The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for April 30, 2018

Growing up in a conservative Lutheran congregation, the importance of knowing proper biblical faith was drummed into me. This is not a complaint! I don’t remember such an emphasis upon love, although I hasten to add that family and church friends were very loving.

The relationship between faith and love was hidden in the epistle lesson read yesterday in church. “Beloved, let us love one another,” it began and went on, nothing jarring.  Who’s against love? Yet I’ve heard church people, even ministers, say hurtful things when they think your intellectual understanding of faith is wrong. “I’m saying this out of love.” Really? “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:7-10). That line is hard, if you’ll pause on it. It shows that church people often love in ways that are not Christ-like.

Martin Luther: “The love of God, which dwells in human beings, loves sinners, evil persons, fools, and weaklings in order to make them righteous, good, wise, and strong. Rather than seeking its own good, the love of God flows out and bestows good. For this reason, sinners are attractive because they are loved; they are not loved because they are attractive” (Heidelberg Disputation, 28). But we “friend” those who are like us. Church cliques are like hanging with like. That’s not the love that God shows us unattractive sinners in Christ.

“Have faith in God,” Jesus commands (Mark 11:22). How does faith show? Here’s something from Professor Mark Seifrid that invites reflection upon relationships in today’s polarized culture of verbal attack and personal destruction. “In their paraenesis (exhortation) the New Testament writings assign priority above all else to agape (the noun ‘love’) and agapao (‘love’ as a verb), not to pistis (faith; “New Testament Studies,” Cambridge University Press). What counts, Paul says, “is faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). “Beloved, let us love one another!”

The Meyer Minute for April 25, 2018

Last evening 62 candidates for the Holy Ministry were given their first calls at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. What world are they going into? From my introduction to “Word Alive” (tripillarpublishing.com):

“Older people grieve what’s been lost. In ‘Christian America,’ the things of God and the things of public society became mixed together. Christian life and public life were homogenized, the clear differences blurred. Thereby the distinctiveness of following Jesus could get lost. But now ‘Christian’ America is gone. That makes this new time an opportunity, a strange blessing to understand anew – or for the first time – the radical nature of faith in Jesus.

“Peggy Noonan…reflected on all the changes around us after she reread a book by Dean Acheson, Secretary of State under President Harry Truman. ‘Everyone’s in the dark looking for the switch,’ she wrote. Isn’t that a great description of our society today? ‘Everyone’s in the dark looking for the switch,’ she wrote, ‘When you’re in the middle of history the meaning of things is usually unclear… In real time most things are obscure…’ And then she quotes Dean Acheson. ‘Only slowly did id dawn upon us that the whole world structure and order that we had inherited from the nineteenth century was gone.’

“Our seminarians and young church workers get it. They know that Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12), that we have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9), to let our light shine in this society (Matthew 5:16). They do not grieve what has been lost in American culture and church life; they haven’t lived through it. They do look forward with hope and anticipation for their ministries and the mission of the Church in these new times. I pray that we older church people will fully welcome and bring younger generations, pastors and lay alike, into the corporate life and leadership of the Church, not making them sit at the children’s cared table.”

The Meyer Minute for April 23, 2018

Good Shepherd Sunday. Cute image for kids. Does it mean anything for us adults this Monday morning?

From Horace, a first-century satirist: “How comes it, Maecenas, that no man living is content with the lot which either his choice has given him, or chance has thrown in his way, but each has praise for those who follow other paths? ‘O happy traders!’ cries the soldier, as he feels the weight of years, his frame now shattered with hard service. On the other hand, when southern gales toss the ship, the trader cries: ‘A soldier’s life is better…. One learned in law and statutes has praise for the farmer…. The other instances of this kind—so many are they—could tire out the chatterbox Fabius.”

“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). Really? Contentment…or lack of contentment…gives a Monday morning glimpse into our faith life.

“If some god were to say: ‘Here I am! I will grant your prayers forwith. You, who were but now a soldier, shall be a trader; thou, but now a lawyer, shall be a farmer. Change parts; away with you—and with you! Well! Why standing still?” They would refuse. And yet ‘tis in their power to be happy. What reason is there why Jove should not, quite properly, puff out both cheeks at them in anger, and say that never again will he be so easy-going as to lend ear to their prayers?” (Satires I, 1, 1-22; H.R. Fairclough)

Mythical Jove might puff his cheeks at our discontent but our Good Shepherd seeks us when we imagine the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. “Sheep that from the fold did stray / No true shepherd e’er forsaketh; Weary souls that lost their way / Christ, the Shepherd, gently taketh / In His arms that they may live: Jesus sinners doth receive.” (Lutheran Service Book, 609, 3)

“I shall not want.”

The Meyer Minute for April 20, 2018

A person who fears the Lord, “is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord” (Psalm 112:7).

With brother Bruce and sister Pam, I delivered bad news to people. In the mornings we peddled the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times. In the afternoons the American and Daily News. Come Sunday it was the Trib and Times, but not on our bikes. Sunday papers were so heavy that we delivered out of the back of the family station wagon, Dad driving. We didn’t deliver only bad news. Sports, comics, human interest stories were delivered too. It all came in one compact printed package.

How you get the news has changed, and chances are good the way you get your news is not helping your peace of mind. Barton Swain, opinion editor of the “Weekly Standard,” critiques getting news on line. “I had also begun to feel anxious that, despite all the news reading I do, I was never able to catch up…. You read and read, but unread stories are still everywhere and you spend the rest of your day feeling anxiously ill-informed.” So Mr. Swain subscribed to the old style print newspaper, delivered to his house every day. “The newspaper, and especially the serious metropolitan daily, allows you to ingest the news on an array of topics—and be done with it.” “You’re sufficiently well-informed, and for the remainder of the day you can apply your mind to other tasks, without anxiety or guilt.”

What you take in and how you take it in is an insight into your soul. “Do not be anxious…. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:31, 34). “My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:27). To live so blessed, Jesus says, “Pay attention to what you hear” (Mark 4:24).

Mr. Swain sums it up well. “Newspapers are physical and limited, and so are we” (Wall Street Journal, April 16; A17).

The Meyer Minute for April 18, 2018

Our sympathies to the family of Mrs. Barbara Bush. She was a magnetic person, genuine in every way, and a woman of faith. Her passing invites us to reflect on the winding down of life. From my new book, “Word Alive”:

“If there seems to be lethargy in today’s Church, it may be because we’ve lost our sense of pilgrimage. We are living in a time of immediacy, our frenetic rushaholism even greater today than (years ago). Communication is instantaneous around the world. Credit enables me to have anything I want right now. I’m conditioned to escape unpleasant things as quickly as possible. I imagine I can pretty well manage my life with my smartphone. We’ve lost our sense of journeying to the eternal. Or have we willingly given it up?

“To this here-and-now time in which we try to cope, couple the tendency of some preachers to talk exclusively about Jesus’ death and resurrection, which was oh, so long ago. Crucial as that first-century history is, there’s more. Jesus’ ascension, His pouring out of the Spirit not just on Pentecost but today through Word and Sacrament, the promise that He will return as judge of living and dead and take His faithful to the eternal joys of heaven… all these should make us look forward….

“Christian life as pilgrimage makes more and more sense to me. I feel it in my bones, literally…. Pastors and ministries are like the helpful people who stand alongside the course of a 10K race, offering water and encouragement. I see myself with Abraham, journeying to an unknown land, with Jacob and family sojourning in Egypt and their descendants led through the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and fire… I’m in that story, and sooner or later will come to the Jordan, trusting Jesus to lead and welcome me into the Promised Land.” (“Word Alive,” Tri-Pillar Publishing, 128-129)

The Meyer Minute for April 16, 2018

Private, public, or something messy in the middle?

Concordia Seminary is on a 72-acre setting in Clayton, Missouri. We are an open campus and encourage neighbors to enjoy the park-like setting. They do, and that pleases us. Sometimes, however, a few outsiders don’t pick up after their dogs, disregard bicycle etiquette, and disrespect the private nature of the campus. Messy.

That’s why the incident at Starbuck’s in Philadelphia caught my attention. Two men came in and sat down to wait for a friend. The two bought nothing, and in time the store called the police who arrested them for trespassing. The president of a consulting company, Robert Passikoff, said, “Companies have gone out of their way to establish the kind of emotional bonds and product delivery that they think is going to build engagement and loyalty and, ultimately, profits. But today the consumer decides what is right. They have become magnets for social experiences, in the broad sense of ‘social,’ but not in the sense that ‘Oh, I need to buy something.’” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 16; A12). Starbucks or Seminary, the line between private and public is not always clear. It can get messy.

Think about this. In various ways, all Ten Commandments assume the messiness of private interests in public interactions. “God willed that we should live in a social structure with other people” (Martin Chemnitz, “Loci Theologici,” 717).

The two men arrested in Starbucks and subsequently released are black, raising the specter of racism. Yesterday all Major League Baseball players wore number 42 to mark the 50^th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier. It was a clash of assumptions, prejudices and truths, messy, but today we’re thankful for Jackie Robinson’s courage. It’s in the messiness of public conflict that Christians yearn for communion with God our Savior, but such times are not intended to insulate us. We were made for community, as messy as that sometimes can be. Another reason to treasure the Ten Commandments.

The Meyer Minute for April 13, 2018

How’s it going for you this Friday the 13^th? Chances are pretty good that something is bothering you. A co-worker is obnoxious. All the news is conflict. Taxes due next week. Maybe some person or group has turned their gossip against you. Are you weary?

Where’s Easter when you need it?

Good Friday we observed life as it is. The woes we experience, our sins against one another and God, get their just punishment when Jesus dies. A few days later we’re told it’s going to be ok, but Friday the 13^th things may seem unlucky for you. You have two options. Let Easter be over, the lilies faded, and you slog on as if God is dead. Or you embrace the paradox with hope, the paradox of being crucified with Christ and raised again today to newness of life, confident and courageous in God.

The penitential psalms are as appropriate in the season of Easter as they are in Lent. From the fifth penitential psalm, Psalm 102. “Hear my prayer, Lord;  let my cry for help come to you. Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress.” That’s Good Friday; that’s us dying with Jesus. Maybe that’s you today, Friday the 13^th.

But Easter is about more than our feelings. Easter is every day about our good God.  The Lord “will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord: The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death. So the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the Lord.”

“Stop doubting and believe!” (John 20:27).

The Meyer Minute for April 11, 2018

The LCMS study of young adults found that times of transition and crisis are hyper-important.

“I was diagnosed with cancer my senior year of high school. My diagnosis challenged everything I’d been taught about what it meant to suffer as a Christian. I grew angry with God and with my church community because I didn’t feel my questions were being answered or my experience validated. I was hurt and confused and tired. That season in my life has made me reluctant to attach myself to a church community again.” Overview: “Numerous accounts from young people about how a major crisis left them feeling alone and abandoned by the church when they needed it most.”

When we fail to be present for someone going through transition or crisis, we not only fail them but hinder our own spiritual growth. 16^th century theologian Martin Chemnitz identified reasons why the Second Table of the Law, the commandments about being there for other people, are important. Transitions, crises, simple daily duties are “serious and compelling occasions….for the exercise of faith, prayer, obedience, patience.” Being there for others, “we may carry on the charitable works which really cannot be truly performed in the solitary life, where the members are cut off from the body and are not joined together in their mutual duties.” “The works of the Second Table are actually a worship of God when they are guided by the fear of God and faith” (Loci Theologici, II, 717)

Prayed yesterday in Seminary chapel, this “Life Affirming Prayer” speaks to times of transition and crisis. “Gracious Father, Author of life, in love protect all unborn children, guide mothers and fathers into courageous paths of life, and heal the guilt and regret of those who are post-abortive. Give comfort to the barren and let us be their true family; as You served us in our weakness, help us to serve the weak, the troubled, and those who approach the end of life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

The Meyer Minute for April 11, 2018

The LCMS study of young adults found that times of transition and crisis are hyper-important.

“I was diagnosed with cancer my senior year of high school. My diagnosis challenged everything I’d been taught about what it meant to suffer as a Christian. I grew angry with God and with my church community because I didn’t feel my questions were being answered or my experience validated. I was hurt and confused and tired. That season in my life has made me reluctant to attach myself to a church community again.” Overview: “Numerous accounts from young people about how a major crisis left them feeling alone and abandoned by the church when they needed it most.”

When we fail to be present for someone going through transition or crisis, we not only fail them but hinder our own spiritual growth. 16^th century theologian Martin Chemnitz identified reasons why the Second Table of the Law, the commandments about being there for other people, are important. Transitions, crises, simple daily duties are “serious and compelling occasions….for the exercise of faith, prayer, obedience, patience.” Being there for others, “we may carry on the charitable works which really cannot be truly performed in the solitary life, where the members are cut off from the body and are not joined together in their mutual duties.” “The works of the Second Table are actually a worship of God when they are guided by the fear of God and faith” (Loci Theologici, II, 717)

Prayed yesterday in Seminary chapel, this “Life Affirming Prayer” speaks to times of transition and crisis. “Gracious Father, Author of life, in love protect all unborn children, guide mothers and fathers into courageous paths of life, and heal the guilt and regret of those who are post-abortive. Give comfort to the barren and let us be their true family; as You served us in our weakness, help us to serve the weak, the troubled, and those who approach the end of life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

The Meyer Minute for April 9, 2018

A new study prompted some memories of my mom. One Saturday night in high school, or maybe it was home in summer from college, I was out very late. The next morning mom tried to rouse me from bed to go to church. I grumbled, way too tired to get up. “I don’t care how late you stay out, you’re going to church!”

The new study is about young adults and comes from Youth Ministry and Research Services of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Although it’s about our denomination, researchers say their findings are similar to those of Pew, Barna, Fuller and others. “Young people cannot emulate faith behavior they don’t see. When parents don’t prioritize worship and congregational engagement, young people won’t either.” “Yes, ma’am.” I got up and went to church!

Another memory. For a long time Mom was secretary of the Sunday School. Every Saturday morning, Mom and Dad, Dale, Bruce and Pam would go up to St. Paul’s Lutheran School to set up tables and chairs for Sunday School. We even put up dividers in the hallway, enrollment being so large that classes met in the hallway. Besides that, Dad was the church’s financial secretary during my grade school years. When he took the offering out of the plates to put in the church’s safe, he asked young Dale to take the plates to the chancel for the second service. Doing that also made a lasting impression on me.

Study: “Engage youth and young adults in service and leadership.” “Young leaders may have roles like usher, Sunday School teacher or trustee, and children and teens are seeing examples of how to transition into adulthood in faith communities.”

Happy Birthday, Mom! You and Dad were doing it right before anybody studied it. We love you!