The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for April 3, 2020

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). Martha said that to Jesus, and thousands and thousands can say it today as the pandemic takes the lives of loved ones. Where’s God?

Sunday is Palm Sunday, and we’ll here where God is. “And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the  chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day’” (Matthew 20:17-19). Palm Sunday invites us to where God is: in His Son who goes to suffer for us and is present with us in our suffering.

Scientific, medical and governmental mobilizations seek wisdom, rightly so, this being the purpose of human reason. May the Creator who gave the gift of reason bless its use for our deliverance from this pandemic! But it would be wrong for us to project our human reasoning upon the ways of God. This is the way the “natural person” thinks (1 Corinthians 2:14), but leads to the conclusion that God is doing nothing, if He even exists. “Lord, if you had been here…” The Church’s wisdom is markedly different than the world’s wisdom, revealed not reasoned. “We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7). “The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (2:14). In this crisis the Creator remains mysteriously hidden (“No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God,” 2:11) but He continues to reveal Himself to us in in the Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ. “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1:24).

Jesus said to Martha, “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 11:25-26). That’s why we’ll worship Palm Sunday, virtual though it be, to be “taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

The Meyer Minute for April 1, 2020

Sometimes a parent tells children, “Time Out!” Yesterday the heavenly Father gave me the “Time Out!” signal, and He may be saying it to you as well.

The Seminary is conducting classes and meetings on line. Congregations, schools, businesses and organizations are doing the same. Chatting yesterday with our Chief Information Officer, I observed that our new virtual life has taken our already stressed, instantaneous, on-demand life to an even-higher level of stress. He immediately agreed. “Time Out!” Common sense tells us not to try and do it all, to wait a minute.

Even more inviting – and also commanding to obedient children – are our Lord’s words. “‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves” (Mark 6:31-32). As this crisis overwhelms us, we’re reacting, we’re struggling to cope, we’re trying to preserve some sense of normalcy. Is God a real presence as you try to process everything? Or have we slipped into functional atheism? “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14).

I was feeling the stress yesterday so I took the “Time Out!” After my daily nap, 10 minutes or so, I decided to stay on the bed and deal with my head. That meant skipping two virtual meetings, but “Time Out!” means seeking God’s help first, work second. I prayed the hymn, “Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged— take it to the Lord in prayer” (Lutheran Service Book, 770, 2). When we pray, our duty is also to stop acting like we’re in control and trust God to answer our prayers. “Wait on the Lord.” Are there things we must do? Yes, God has appointed good works for us to do (Ephesians 2:10), and I have three meetings today. But slow down the temptation to be sucked into the hyper-now, stressed whirlpool by obediently hearing the Father’s command. To my Seminary colleagues, take a “Time Out!” Monitor important emails but spend more time away from work and consciously be with your Lord. “Come unto Me…and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15).