The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for December 9, 2019

Thaus nyob sau lub roob nwg yuav muab txhua tsaav tuabneeg tej kev nyuaj sab kws zoo ib yam le tauv fuab tshem povtseg.

That’s not computer code; it’s Hmong. Saturday morning almost 800 people gathered in the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus for the funeral service for Concordia Seminary’s beloved professor Laokouxang (Kou) Seying. The bilingual service (two sermons! One in Hmong, the other in English) celebrated Professor Kou’s and our baptismal victory and eternal life. The Hmong words above are Isaiah 25:7, “And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever.”

Professor Seying was born in Laos in 1964. His family was among the country’s first converts to Christianity. During the Viet Nam war and when Kou was 12, the family immigrated to the United States through the services of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and St. Peter Lutheran Church. They were settled in Indianapolis, Indiana. A graduate of Concordia University Wisconsin and Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, he served as pastor at Hmong Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, was a deployed mission developer in northern California where he pastored a Hmong congregation and planted Hmong congregations. He joined our faculty in 2015 as the Lutheran Foundation Professor of Urban and Cross-Cultural Ministry and associate dean for Urban and Cross-Cultural Ministry. I’ve shorted his biography; it is most impressive.

Yexus hlub kuv kuv zoo sab kawg, / Nwg lug paab peb suav-dlawg.

Nwg theej kuv txhoj sau ntoo khaub-lig, / Cawm kuv dlim kuv lub txim.

 

Pastor David Gruenwald preached in English that Jesus has a heart for all people, and Professor Seying’s shared that love of Jesus with all people. That was one of the themes in this inspiring service at a sad time. Provost Douglas Rutt promised that Concordia Seminary will continue its efforts to bring Jesus to “people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:9). We certainly will.

 

Amazing grace—how sweet the sound— / that saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost but now am found, / Was blind but now I see!

Yexus has rua Mathas has tas, “Kuv yog tug sawv huv ghov rov qaab lug hab yog txjsa. You can look it up in John 11:25.

The Meyer Minute for December 6, 2019

“Hi, Nick. How’s our youngest grandson doing?” “Hey, where are you going? That’s one reason we call you ‘Toodles.’ You’re always toodling off to some other place. ‘Where’s Toodles?’ Is he getting into trouble?”

“Nick, you were named after someone we could say ‘toodled off.’ Today the Church honors St. Nicholas. That Nick lived a long time ago. He went out one night to give a gift to some poor people.” “A Christmas gift from Santa?”

“Yup. There was a poor man who had three daughters. When they wanted to get married, it was customary for the father to give a gift to the groom, but he had no money. The only way to get money was for the girls to do bad things. Nicholas heard about this and went out at night and tossed a bag of gold into their house. The gold fell into a stocking the girls had washed and hung out to dry. When St. Nicholas toodled off, he did a good deed.”

“Opa, I’m St. Nicholas!”

“Well, you’ve got the Nicholas part right, but saint? When you get bigger, have your parents remind you about the time you toodled down the hallway at your Mom’s work and pulled the fire alarm.” “Opa, fire trucks!”

 

By all Your saints in warfare, / For all Your saints at rest,

Your holy name, O Jesus, / Forevermore be blest!

For You have won the battle / That they wear the crown;

And now they shine in glory / Reflected from Your throne.

(Lutheran Service Book, 517, 1)

 

The Meyer Minute for December 5, 2019

“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down.” Do you resonate with that prayer from the familiar Advent passage, Isaiah 64:1? Dear God, the world gets worse day-by-day. Crazed gunmen, religious bigots, intractable partisans, nuclear powder kegs… “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, that the mountains tremble at its swelling.” If that happens, I’ll likely have a heart attack, “men’s hearts failing them for fear” (Luke 21:26 KJV).

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4). We know more about the universe than any previous generation, but what we know does not let us answer the Creator’s question. The universe is unbelievably vast, and it’s scary. Asteroids headed toward Earth? Black holes? Our Sun burning itself out? It’s in God’s plan. “The powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Luke 21:26). This first week of Advent we call on God to come down with His mighty power to save us weak sinners, not destroy us. “Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance.” To our prayer He gives a promise. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned” (John 3:18). “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:27-28).

“Creator of the stars of night, / Thy people’s everlasting Light:

O Christ, Redeemer, save us all / And hear Thy servants when they call.”

(Lutheran Service Book, 351, 1).

The Meyer Minute for December 4, 2019

The end of life as I know it. My sins laid bare before the eternal Judge. “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13). Many Americans today don’t believe in an eternal judgment, but the Bible teaches it. Judged for your sins? That’s a terrifying future until you remember the Judge is your Savior who yearns to bring you to Himself. “I will come again and will take you to myself. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:3, 27).

An Advent passage to take to heart is Romans 13:11. “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” Jesus doesn’t tell us to be scared. He does tell us to be alert. “Stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:42-44).

Staying awake doesn’t mean fear-filled insomnia. It means loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 25:37). This is a return of His love to us. “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 4:10). Our Advent adventure means looking for His return on the clouds of heaven, but looking for Him not in terror but as our gentle Savior. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3). Dearest Lord Jesus, waking or sleep, “my times are in your hand” (Psalm 31:15).

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,

But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings;

Tears for all woes, a heart for ev’ry plea.

Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me.

(Lutheran Service Book, 878, 3)

The Meyer Minute for December 3, 2019

Adventures take unexpected twists and turns. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, “Hosannas” were in the air as crowds anticipated Jesus bringing in a messianic reign but, as you well know, they shouted “crucify him” by the end of the week. Why do we begin Advent with that story?

The nativity set has been put up outside the Seminary’s chapel. It’s only a few feet away from a large wooden cross erected some years ago by our students. The proximity of manger to cross shows why the Church begins Advent with Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. The crowds expected an earthly deliverance but Jesus knew their deliverance would come in a way they did not expect. When Jesus and the disciples celebrated Passover later that week, they sang Psalm 118. While the disciples may have focused on the psalm’s theme of deliverance, Jesus knew one verse foreshadowed how He was about to deliver us all. “Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!” (Psalm 118:27). Jesus our deliverer let Himself be bound as the sacrifice for our salvation. A frightening turn of events for the disciples but Jesus knew all along that His advent was for the purpose of being bound and crucified.

“The feebleness of the churches is being criticized today,” began Oswald Chambers a century ago, “and the criticism is justified. One reason for the feebleness is that there has not been this concentration of spiritual energy; we have not brooded enough on the tragedy of Calvary or on the meaning of Redemption.” You look at the crèche and the cross, they’re external, but unless they enter your heart, they are mere decorations, “hosannas” that evaporate into thin air. Internalize them, brood on them. “The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! You are my God, and I will give thanks to you” (Psalm 118:27-28).

“I bind this day to me forever, / By pow’r of faith, Christ’s incarnation,

His Baptism in the Jordan River, / His cross of death for my salvation,

His bursting from the spiced tomb, / His riding up the heav’nly way,

His coming at the day of doom, I bind unto myself today.

(Lutheran Service Book, 604, 2).

The Meyer Minute for December 2, 2019

“Ho, ho, ho!” Santa cheers us this time of year, but how do we hear Advent? Ho-hum? After all, we’ve matured into adult struggles, interpersonal squabbles, fears for the future, health issues, financial strains, and the reasons for the season, shopping and parties, all stressful. It all can rub ho-hum into us about Advent, but shouldn’t, not if we think, and when we do, Advent becomes an adventure.

Passages from the prophet Isaiah can fire our brain cells. Isaiah 11:1-2, “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days…” and Isaiah goes on to list marvelous things, joys that will make us as giddy as kids at Christmas. That’s part of the Advent adventure, that marvelous things are promised to come. The Lord “shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not life up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 11: 4). The present gives way to the future we yearn for. When? Today, tomorrow? “If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come” (Habakkuk 2:3). “Salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11). Think about the promise, take it to heart, and Advent becomes a stimulating adventure.

Our challenge is epistemological. Whoa! No, this is simple. Epistemology is about knowledge, how we know what we know and is our knowledge true or false? In this digital age we’re bombarded by so much information and our ears blasted with so many opinions that church messages, God’s messages, Advent messages get pushed aside…unless we take time to think, to meditate, to believe we’re on an adventure.

“Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” Read that prayer carefully; what is it saying? Lord, fulfill your promises! Imagine what it’ll be like when He does. “Let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:5). Welcome to Advent adventure!