

Jesus preached repentance and faith when He came from His Father to us (Mark 1:15). Advent calls us to it. “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter: we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people” (64:8-9). Take hold of God’s promises, for dear life!

The Meyer Minute for December 4, 2017

“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down.” Do you resonate with that prayer from Isaiah 64:1? Dear God, the world is getting worse day-by-day. Crazed gunmen, religious bigots, partisan intractability, insane nuclear threats… “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!”

This falls, I think, into the category of “Be careful what you pray for.” Isaiah goes on, “that the mountains might quake at your presence—as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!” Pause on that. Imagine that God comes down, the mountains quake, or as Psalm 46 imagines, “though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.” If that happens, I’ll likely have a heart attack.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). One of the joys of living at this time in history is our rapidly increasing knowledge of the universe. This weekend we had a “super moon,” larger to our eyes because it was 16,000 miles closer to earth than normal. That’s way longer than your vacation trip but tiny compared to the vastness of creation we’re learning from our space telescopes and amazing probes. With this increasing knowledge comes greater curiosity and greater wonderment. Christians call it the “fear of God.” “Who created these?” (Isaiah 40:26).

I sat in church yesterday thinking about this. Dear God, I dread You rending the heavens and coming down attended by cosmic disasters. But I do want You to come down. The world needs Your righteousness and justice and I need Your peace. Maybe if You would come down as a gentle baby, Immanuel. That’s the only way I will survive Your coming down.