The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for May 21, 2019

I’ve been AWOL, absent without leave. Last week was cram-packed with Commencement activities and a three-day meeting of our Board of Regents. It was a great week but tiring.

So I gave myself off, and decided to extend it this week. A brain needs time to rest, read and think.

Lord willing, the Minute will be back after Memorial Day. Keep reflecting on things eternal for your own daily rest and re-creation!

The Meyer Minute for May 15, 2019

Waking up yesterday with my first cup of coffee, I idly watched the Mississippi River from my seventh floor hotel room in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The river was flowing rapidly, and I started to wonder, why does a river flow? I don’t know how you are, but my body wakes up first and it takes a while to get the brain going. Why does a river flow? Of course, it has an outlet, and then there’s the shape of the earth and gravity, and whatever other scientific facts. My point: I found an explanation in science, not in God, the “maker of heaven and earth.”

I was in La Crosse for a conference of pastors from south Wisconsin. Three of our Concordia Seminary professors spoke about “Finding a Lutheran Pastoral Voice in Theology and Science.” Some older people hear “theology and science” and immediately think of the debate between creation and evolution, but the 21^st century presents many more scientific issues where pastors and laypeople need the insights that come from God’s Word. The most basic issue: where do we turn to understand and deal with life? Waking up, I mused about scientific reasons a river flows. When you have a problem with your computer or device, you go to tech support, not to God. When you have a medical need, you go to your doctor or hospital, and yes, you do offer a prayer, but the real place you look for help is medicine. And so it goes, economy, finances, agriculture; we look to human resources.

“The modern world quite literally ‘manages’ without God. We can do so much so well by ourselves that there is no need for God, even in his church. Thus we modern people can be profoundly secular in the midst of explicitly religious activities. Which explains why so many modern Christian believers are atheists unawares. Professing to be believers in supernatural reality, they are virtual atheists; whatever they say they believe, they show in practice that they function without practical recourse to the supernatural…. The call to follow Jesus Christ runs directly counter to this deadly modern pressure toward secularization.” (Os Guiness, “The Call,” 149).

By the time of my second cup of coffee, my brain was engaged. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8).

 

The Meyer Minute for May 15, 2019

Waking up yesterday with my first cup of coffee, I idly watched the Mississippi River from my seventh floor hotel room in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The river was flowing rapidly, and I started to wonder, why does a river flow? I don’t know how you are, but my body wakes up first and it takes a while to get the brain going. Why does a river flow? Of course, it has an outlet, and then there’s the shape of the earth and gravity, and whatever other scientific facts. My point: I found an explanation in science, not in God, the “maker of heaven and earth.”

I was in La Crosse for a conference of pastors from south Wisconsin. Three of our Concordia Seminary professors spoke about “Finding a Lutheran Pastoral Voice in Theology and Science.” Some older people hear “theology and science” and immediately think of the debate between creation and evolution, but the 21^st century presents many more scientific issues where pastors and laypeople need the insights that come from God’s Word. The most basic issue: where do we turn to understand and deal with life? Waking up, I mused about scientific reasons a river flows. When you have a problem with your computer or device, you go to tech support, not to God. When you have a medical need, you go to your doctor or hospital, and yes, you do offer a prayer, but the real place you look for help is medicine. And so it goes, economy, finances, agriculture; we look to human resources.

“The modern world quite literally ‘manages’ without God. We can do so much so well by ourselves that there is no need for God, even in his church. Thus we modern people can be profoundly secular in the midst of explicitly religious activities. Which explains why so many modern Christian believers are atheists unawares. Professing to be believers in supernatural reality, they are virtual atheists; whatever they say they believe, they show in practice that they function without practical recourse to the supernatural…. The call to follow Jesus Christ runs directly counter to this deadly modern pressure toward secularization.” (Os Guiness, “The Call,” 149).

By the time of my second cup of coffee, my brain was engaged. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8).

 

The Meyer Minute for May 13, 2019

Spring has been very cool and very rainy here in the Midwest. You have a nice, sunny day in the low 70’s, but then a series of put-on-your jacket days. “Rain, rain, go away” but it hasn’t. We’ve been able to get some flowers planted, but probably won’t call it finished until Memorial Day. That’s just us hobby gardeners. By now thousands and thousands of acres should be planted with corn, but farmers can’t get into the fields. On the other hand, here comes the Christian contrarian, the blossoms on trees and shrubs have lasted far longer than normal. Dogwoods, forsythias, azaleas, rhododendrons…their beauty is lasting for weeks. Lenten roses, tulips, alliums… They’re not here one day and gone the next because temperatures went straight to summer. No, it’s been a beauteous spring in the cathedral of God’s creation.

It’s like being a mother, specifically a Christian mother who knows that “joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5). Your children, disappointed by something in their lives, know they can get a hug and words of encouragement. When I was down in the dumps, my mother would remind me that the sun was still shining, and sure enough, eventually the “sun” came back into my dreary life. “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). A godly mother, a woman with “the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious,” teaches her children that Ecclesiastes’ depressing words are not the end of the matter. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). Children learn what they live, and like this spring, a godly mother instills in her children a lifetime of hope whatever outward circumstances may be, hope that blooms from Jesus’ resurrection.

“Now thank we all our God / With hearts and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things has done / In whom His world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms / Has blest us on our way

With countless gifts of love / And still is ours today.

(Lutheran Service Book,, 895, 1)

The Meyer Minute for May 10, 2019

Asked about going to heaven, many church-goers say, “I hope so.” Pushed, they would say they’ve tried to lead a good life, go to church, and so on. Do you see the problem with that line of thinking? It puts your eternal destiny on you. It’s more than just an intellectual problem; uncertainty about what comes after death can torture you. If you’re older, if your time is coming, you don’t want to sit in your chair and worry about what’s ahead.

Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday. David confessed, “The Lord is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1). Centuries later Jesus reveals the shepherd’s face. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). About certainty for eternity, Dr. David Peter’s chapel sermon Wednesday pointed us to a promise from our Jesus. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28). To make sure we get the point – repetition is the mother of learning – Jesus says it again, “My Father, who has given them to me, is great than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:29). Feebly hoping you’ve led a good enough life to get through the “valley of the shadow of death” is false doctrine. You’re not saved by good works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Jesus is your only sure confidence: “No one is able to snatch them out of my hand.”

Our church in Collinsville has a beautiful window that shows Jesus carrying a lamb. Put yourself in His arms. Hear His voice, His Scriptures. “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; and will carry them in his bosom” (Isaiah 40:11). No shame in fretting about the future; I do it too. His everlasting arms are holding you; fix your eyes on Jesus (Deuteronomy 33:27; Hebrews 12:2).

“Jesus lives! And now is death / But the gate of life immortal;

This shall calm my trembling breath / When I pass its gloomy portal.

Faith shall cry as fails each sense: / Jesus is my confidence!”

(Lutheran Service Book, 490, 5)

The Meyer Minute for May 9, 2019

It was seasonally appropriate, the kind of ad you expect at Easter time. “I shall not die…” was the headline of our Seminary’s ad on the back cover of the April 2015 “Lutheran Witness,” our denomination’s magazine. The ad featured a second-year seminarian, Travis Ferguson. Seminarians are assigned to local congregations to learn more about ministry and Travis helped out at St. Paul Lutheran Church in the city of St. Louis, and, I add, in a tough neighborhood, a dangerous neighborhood, to which Travis brought a heart for helping. “I shall not die,” and the verse continues, “but live” (Psalm 118:17). Seasonally appropriate, which makes it easy to go in one ear and out the other, or in the case of an ad, seen but quickly forgotten. It’s like “Christ is the reason for the season” at Christmas, an expected sentiment but not necessarily felt in our depths.

“I shall not die…” That Easter ad proved prophetic. Driving in the city one Sunday, Travis was in an accident with an 18-wheeler. His pickup truck was totaled but thanks to God and His angels, Travis was unhurt. A few days later, Travis posted this on Facebook:

This morning when I went to city tow, I got to have a great conversation with one of the tow yard attendants. He noticed my Concordia Seminary shirt and said, “So why is it that you believe in Jesus?” I told him about my past, the challenges and hurts and the victory Christ has proclaimed over those things and the way I look at the intricacy of creation. He started to tear up and said that was the best answer he had ever heard. In that moment, I realized how blessed I was to be in the accident and have the chance to talk to that gentleman.

We’re still in the Easter season, spring and new life in the air, all seasonally appropriate. Look at the details of your real, down-to-earth life. Are you seeing rescue, resurrection, the miracle of new life? Are your deepest held beliefs resonating with seasonally appropriate spirituality? The entire verse, Psalm 118:17: “I shall not die but live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.” Today Travis is a pastor in California. Thanks, Travis, and thank You, Lord. 

The Meyer Minute for May 8, 2019

Followers of Jesus don’t take His story and put it into ours. Instead, we see ourselves in His story. The Gospel lesson last Sunday lets us do just that this workday. Easter Sunday is past and disciples are back to work. “Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing” (John 21:2-3). You and I are in the story, going to today’s routine work. Productive, non-productive, ho-hum? Missing the zest of Easter?

Read the entire lesson in John 21:1-14. A man on the shore asks if they’ve caught fish, tells them to cast on the other side of the boat, and the miraculous catch of 153 fish leads to voila! It’s Jesus! “Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ Now none of the disciples dared ask him, ‘Who are you?’ They knew it was the Lord” (21:12). Jesus here in our daily routine!

“Charcoal embers brightly burning, / Bread and fish upon them laid:

Jesus stands at day’s returning / In His risen life arrayed;

As of old His friends to greet, / ‘Here is breakfast; come and eat.’”

(Thomas Dudley Smith; Lutheran Service Book 485, 3)

 

We live by faith amidst the things we see today (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:7). “Unseen, spiritual reality is not unreal. In fact it is more real—decisive over the shadow reality of the seen world. A spiritual reality all around, above, and inside the secular reality of the world of our five senses, spirituality is a dimension we enter only when we are supernaturally born into it and learn, through the disciplines, to make it our regular habitat. Do we take the supernatural, the world of the unseen real, seriously?” (Os Guiness, “The Call,” 150)

 

“Morning breaks, and Jesus meets us, / Feeds and comforts, pardons still;

As His faithful friends He greets us, / Partners of His work and will.

All our days, on ev’ry shore, / Christ is ours forevermore!”

(LSB 385, 5).

 

We’re in His story!

The Meyer Minute for May 7, 2019

The churches in Corinth had problems, and so do many Christian congregations today, but St. Paul so believed in the active, present grace of God in Jesus that he wasn’t having gloom and doom. Imagine Paul as a consultant to your church, and he opens his extensive report – yes, there are problems – with this overall assessment. “You are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:7-9).

An article in yesterday’s New York Times stopped me, and although author Olga Mecking probably didn’t intend it, the article shows we have what today’s American culture yearns for. Titled, “Stop. Just Stop. And Learn How to Do Absolutely Nothing,” the article is about “niksen,” what the Dutch call doing nothing. “Niksen” or “nichts” auf Deutsch. Ms. Mecking writes, “The idea of niksen is to take conscious, considered time and energy to do activities like gazing out of a window or sitting motionless. The less-enlightened might call such activities ‘lazy’ or ‘wasteful.’” “Generally speaking, our culture does not promote sitting still, and that can have wide-reaching consequences for our mental health, well-being, productivity and other areas of our lives. Technology doesn’t make it any easier: The smartphone you carry with you at all hours makes it almost impossible to truly unplug and embrace idleness.” (New York Times, B7).

Some of you are thinking, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). You’re right. Ms. Mecking doesn’t take stillness to God; niksen seems to be about us, self-centered. But our “idle” times refresh us because we cease busyness and rest with God. “And (Jesus) said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while’” (Mark 6:31).That’s what we do in church. That’s what you do in personal meditation and prayer. “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27). Believing the present and active grace of God in rest, our problems have hope.  “Let’s wait and see what the Lord unfolds.”

This is just one example that our Christian life style is what frantic, frazzled Americans need. “You are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Niksen, nichts, just waiting, for out of nothing God creates life.

The Meyer Minute for May 6, 2019

The first weekend in May sees confirmation in many churches. It’s a special time for families and congregations; young people affirm the vows of their baptism. “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4). Will new confirmands pass on the faith as it has been passed on to them?

It’s routine to tell the young people that confirmation is not graduation from church. An old joke tells that a church had bats in the steeple. Trustees tried everything to get rid of them but every attempt failed. Finally an old wit said, “Confirm them. Then they won’t come back.”

“Oh, they’ll come back when they get older,” is often heard, but David Kinnaman asks, “Is that what we want for young people—to have years of religious education, experiences, and relationships, only to turn away once they can decide for themselves? Of course not.” (“You Lost Me,” 32). And the rise of the “nones,” people who no longer identify with a Christian church, suggests that our new confirmands may leave and not return when they’re older.

Yes, there is a responsibility upon these young people to stay active. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). There is also a responsibility upon us, the generation that has taught them the faith. Our duty is more daunting, given that we’re no longer living in a culture congenial to the church and Christian message. In an earlier book, David Kinnaman with Gabe Lyons identified six broad reasons young people gave for leaving church: Church people are hypocritical, act morally superior; too focused on getting converts instead of caring for people; bigoted against homosexuals; out of touch with reality; too political; and judgmental. (“UnChristian,” 29-30)

What to do? Chatting at coffee yesterday with two faithful church members, one recounted his visit to another church in our denomination. When he asked the pastor to attend communion, he was grilled and felt unwelcome. In contrast, the other told how impressed he was when he visited a church and many people came up to welcome him. Children learn what they live, and the culture of your congregation is no small part of keeping the next generation.

The Meyer Minute for May 1, 2019

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me’” (Isaiah 6:8).

That’s why the church has seminaries, to raise up the next generation to say with conviction, “Here am I! Send me.” It’s the refrain today at Concordia Seminary as seminarians step forward one-by-one to hear where the church has assigned them to go for their first calls. At 3:00 vicars and interns will receive their assignments for the coming year. At 7:00 new pastors and deaconesses will receive their calls into a life of ministry. While the graduates of many seminaries have to go out and find their jobs, we do it the old way. “Seminarian, the church needs you in…”

They will go out with an old message but not an out-of-date message; Law and Gospel is always relevant. The angels in Isaiah’s vision of the heavenly throne room called out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (6:3). American culture today is self-serving, people turned in on themselves. How did the Tower of Babel turn out for an earlier self-exalting culture? (Genesis 11).  Spirit of God, may our new pastors put Your question in our hearts, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:4). 

“And I said, ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (6:5). Spirit of God, send our new pastors forth with this humility in their hearts, that all their theological knowledge and skill does not change the fact that each is the chief of sinners. Let personal humility bond them with everyone they will meet, a sinner with sinners, all needing grace. Spare us self-righteous ministers!

“Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away; and your sin atoned for” (6:6-7). Spirit of our Lord Jesus, may they know and feel Your touch of forgiveness and speak Your forgiveness to others with personal conviction. May many hearts burn as our new pastors expound the Scriptures centered on You. “Here am I! Send me.” Dear Lord Jesus, go forth with them!