The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for June 29, 2018

Revenge filled the soul of the gunman who killed 5 people at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis. A column reporting his criminal harassment of a woman over social media led Jarrod Ramos to sue the paper for defamation. He lost the case, lost an appeal, and yesterday made himself god over the lives of others. How much has changed in our lifetimes! A more litigious society than decades ago, social media non-existent decades ago, and mass shootings now sadly common.

Independence Day invites us to look back to the basic principles and way of life envisioned by the founding fathers. That can become nostalgic and paralyzing. “Our frustration is driven in part by a failure of diagnosis—a failure of self-knowledge, which in turn is rooted in a wide-spread nostalgia for midcentury America. That nostalgia therefore makes it difficult not only to see a path out of our economic and social challenges but also to see a way past our divisions and to recover some genuine unity amide our raucous, fractured diversity” (Yuval Levin, The Fractured Republic, 185-186).

The basics haven’t changed over the years: Harassment and other crimes, anger, revenge, and so many other passions flooding into empty souls. The Ten Commandments are broken as much as ever. The epic confrontation was at the cross, sin and evil seemed to have won, until Easter. Can our nostalgia blind us to the relevancy and urgency of Christ’s mission today? Easter is both our personal encouragement and motivation for witness.

“Traditional religion offers a direct challenge to the ethic of the age of fracture. Religious commitments command us to a mixture of responsibility, sympathy, lawfulness, and righteousness that align our wants with our duties. They help form us to be free.” “Putting them (soul-forming institutions) within the reach of as many of our fellow citizens as possible must be among our highest and most pressing civic callings” (Levin, 204-205). “Let none hear you idly saying, ‘There is nothing I can do.’”

P.S. Diane and I are going to take the next few weeks off, recharging in the “lazy, hazy crazy days of summer.”

The Meyer Minute for June 27, 2018

“I told you so!” Been there; done that.

Acts 27, the text yesterday in chapel at Concordia Seminary, is an “I told you so” moment. Paul had been arrested and tried, and although local officials thought he was innocent, Paul had appealed to Caesar. That was a move only a Roman citizen could make – most people in the first century were not citizens – so off to Rome he had to go. The journey would be by sea but the weather was ominous. Paul argued against setting sail, but “the majority decided to put out to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete” (27:12). Things got bad and by the third day, “all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned” (27:20). Now it comes: “Paul stood up among them and said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me’” (27:21).

Have you experienced gloating in “I told you so” moments? It gets rubbed in that you were wrong, or maybe you’re the one who rubs it in. Giving or receiving, our natural tendency is to use the truth to build ourselves up and put others down. It’s sin because we’re supposed to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39). But Paul didn’t gloat. “Yet now I urge you to take heart” and he went on to suggest what they should do (27:22).

Even though it was a terrible decision, God loved the majority that decided to set sail. God loves everyone in America, even though the majority today has “set sail” on living less and less in fear of God and dependence upon His Son Jesus. “If men were angels” James Madison famously wrote in the Federalist Paper 51, but our fellow citizens aren’t angels, and neither are we. Self-righteous gloating “I told you so” doesn’t help America in its downward cultural spiral. Loving your neighbor as yourself does. Saved eternally, we also have a stake in being saved temporally.    

The Meyer Minute for June 25, 2018

I’m starting to think of the Fourth of July. Maybe you are too.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Who doesn’t want to be happy? The Barna organization put this statement before people, “The highest goal of life is to enjoy it as much as possible.” 84% of Americans agreed and almost 7 out of 10 practicing Christians agreed as well. How is “the pursuit of happiness” turning out for you?

A retired English teacher clued me in about “happiness.” How we understand the word today is not the way it was understood in 1776 when Thomas Jefferson wrote it into the Declaration of Independence. This from Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Happiness? In this era, happiness comes with the connotation of self-pleasure; there is a hedonistic component to the definition now. However, that’s not what the Framers meant. If you read (George) Washington, he uses the term happiness all the time, as did the other members of the generation at the time of the founding. For them, happiness meant that feeling of self-worth and dignity you acquire by contributing to your community and its civic life. And that’s the concept of happiness that we have to tell our young people is still within their grasp.

(in Heart of the Nation, Volunteering and America’s Civic Spirit, John Bridgeland, 36)

So, the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence is not about pursuing pleasure and happy feelings. It is seeing ourselves in service to others in our neighborhood, community and nation. For followers of Jesus that means turning to Jesus as the One who lifts from us the burden of sin’s condemnation, freedom, and gives us hope for today and for every tomorrow, eternal life. What else can we now do but serve others? That’s truly “the pursuit of happiness.”

The Meyer Minute for June 20, 2018

I’m at loose ends, my routine upset. I’m in Denver for the biennial meeting of the Association of Theological Schools. Denver is an hour behind St. Louis. An early riser, back home I’m up before the world starts moving. Here it’s more so. Had my coffee, read in the Bible, went down to the lobby to find a newspaper. “Too early,” the clerk said. Great, I thought. Maybe someplace out of the hotel has something. Went out, it’s still dark and everything is closed. Wrenched out of my routine. You know?

“And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5). The Creator made us creatures for routine. Jesus had his routines. “Rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed’ (Mark 1:35). But now we can travel to different time zones, we can illuminate the darkness, people can reach us at any time, and routine is upset. Both are good, being rooted in routine and unsettling times of loose ends.

Years ago I asked a man where he grew up. I assumed he would give the name of a different town, maybe even a different state, but he said, “In that house right there.” That house was in the same block where he now lived. Probably not the best for growth and stimulation, I thought. On the other hand, being able to transcend time and space, as we can today, deceives us about who we finally are. “Dust thou art” (Genesis 3:19). Our modern capabilities of travel and communication tempt us to forget we are creatures of time and place, in the end bound mortals.

Here’s true routine. “I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:23-25).   

The Meyer Minute for June 18, 2018

Yesterday the temperature hit 96 degrees in St. Louis. Same again today. In the 90s or close to it the last several weeks. You know that the heat is more tolerable when you’re in the shade.

“I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out…. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest” (Ezekiel 17:22-23).

Jesus picked up on that prophecy. “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade” (Mark 4:30-32).

Trusting the promises of Jesus is the shady nest that surrounds us when life turns up the heat. Your faith isn’t seen by the world, nor do we ourselves usually see faith grow, but the promises are where we go to be assured we are ultimately safe. “By God’s power (you) are being guarded by faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials” (1 Peter 1:5-6).

Rather than dogmatic statements, Jesus used parables to teach us to see ourselves nestled in the Creator’s care. “Children of the heav’nly Father / Safely in His bosom gather; / Nestling bird nor star in heaven / Such a refuge e’er was given.”

The Meyer Minute for June 15, 2018

My father taught me to love interacting with people, and to this day I thank him for it. He worked for Dixie Dairy in the Calumet region of Chicagoland and northwest Indiana. When I had a day off from grade school, I would sometimes ride with him on the milk truck. You can’t do that with insurance regulations today, but you could then and I was proud to “help” my father. One day we were in South Holland, Illinois, and my dad told me to take the milk bottles to the back of the house and put them inside the enclosed porch. “Look around while you’re in there,” he said. I did and saw two pairs of wooden shoes. Older people of Dutch heritage wore those shoes when they were outdoors. My mind is filled with stories like that this Father’s Day weekend. He took time to introduce us to the joys, and sometimes irritations, of dealing with people. In sharing his own love of life, he was gently growing us toward adulthood.

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13-14).

“Compassion” there is “mercy,” specific demonstrations of love you show to someone with whom you have a relationship. It’s more than a feeling; it’s action. As Christian fathers guide the maturation of their children, our unseen heavenly Father’s gives real-life demonstrations of love, mercies to those who “fear” Him. To fear God is not to cower in terror but to honor and obey Him as our loving heavenly Father. The stress is on love.

Working at the dairy, he left early every morning, 4 or 5 o’clock. Some mornings I was awake in bed, but pretended to be sleeping. He’d always come in and make sure we were tucked in. “As a father shows compassion to his children….”

The Meyer Minute for June 13, 2018

“A Man and His Toys” is the title of my Father’s Day sermon in “Word Alive!” published by TriPillar. Jorge Valdez came from Cuba to the United States and went from poverty to wealth, though not in legal ways. “When I was 20 years old, I had two Learjets, my own JetRanger (helicopter). I had mansions in every country and city that I went to ‘cause I hated to carry a suitcase where I went. I drove around in a Rolls Royce. I had a fleet of cars.”

When his bodyguard was killed, Jorge realized the bullet had been meant for him. He began to call his whole life into question. At the funeral, his bodyguard’s daughter said to Jorge, “Godfather, my daddy went to be with Jesus.” “Wow,” Jorge said, “if there is a Jesus, what we are doing is not going to get us there.” His discontent grew. One weekend, Jorge was partying at one of his mansions. His daughter from a previous marriage was spending that weekend with him. In the middle of the night, this toddler came to her father’s bedroom. Scared, she was reaching out for her father’s help. How can I help her, he thought. He realized how filthy he had become in the life he was living. Having the biggest, best, and the most toys wasn’t proving to be the answer.

“If riches increase, set not your heart on them” (Psalm 62:10), and “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall” (Proverbs 11:28). Jorge was led to Jesus Christ. I asked him, “Do you miss the toys?” “I miss them all. Who doesn’t miss going to the store and buying whatever you want to buy? The difference is that now the hole that…was inside my body, in my mind, in my soul, has been filled. It’s filled with a relationship with Jesus.” In consumer America, you have to wonder how many of us are scaled-down versions of Jorge.

The Meyer Minute for June 11, 2018

Last week fashion designer Kate Spade and TV food and travel celebrity Anthony Bourdain took their lives. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported suicide rates increased in all but one state from 1999 to 2016. Now the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, suicide is the second cause of death among 15 to 34-years old. In North Dakota the suicide rate increased 57%. Here in Missouri it increased 36.4 percent. Montana has the highest rate. Nevada did not show an increase but is above the national average. “The widespread nature of the increase, in every state but one, really suggests that this is a national problem hitting most communities,” said Anne Schuchat of the CDC.

This is a grievous problem with no simple solution. A person’s decision to end life reflects the harsh realities of life today. One report identifies a 1200 percent increase in anxiety disorders since 1980. In the last 20 years the number of people reporting symptoms of depression has risen from 1.5 to about 50 percent.

A concept going back to Augustine gives insight, “man turned in on himself.” The nature of sin is to turn in on ourselves rather than toward God and others. American life today is highly individualistic, what the Barna organization calls “me-centered morality.” The end result is captured in the liturgy for confession. “When we examine our hearts and consciences, we find nothing in us but sin and death, from which we are incapable of delivering ourselves.” This is the Law, the crushing realization that finally I cannot meet expectations.

“Therefore our Lord Jesus has had mercy upon us. For our benefit He became man so that He might fulfill for us the whole will and law of God and, to deliver us, took upon Himself our sin and the punishment we deserve.” This is Gospel, help from outside ourselves. While the increase in suicide has no simple solution, the ministry of individuals and congregations is one starting point: Turning people from themselves to the God of hope. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). Anxiety, depression, suicide, and all the other problems in society today… Congregational mission is as important as ever!    

(Sources: New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Man Turned in on Himself” by Heather Choate-Davis)

The Meyer Minute for June 8, 2018

It’s Friday, and so ministers are getting their sermons ready. A minister who preaches on a biblical text, not all do, will usually spend the early part of the week studying and meditating upon the text. While musing about how the truth of the Word can best be delivered to the hearers, he goes about the other tasks of ministry. Visiting in the hospital or care facility, bumping into a parishioner at Walmart, sitting in meetings… Where can Sunday’s text best meet the people’s experiences?

Martin Luther: “A preacher is like a carpenter. His tool is God’s Word. Because he works on hearers who are different, the preacher shouldn’t continually use the same tone of speaking, but should speak in different ways that correspond to the differences in hearers. Sometimes he will comfort, other times terrify, scold, conciliate, and so on.” (Mit Luther durch das Jahr, 170).

This week I was in Wisconsin talking with eight pastors about preaching. These are new pastors, some only a few months into their new calls, the most experienced with four years. It’s part of our church’s program designed to help new pastors transition from the seminary academia to actual congregational ministry. Our discussions were wide-ranging, but now back home, one need rose to the top. For the pastor to prepare sermons that help different types of people see Jesus Christ, he must immerse himself in the Scriptures. The Bible’s insights into people are deeper than psychology, its solutions are not therapy but faith, and its promises sustain and give hope to hearers in their unique journeys toward eternity. It is God who gives the increase through His Word (1 Corinthians 3:6; Isaiah 55:10-11), but, following Luther’s comparison, the pastor’s hand must be one with the tool of his trade.

Offer a prayer as your pastor is preparing the Word for you.

The Meyer Minute for June 4, 2018

How to read the Bible? So many different books, so many themes, so many questions. So easy to give up and not try! To help the early church see the unity of the Bible, the apostles taught the people to see Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Try this reading of Psalm 36:5-9 in the light of Christ.

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Lord Jesus, since You ascended to the highest heavens, Your loving-kindness fills all the world. Exalted at the right hand of the Father in glory, You are faithful to the promises You make us. 

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. Lord Jesus, we cannot comprehend the height and depth of the forgiveness You earned for us on Mount Calvary. Help us to show the righteousness of faith by practicing justice for all.

O Lord, You preserve man and beast. Lord Jesus, You created all things by the Word of Your power and today you sustain man and beast. Deepen us in the truth that we live and move and have our being in You.

How priceless is your unfailing love!  Both high and low find refuge in the shadow of your wings. Lord Jesus, while You fill all things in heaven and earth, it is in Your Church that our immortal souls are sheltered from passing storms of life.

They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the river of life. Lord Jesus, in Your Church You feed us on Your Word, Baptism, and Your Body and Blood. You not only preserve us heartbeat by heartbeat, but also fill our souls through the spiritual abundance of Your Church.

In your light we see light. Lord Jesus, You are the light of the world. We praise You for calling us out of darkness into Your marvelous light!  Amen!