The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for July 31, 2019

Do you sometimes feel alienated from the world around you? Yesterday at a stop light I looked over at the car next to me. The driver and passenger, both teens in a parent’s expensive car, were preoccupied with their phones. When the light turned green, I let them get away from me. More and more I feel like an old fuddy-duddy. It’s more than tech and teens. Have you ever imagined how you’d be ridiculed if your true religious beliefs were known? I believe in heaven and hell, in a six-day creation, that Jesus means it when He says He’s the only way to heaven (John 14:6), and other old-fashioned beliefs. Put those beliefs out in public and you’ll be laughed at. Decades ago America was nominally Christian, public morality followed the Ten Commandments more or less, and the beliefs of the church were largely accepted in public life. No more. When our beliefs are known today, many people think we’re peculiar.

1 Peter was written to “sojourners and exiles” who lived in Asia Minor (1:2; 2:11). Are those words literal or figurative? Were those Christians literally outsiders, like today’s immigrants, or is it just figurative, “I’m but a stranger here, heaven is my home”? Many scholars favor a literal understanding. Those early followers of Jesus were not a majority of the population; they were a very, very small minority who were ridiculed because they didn’t agree with popular morality, didn’t believe all roads lead to heaven, and tended to keep to themselves. They felt alienated from the world around them.

You can worry about Christians who don’t feel some sense of alienation from today’s public life. They’re not understanding the distinctiveness of following Jesus Christ. And should you feel alienated because the beliefs you espouse in the safe surroundings of your church are not the beliefs you bump into during the week, then you are blessed. You are experiencing in often uncomfortable ways that following Jesus Christ in head, heart and conduct is distinctly different than blending into today’s public spirituality. Yes, you are “peculiar” in a special sense of that old word. You are claimed by the heavenly Father to be His own. The King James Version translated 1 Peter 2:9, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.” The ESV translates “peculiar” as “a people for his own possession.” Out of step with today’s world? Let the reason be you’re following Jesus.

The Meyer Minute for July 31, 2019

Do you sometimes feel alienated from the world around you? Yesterday at a stop light I looked over at the car next to me. The driver and passenger, both teens in a parent’s expensive car, were preoccupied with their phones. When the light turned green, I let them get away from me. More and more I feel like an old fuddy-duddy. It’s more than tech and teens. Have you ever imagined how you’d be ridiculed if your true religious beliefs were known? I believe in heaven and hell, in a six-day creation, that Jesus means it when He says He’s the only way to heaven (John 14:6), and other old-fashioned beliefs. Put those beliefs out in public and you’ll be laughed at. Decades ago America was nominally Christian, public morality followed the Ten Commandments more or less, and the beliefs of the church were largely accepted in public life. No more. When our beliefs are known today, many people think we’re peculiar.

1 Peter was written to “sojourners and exiles” who lived in Asia Minor (1:2; 2:11). Are those words literal or figurative? Were those Christians literally outsiders, like today’s immigrants, or is it just figurative, “I’m but a stranger here, heaven is my home”? Many scholars favor a literal understanding. Those early followers of Jesus were not a majority of the population; they were a very, very small minority who were ridiculed because they didn’t agree with popular morality, didn’t believe all roads lead to heaven, and tended to keep to themselves. They felt alienated from the world around them.

You can worry about Christians who don’t feel some sense of alienation from today’s public life. They’re not understanding the distinctiveness of following Jesus Christ. And should you feel alienated because the beliefs you espouse in the safe surroundings of your church are not the beliefs you bump into during the week, then you are blessed. You are experiencing in often uncomfortable ways that following Jesus Christ in head, heart and conduct is distinctly different than blending into today’s public spirituality. Yes, you are “peculiar” in a special sense of that old word. You are claimed by the heavenly Father to be His own. The King James Version translated 1 Peter 2:9, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.” The ESV translates “peculiar” as “a people for his own possession.” Out of step with today’s world? Let the reason be you’re following Jesus.

The Meyer Minute for July 30, 2019

I don’t recall any time in my life that democracy was as criticized and socialism advocated as much as today. Maybe that’s because I grew up during the Cold War and the scare of communism. Vladimir Lenin said, “The goal of socialism is communism.” Or maybe it’s because we studied history and civics in grade school.

Today is the 400^th anniversary of men from 11 English settlements meeting as a representative legislature in Jamestown, Virginia. Kathy Spangler, executive director of the Commemoration, said their meeting from July 30 to August 4, 1619, was “the foundation of the democratic model in America. It has had bearing on what our democracy became” (Jack Jacobs, Tribune News Service, in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 29; A11). The anniversary is being observed with a “Forum on the Future of Representative Democracy” at the College of William and Mary.

Mark Vittert, a columnist for the St. Louis Business Journal, has noticed the increased talk about socialism. He googled “socialism” and found some quotations worth pondering. “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money,” said Margaret Thatcher. Ronald Reagan said, “A socialist is someone who has read Lenin and Marx. And anti-socialist is someone who understands Lenin and Marx.” And Thomas Jefferson, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who are not.” (St. Louis Business Journal, July 26-August 1; 77)

The Bible does not prescribe a form of government, but only teaches that government is instituted by God for the good of all people (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17). What’s the best form of government? That’s a topic for reason and discussion, much as happened 400 years ago in Jamestown and obviously needs to happen in our time. To a Bible-believer, one reason democracy makes sense is because it assumes the fact of our natural, sinful self-centeredness. Wrote James Madison, one of the Founders, “What is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary… You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government.” (“The Federalist,” No. 51).

 

The Meyer Minute for July 29, 2019

The President’s tweets about living conditions in Baltimore and about Representative Elijah Cummings have stirred deep emotions, but let’s get closer to home. Thirteen miles away from Concordia’s campus is the city of Ferguson. August 9^th will mark the fifth anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown. August 10^th saw vandalism, arson and clashes between police and protesters. Five years later people are still struggling.

Is the cause economic disparity, failed schools, broken families? Might there be something deeper? This summer marks another anniversary, one I didn’t know about, the 100^th anniversary of “Red Summer.” “Researchers believe that in a span of 10 months, more than 250 African Americans were killed in at least 25 riots across the U.S. by white mobs that never faced punishment. Historian John Hope Franklin called it ‘the greatest period of interracial strife the nation has ever witnessed.’”

“The violence didn’t start or end in 1919. Some count the era of Red Summer as beginning with the deaths of more than two dozen African Americans in East St. Louis, Illinois, in 1917 and extending through the Rosewood Massacre of 1923, when a black town in Florida was destroyed. All told, at least 1,122 Americans were killed in racial violence over those six years.” (Jesse Holland, AP, in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 28; A27).

Jesus shows how close the cause of our societal problems is. “From within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21-23). “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

For many years I was privileged to sit on the Board of Trustees of the American Bible Society, an excellent mission to get the Bible into the hands of all people. At one meeting we had a guest speaker, Representative Elijah Cummings. He used a line from African-American preaching that sticks with me. “God sits high but looks low.” “The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?” (Psalm 113:4-6).

Our Creator sees how we are treating other people whom He has created.

The Meyer Minute for July 18, 2019

This morning the TV meteorologist reported 153 million Americans are at risk because of extremely hot weather. Heat indices these days are predicted to be 108 in St. Louis and 111 in New York, as just two examples. “The sun…like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat” (Psalm 19:4-6). It’s said there are two books by which we know God, the Book of Nature, God’s Works, and the Scriptures, God’s Word, (see “In Christ All Things Hold Together: The Intersection of Science and Christian Theology, 17-25”). These days the Book of Nature is teaching us!

 

Great Creator, when the earth You created “was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep,” You gave order to nature. “Let there be” (Genesis 1:2-3). It’s into this orderly world of nature that You have placed us. “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). True to Your promise, we now have heat, oppressive heat in many parts of our country. We pray for construction workers, police, fire and emergency workers, mail carriers and delivery people, athletes, and those endangered in sweltering homes. Be merciful to them. May they be given relief and, in Your time, more moderate temperatures.

“God appointed a scorching eat wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint” (Jonah 4:8). “For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes” (James 1:11). Great Creator, Your Book of Nature reminds us of our mortality. We are creatures of a day, but Your Scriptures teach us that we are Your creatures. You teach us to call You “Father,” our Father and Father of our Lord Jesus. He bore the heat of the day, as do we. He bore our sins, as we cannot. Through Him we know You by faith, not by sight or science, helpful as they are. Through Your Spirit teach us to welcome every discipline – heat included – as Your refining to draw us more and more to You for eternal life. “They shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them” (Isaiah 49:10). In the Name of the Lord of creation, Jesus. Amen.

The Meyer Minute for July 17, 2019

Late afternoon is “Triscuit time,” when Diane shares Triscuits spread with cream cheese with our dog Ferdie. She sips wine and I have whatever “Lutheran lemonade” happens to be for the end of my day. We talk – Diane and I, not Ferdie – and watch the news, especially political happenings of the day. Some people call this “Happy Hour,” and during yesterday’s time I was searching for a happy Bible passage, something to make me feel better. I was, like Martha, “troubled about many things” (Luke 10:41), but every passage that came to mind also came with an invitation.  For example, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Instead of sitting still with your problems, go to Jesus. “One thing is necessary” (Luke 10:42).

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

Whoa, my faith in Jesus is too small! He was before creation. He created all things. The food that grows for us to eat, Earth in its dependable orbit around the Sun, the Milky Way in the universe… He holds it all together. And the Church, my congregation and denomination, sinners and saints… He’s the only Head, who took our sins to the cross, rose and ascended to preeminence above all things. Does your attitude keep narrowing down to the small things of daily life, instead of seeing the cosmic Christ behind all the small stuff?

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades’” (Revelation 1:17-18).

Attitude readjustment hour. “In Him all things hold together.” Don’t sweat the small stuff.

The Meyer Minute for July 16, 2019

The President’s tweets about members of Congress of color reminded me of a letter I sent to Seminary students several Advents ago. Concordia Seminary is blessed with students from many nations. As Christians you and I fear a God who is not a respecter of persons (see 1 Peter 1:14-19) but in love has incorporated us into the Body of Christ (Romans 12:1-5). Sunday many of us heard the story of the Good Samaritan. “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 12:25-37). Here’s the letter.

Dear Seminarians,

A special letter to you in this most special season, our time of joy to celebrate the incarnation of God’s Son, our Savior Jesus.

Jesus is the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). You and I are blessed to know that truth, to believe it, and strive to extend His peace to all people. I write this because many comments in the recent national campaign for President of the United States were mean-spirited and prompted many partisans to say and do things that are sinful, not consistent with the highest values of our land and especially with the Spirit of Jesus, our Prince of Peace. God has given government the responsibility of protecting its citizens, and that includes safe borders, safe cities, economic opportunities, and much more in our complex world. Citizens may disagree on how to achieve goals for the national welfare, but followers of Jesus know that we are at all times and in all ways to make every effort to live at peace with all people (see Romans 12:18; Hebrews 12:15). I thank our Father for each and every one of you, and thank Him for uniting us as one in the Body of Christ.

Heaven promises “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…” (Revelation 7:9). My prayer is that every seminarian, every member of the faculty, staff and board of regents will strive to love all in the name of Jesus. As you and I make that our daily work, this Seminary and the Church will be a blessing to many people in many nations. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

In the Name of Jesus,

Dale A. Meyer

The Meyer Minute for July 15, 2019

Political candidates argue over about socialism and capitalism. Yesterday this passage was read in many churches: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:9-10).

A thorough-going capitalist would think, “Wait a minute! I’ve bull-dozed trees so I can plant more land, set the rows on my planter closer together so I can get more bushels per acre, and get into every corner with my combine, and You want me to leave some money unharvested?” A thorough-going socialist would think, “OK, let him farm every square inch, fertilize for maximum growth, but don’t let him have all the profits. Tax his produce heavily so that the government can give the fruit of his labors to those who need it.”

What to do with Old Testament passages? Disregard them? Apply them literally? Answer: Process them through the life, teachings and ministry of Jesus. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.” Note, the Bible isn’t an economic or legislative handbook. It’s the way of salvation for sinners like you and me. Jesus goes on, “And it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39-40). As theologians say, “Scripture interprets Scripture,” and Jesus is the heart of Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments.

This passage about gleaning plays into your saved life. A poor widow, a foreigner, not an Israelite, gleaned the leftovers in the field of a man named Boaz (Ruth 2:2). They married and from their line your Savior was born (Matthew 1:1, 5-6). When Jesus was asked, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He affirmed our Leviticus passage. Love God with all your being and love “your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). Does the clerk at the grocery store ever ask if you want to round up for some charitable cause? That’s an example of Leviticus today. Helping the poor is in the DNA of the Body of Christ. 

A few verses later in that Old Testament chapter, God says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18).

 

The Meyer Minute for July 3, 2019

“Was the Revolution going against God’s authority?  Is there a time when free people are allowed in God’s eyes to break off relations with their government and start anew?” To that email question, there’s no easy answer. It’s prompted by Romans 13: “There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (verses 1-2).

Through the long history of the Bible, you find various forms of government, from theocracy to dictatorship to anarchy. Since none are the same as the American republic we’ve known all our lives, we have to be careful how we apply biblical texts. Basic principle: God instituted the Church for the spiritual well-being of people and instituted government for the physical and public well-being of all its subjects. “Rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.” Government is “God’s servant for your good” (Romans 13:3, 4. See also 1 Peter 2:14 and 1 Timothy 2:1-4). Many people in the first century thought Christians, a miniscule minority, were subverting the public good. That’s why Paul urged obedience to the authorities, as does 1 Peter 2:13-17. In the 60’s Paul and Peter believed the government would act justly toward Christians as long as Christians led upright lives and did good works in their communities, but by the end of that first century, the Book of Revelation shows that the government was unjust.  

Since the Founders believed the King was not fulfilling justice toward the colonies, they rebelled. They did not seek anarchy (as in the Old Testament book of Judges) but rather a more just government. What’s God’s judgment upon the Revolution? I don’t know. I think a more pressing question is how we as Christian citizens obey God (Acts 5:29) and participate in public life to pursue justice today. “We must distinguish between what a government permits people to do and what it compels them to do. When it compels us to act contrary to God’s Word, then we must disobey and live as God intends. When government permits activities contrary to God’s Word (for example, abortion, no-fault divorce, and same-sex marriage), we bear witness by living as God intended.” (“Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation,” 84).

Thanks for a great question, things to ponder as we celebrate our blessed nation. A safe holiday to all!

The Meyer Minute for July 2, 2019

Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd.” That’s a dear image, especially when we think of children. “I am Jesus’ little lamb.” Is the image also relevant to you as you face your adult, real world issues today?

In the Good Shepherd passage, John 10:11-18, Jesus contrasts the Good Shepherd with a hired hand, a “hireling” as the King James translation puts it. The hireling isn’t necessarily bad; he just clocks in and clocks out but isn’t going to run any special risk for the sheep. He’s not going to “lay down his life” for the sheep, as Jesus says three times that the Good Shepherd will do.

Who is your “hireling”? To whom do you, like a sheep, look for care? Marriage and family, work, education, medicine, government, your labor union, excellence? The list is endless. Many of us look to our job and career. There was a time when a person would spend his whole working life with one company. The company took care of him and upon retirement gave him a pension. How that’s changed! Workers today know that the company is not going to lay down its life for you. No job, no career, no company, no government and no institutional church is going to lay down its life for you. Only Jesus the Good Shepherd does. “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15).

So to make the image of the Good Shepherd relevant to your adult life today, identify your current “hireling.” To whom or what are you looking to be taken care of? The “hireling” isn’t bad, but truth be told, sooner or later it will let you down; only the Good Shepherd goes all the way for you and with you.