The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for March 30, 2020

Among many concerns is the immediate future for young adults about to graduate…into a shrinking job market and recession. Their years of university study and hopes for a paying profession have suddenly hit a wall. Last week 3.3 million people filed for unemployment benefits. In the last month new job listings dropped 29% from the previous year. Job fairs and summer internships have pretty much disappeared.

“‘I’m worried for them,’ said Lisa Kahn, an economist who has studied how recessions affect college graduates. ‘If they’re graduating into a large recession, they’re going to suffer some pretty severe short-term consequences. And that’s probably going to stay with them for almost a decade.’” (New York Times, March 29; Business p. 8)

Heavy on my heart are our Seminary students who are about to graduate and will, thank God, receive their first calls into ministry. On April 28 our concluding students will receive their calls in a special service. In that same service our second-year students will receive their internships but the service will be virtual. That’s a huge disappointment for these dear students who are dedicating their lives to bringing the Good News of God’s help and hope in Jesus to hurting people. “If anyone aspires to the office of overseer (pastor), he desires a noble task” (1 Timothy 3:1). Our seminarians are responding to the shocks of this crisis with confidence and hope in the goodness of God’s promises to us in Jesus. Still, they are very disappointed. Not having the traditional ceremonies of Call Day and Commencement… Yes, Commencement will be virtual as well, sadly.

Not having these traditional ceremonies also means that there is no closure to their Seminary years. They’ve studied and lived together for four years. Because of the crisis they cannot celebrate their calls and graduation together in person. They cannot work together to load up moving vans as they go into ministry. They’re not sure if travel restrictions will delay moving. They cannot hug one another and say “Good-bye.” The Seminary’s faculty and administration wants to make these next months as special as possible, given the unprecedented restrictions. And we’re looking at ways for them to celebrate in person, when the immediate crisis has passed.

Could you help? Bless our seminarians by sending an email telling them you’re praying for them and letting them know your support. Their life’s goal is to come among us and share God’s help and hope in Jesus. Write our students at [email protected]. Thank you

The Meyer Minute for March 27, 2020

Sunday is the Fifth Sunday in Lent. “Oh, yeah, I forgot we’re in Lent. This Coronavirus pandemic is so all consuming.” Actually, these two seasons, Coronavirus and Lent, have one thing in common, fear of death, but the two are different how they deal with death.

Livestream church Sunday and you’ll hear Scripture readings that fit this COVID-19 season. The Old Testament lesson is a strange prophesy from Ezekiel, the valley of the dry bones. The word of the Lord brought dry bones to life, but the now-alive bones have no hope. “Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.’ If you’re only living in the season of Coronavirus, that’s where you’re at. “Our hope is lost.”

Here’s the Lenten difference for Coronavirus Christians. “Therefore prophesy, and say to them, ‘thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people…. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord’” (Ezekiel 37:11-14).

A strange passage that we trust will be fulfilled for us in Jesus. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

“Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die’” (John 11:24-25).

The season of Coronavirus and the season of Lent have much in common. What’s different for us is that Lent says, “No social distancing from Jesus Christ!”

“If death my portion be, / It brings great gain to me;

It speeds my life’s endeavor / To live with Christ forever.

He gives me joy in sorrow, / Come death now or tomorrow.

(Lutheran Service Book, 745, 3)

The Meyer Minute for March 25, 2020

Aren’t these strange days? Our old routines are history. Some wake up but no longer have a job to go to. Others wake up and can still get in the car and go to work. I’m among those who wake up and go to work on the Internet. Hey, I don’t have to shave or put on a suit! I could be the pajama guy on the Internet in the basement! Diane won’t let that happen. A restaurant in Texas put this on their storefront sign. “If I’m quarantined with my wife for two weeks and I die… It wasn’t the virus.”

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). God brought order, routine out of the chaos. “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5). And so it went, the routine of evening and morning, of work and rest. “He rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done” (Genesis 2:2). “While the earth remains seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). We are struggling into new routines in the stability God built into creation. Evening and morning, work and rest, winter, spring, summer and fall, the Creator is a God of order.

Our grandsons, the Cinco de Meyer, are getting into the new routine of online learning. I can’t imagine what that’s like for stressed parents! Principles of faith can help them and help us all move into the new normal. “God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we mighty live through him…. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also out to love one another” (1 John 4:8-9, 12).” In our new normal, love God and love others, the two great commandments (Matthew 22:37-39). “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-25).

“And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). As you establish new routines, faith, hope and love hover over you. “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

The Meyer Minute for March 24, 2020

To what written words do you turn in crisis? For me it’s mainly been hymns, hymns written long ago that the church through the centuries has accepted as true expressions of our faith in Jesus. Ancient hymns are time tested witnesses to the faith you and I hold. One such hymn comes from Martin Luther.

In the very midst of life / Snares of death surround us. Modern science and medicine have stalled death but the crisis brings death into our daily consciousness. That fear was common in the 16^th century.

 

Who shall help us in the strife / Lest the foe confound us?

Thou only, Lord, Thou only!  The “foe” is Satan, and we can be sure he wants us to despair and lose our trust in God’s goodness.

 

We mourn that we have greatly erred, / That our sins Thy wrath have stirred. Sin brought death into the world, and disease brings death to us (See Romans 5:12-17). Sometimes a sin can cause disease or death, but John 9:1-3 teaches us generally not to attribute an illness to a specific sin you committed. Since humanity is sinful, humanity as a whole and we as individuals experience disease and death.

 

Holy and righteous God! / Holy and mighty God! / Holy and all merciful Savior!

Eternal Lord God! / Save us lest we perish/ In the bitter pangs of death.

Have mercy, O Lord!

 

In the midst of utter woe / When our sins oppress us,

Where shall we for refuge go, / Where for grace to bless us?

To Thee, Lord Jesus, only! Grace is God’s gifting us with eternal deliverance from sin, death and Satan. There’s nothing in us, religious people included, that in any way earns God’s grace.

 

Thy precious blood was shed to win / Full atonement for our sin. Jesus’ death forgives our sins. We still experience the consequences of humanity’s sin, especially disease and death, but forgiveness assures you that your problems are not God punishing you. Chastening experiences? Yes. Afflictions to look more to Jesus? Yes, but not punishments for your wrong. Jesus suffered that for you.

 

Holy and righteous God! / Holy and mighty God! / Holy and all merciful Savior!

Eternal Lord God! / Lord, preserve and keep us / In the peace that faith can give.

Have mercy, O Lord!                                      (Lutheran Service Book, 755, 1, 3)

The Meyer Minute for March 23, 2020

The mission of Concordia Seminary continues with as much energy as ever, but in unprecedented ways. Because St. Louis is under a “stay at home” order, the Seminary is physically closed. Only a skeleton crew is on campus to support e-learning and our physical and financial infrastructures. All teaching and learning is online. Almost all meetings are online. Like everyone, we’re trying to cope but doing so as people of faith. What follows is the conclusion of an email in which I shared emergency measures with our students, staff and faculty. 

In closing this difficult but necessary letter, let us remember the resource of our Christian faith and our Father’s invitation to pray.

Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me (Psalm 50:15).

Heavenly Father, we call upon You in our perplexity and need. We pray that You will give wisdom to all in this crisis. For the medical community, we ask Your abundant mercies upon their care for the sick who have been stricken by this disease and for those who fear infection. For scientific researchers, we beg You to give insights that lead to swift discoveries in research that will mitigate this crisis. For our governmental leaders, we pray for reasoned and persuasive presentations so that the general public will act with calm discipline for the welfare of all. For those whose employment is curtailed or eliminated, we pray for their aid through efficient governmental and faith agencies of help. For our congregations and all the people of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, we pray Your Spirit will give hope and reassurance that our holy faith offers through Your Word and the ministry of the church. May we all lift up our eyes to the hills, knowing that our help ultimately comes from You, “our very present help in trouble.” And for us, the faculty, staff and students of Concordia Seminary, we pray growth in humble and dependent faith, patience in this tribulation, and hope and confidence because of all Your promises centered in our living Lord Jesus Christ. In His saving name we humbly pray, Amen.

The Meyer Minute for March 19, 2020

When you’re under stress, you’re more likely to say and do things that upset relationships. The Coronavirus is stressing us all. While social distancing will help our physical health, social distancing does not distance us from our raw emotions. In fact, having strange ways of living suddenly imposed upon us makes us more susceptible to lashing out against others. Since the pressure within us needs a way out, we’re tempted to let it out in unholy ways. An introspective Christian prays:

Keep me from saying words / That later need recalling;

Guard me lest idle speech / May from my lips be falling;

But when within my place / I must and ought to speak,

Then to my words give grace / Lest I offend the weak.

 

I’ve heard more than a few people say that our emotions are neutral. No. Since original sin has totally corrupted our being, you can be sure your emotions will tilt toward sin (Psalm 51:5, Romans 7:14). That’s also true of us who confess our sins, believe in Jesus, and are bound for heaven, but we Christians have a way to sanctify our raw emotions. When day-in and day-out the Word of God gets down into our being, the Spirit gives us godly emotions. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 122-23).

 

Lord, let me win my foes / With kindly words and actions,

And let me find good friends / For counsel and correction,

Help me, as You have taught, / To love both great and small

And by Your Spirit’s might / To live in peace with all.

 

Grant me the strength to do / With ready heart and willing

Whatever you command, / My calling here fulfilling;

That I do what I should / While trusting You to bless

The outcome for my good, / For you must give success. (Cf.

                                            (Lutheran Service Book, 696, 3, 4, 2).

The Meyer Minute for March 18, 2020

I spoke with a co-worker yesterday who said we’re scared. Yes, indeed. Do we live in fear, or take our fears to God in prayer? “Bow down your gracious ear to me / And hear my cry, my prayer, my plea; Make haste for my protection, / For woes and fear / Surround me here. / Help me in my affliction.” Faith doesn’t remove our fears but invites us to trust in God who knows our plight.  “Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?” (Psalm 113:5-6).

“You are my strength, my shield, my rock, / My fortress that withstands each shock.

My help, my life, my tower,

My battle sword, / Almighty Lord— / Who can withstand Your power?”

Look how the poet describes God. Just as he detailed our plight (“my cry, my prayer, my plea,” etc.), so now he gives descriptions of God’s strength. Where we are weak, the great unseen Creator is a fortress to whom we take our fears. “You “are being guarded through 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 15-6).

 In this Coronavirus crisis, a Christian makes a decision. Cast your lot with God and commend your life to Him, or live outside the fortress of faith where fears lurk everyplace. Understand, saving faith is not a decision we make, it’s a gift of the Spirit, but a person who has been brought to saving faith will make daily decisions to live and demonstrate the trust in God that the Spirit gives. “It is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).

 With You, O Lord, I cast my lot; / O faithful God, forsake me not,

To You my soul commending.

Lord, be my stay, / And lead the way / Now and when life is ending.

(Lutheran Service Book, 734, 2, 3, 4).

“When the cares of my heart many, your consolations cheer my soul” (Psalm 94:19).

The Meyer Minute for March 17, 2020

“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; / The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break / In blessings on your head.” (The Lutheran Hymnal, 514, (3)

No one wants to be where we are, keeping distance from people, not doing all the social things we love, routines disrupted, and anxious. What’s to become of me? All those sentiments are felt by followers of Jesus, but look what faith does. “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). Faith is confident that God will bring good from the coronavirus “clouds ye so much dread.”

A co-worker told me that her daughter’s public high school teacher talked about the virus in biology class. As students shared their questions and concerns, the co-worker’s daughter said this crisis should bring us back to God. That is one blessing in these unwelcome times. Scientists and scholars speak of an Ice Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and so on, times when nature influenced human life. Now some social observers say we’re in the “Anthropocene Age,” an era when humans dominate nature. Think back in history to the agricultural revolution, then the industrial revolution, and now the digital revolution. We’ve tamed the wilderness, gone into space, and communicate instantly around the world. And so we are tempted to imagine our mortal powers are greater than they truly are, that we are – though we wouldn’t say it - God.  Humanity is amazing, but only because the Creator made us so. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:4). “You have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge” (Isaiah 17:10). Unwelcome as this “cloud” is, God is using it for good to us who love Him. “Whom have I in heaven but you?” (Psalm 73:25).

“Deep in unfathomable mines / Of never-failing skill

He treasures up His bright designs / And works His sov’reign will.

“Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, / But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence / He hides a smiling face.”

(The Lutheran Hymnal, 514, 2, 4)

The Meyer Minute for March 16, 2020

“What are you giving up for Lent?” However you or I answered that question weeks ago, things are different now. We’re all, believers in Jesus and non-believers alike, giving up a lot. No other way out. One question to ask, and there are innumerable questions on our minds, is this: Are you and I who know Jesus experiencing the sacrifices and calming our fears with confidence in the goodness of God?

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday” (Psalm 91:1-6).

How’s that? Won’t church people be infected and die like others? Look at church records of funerals during the Spanish flu a hundred years ago. This coronavirus may well strike you, me, or a loved one. How shall we understand Psalm 91 to be true?

Jesus knew this psalm, and I assume knew it from memory. In the wider view, contrasted to our living in our personal moment, this psalm is true of Jesus. Think of His visible ministry, all His time with the suffering and outcast, the unjust death He endured for you and me, but see the psalm as true because of His resurrection and exaltation to unending life. Access the promises of God through Jesus. He’s the Mediator between God and us, 1 Timothy 2:5. “When he calls to me I will answer; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation” (Psalm 91:15-16).

I am forever grateful to Rev. Arnold Kuntz for summing everything up so well. “Life narrows down, and crisis comes, and suddenly only one thing matters. And there in the narrow place, stands Jesus.” In this crisis we have a witness to one another and to the world.  It’s a great time to be the Church! 

The Meyer Minute for March 5, 2020

Go to church Sunday and you’ll probably hear the story of Nicodemus visiting Jesus. Nicodemus was a leading member of the Pharisees, a group that let everyone know they were the guardians of orthodoxy, and many people were taken in by that. Jesus wasn’t. 

 Here’s a challenging quotation from Stephen W. Smith: “Jesus knew that no smell was more distasteful than the smell of religious people. He saved His harshest criticism for the smelly right-wing adherents of the faith. The smell of adultery, theft, swindling, jealousy, doubt, and rejection of faith did not compare in Jesus’ heart to the smell of self-righteousness. But true to His way of dealing with smelly people, even those who thought they were spiritually superior to others were welcomed to be in His presence. In the third chapter of John’s gospel, we find the story of the Pharisee named Nicodemus.” (“The Lazarus Life,” 109). 

 True enough, Jesus welcomed the Pharisee. Nicodemus “came to Jesus by night” (verse 2) and complimented Jesus for His miracles. Jesus then invited Nicodemus to unseen things, to spiritual rebirth. There’s birth by flesh, seen, but also spiritual birth, unseen. Nicodemus asked, “How can this be?” (verse 9) Like hearing the sound of the wind, Jesus says, rebirth by the Spirit is heard. The eternal Son of God, Jesus, speaks what He sees and knows. Rebirth comes through hearing and believing His witness to things unseen. 

 That Nicodemus came to Jesus by night symbolizes the darkness of self-righteous religious people. By the end of the Gospel, Nicodemus appears in the light (John 19:39). He had come into the light of Christ. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). There’s hope for Pharisees!