The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for October 14, 2020

I learned much and had strong feelings as I watched the confirmation hearings for Judge Barret to the Supreme Court. It reminded me of Socrates, the Greek philosopher who was put on trial for his life in 399 B.C. Socrates’ friend Chaerephon had asked the Oracle at Delphi if anyone was wiser than Socrates. “The priestess replied that there was no one.” Socrates couldn’t believe that, so he set out to find someone in Athens smarter than himself. 

He went to someone with a reputation for wisdom. “It was one of our politicians that I was studying… and in conversation with him I formed the impression that although in many people’s opinion, and especially in his own, he appeared to be wise, in fact he was not. Then when I began to try to show him that he only thought he was wise and was not really so, my efforts were resented both by him and by many of the other people present.” Socrates went to more politicians, to poets and dramatists, and to what we call “blue collar” workers and came to the same conclusion.  “It seemed to me as I pursued my investigation at the god’s command, that the people with the greatest reputations were almost entirely deficient, while others who were supposed to be their inferiors were much better qualified in practical intelligence” (Plato, “Apology,” 21c, d, 22a). 

I trust you’re like me, we tend to look at things theologically because God has planted His truth deep in our hearts. Watching the senators reenact what Socrates learned almost 2500 years ago, shows again “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The dynamics of God’s law given in Scripture are very much like the dynamics of secular law. To grow in biblical knowledge and spiritual maturity, we can’t do much better than study Scripture to see how the law works and then turn to life, like the hearings, to see the dynamics of law play out. However, the ultimate conclusion is different for us in the Church than it is in government and secular life.  “The purpose of both (Law and Gospel) is the salvation of humankind—except that ever since the fall, the Law has not been capable of leading us to salvation. It can only prepare us for the Gospel.” (C.F.W. Walther, “Law and Gospel,” 12).   

“What is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” (James Madison, Federalist 51).   

The Meyer Minute for October 12, 2020

Yesterday Diane and I returned to our congregation for the first time since Covid hit. At a very human, non-professorial level, my gut reaction was interesting. I’ll get to that in a moment. 

An organization called “Slack” surveyed workers to learn, “How does remote work affect the experience of work?”  51.6 percent said their work-life balance was better, and 30.6 percent said it was the same as before Covid. Only 17.8 percent thought their work-life balance was worse in our new, virtual/hybrid way of living.  Three other survey questions, “My productivity at work, my stress or anxiety about work,” and “My overall satisfaction with my working arrangement” were all significantly better or the same in our new situation. But here’s the one that caught my attention. While virtual and hybrid work situations have helped workers in some ways, “my sense of belonging at work” had only 21.9 percent saying “better.” The rest answered “same” or “worse.” 

I remember an older couple who were members of our church in Lincoln Park, Michigan. “Older” in comparison to me; I was 24, doing my vicarage/internship when I visited them. The husband was working for one of the big three auto makers and hated his job. If he had responded to the survey question about “my sense of belonging at work,” his answer would have been as negative as negative could be. “Belonging” is important to companies; you want a loyal, supportive work force. “Slack” reported that Zoom meetings, emails, and messages have mixed results. Unless you’re in the leadership of a company, you can’t do much about giving a worker a feeling, “I belong here.” 

Which brings me back to church yesterday. We got some teasing comments when we walked in. “Well, look!” To which I quipped, “Yeah, the building will probably fall down.” We took our socially distanced place in the pew, stayed masked-up, and felt at home. A need of mine was met after the service when people gathered outside to visit, pretty much distanced and pretty much masked-up. My human feeling, not intellectual, was simply, “I belong here.” That’s the Gospel taking bodily form in our impersonal world, a positive the Body of Christ has to offer more now than ever.  

“I love your kingdom Lord… / I prize its heav’nly ways,  

Its sweet communion, solemn vows, / Its hymns of love and praise.”  

(Lutheran Service Book, 651: 1, 2)    

The Meyer Minute for October 9, 2020

Last Sunday Diane and I went to church in-person for the first time since the pandemic hit. We remain skittish about catching Covid but went because our grandson Christian gave his public testimony in advance of confirmation later this month. Excellent statement, Christian! The church’s precautionary measures made us feel safe, and so we plan to go again this Sunday.  

When the pandemic is largely behind us, and that day is slowly coming, congregations will have to offer compelling reasons to return to in-person worship. After being absent for over 6 months, the differences between virtual and in-person worship were striking. First, you’re in a building designed to be holy. In both our children’s churches, the nave draws worshippers to the cross over the altar. In our own church in Collinsville, the nave leads to a cross and painting of the ascending Christ. And in our Seminary chapel, the nave draws attention to the cross and stained-glass window of the resurrection. Compare that to the place in your home where you sit and watch the screen. The design of space can be sacramental. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!” (Psalm 84:1). 

Closely related for me was the organ. The organ provides an in-person worshipper with surround sound, and sometimes you even feel the vibrations in your chest. Faith is more than head knowledge of religious truths, as important as head knowledge is. We were made creatures of mind, body, and soul. Virtual worship has ministered to my mind through sight and sound on a screen but doesn’t fully engage all my senses as in-person worship can. “My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God” (Psalm 84:2).  

Over the years, people who sit near us in church have seen me pull out paper and pen during the service to jot something down. Those are notes about God, faith, and life, thoughts that have been stimulated by what’s going on around me. This too comes from the surrounding. Distractions come however you worship, but virtual worship doesn’t keep you surrounded. Long sermon, offertory, prayers? I’ll go get a cup of coffee. Children slip out of worship; sanctified adults don't.

In-person or virtual? This is an area of Christian freedom, not compulsion of the law (see Galatians 5:1). Do what you think best but keep the passion alive. “When shall I appear and come before God?” “My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord” (Psalm 42:2; 84:2).   

The Meyer Minute for October 8, 2020

Might our troubled times turn out to be a time of great revitalization for Church and Christianity in America? Before Covid-19 the prospects for the institutional church were less than encouraging, public culture becoming post-churched and church members lured away from every Sunday loyalty. Time will tell if our topsy-turvy times will result in a new vitality for Church in society, but if so, we can expect it to spring up from local congregations. 

Peter wrote to congregations who had never experienced anything like the “Christian” America many of us knew decades ago and, unlike us, had no hope that public culture would be influenced by the Church. Yet Peter didn’t preach retreat but engagement, daily interactions with people not of the Church and even hostile to the Church. He shows how Christians should act in their various callings, wrapping up with a summary statement. “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” (3:8). Talk the talk and walk the walk because you believe Jesus saves you. 

Bishop Robert Leighton (1611-1684): “In the meantime, be ashamed, be afraid of that professed enmity against God that is amongst you, a malignant, hateful spirit against those who desire to walk holily…. This religion which we all profess, is it the way to heaven, or is it not? Do you believe this word, or not? If you do not, what do you here? If you do, then you must believe too, that those who walk closest by this rule are surest in that way” (Commentary on First Peter, 332).  

A revitalization of Christianity in American public life is not our purpose. A reenergizing of the life of congregational members around the Word of Christ is. “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy… having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil” (3:15, 16-17). If eternity shows that we did bless American public life in our times, turning present culture upside down (Acts 17:6), it will come as Peter envisioned. “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12). 

The Meyer Minute for October 7, 2020

Delete. Delete. Delete. When I was Seminary president, I got countless emails, and many went to the “Deleted Items Folder.” Well, almost countless; keep reading. Now that Diane and I are three months into retirement, we’re slowly getting accustomed to new routines. It used to be that an hour or so after waking up, I’d check Seminary emails. What do I have to do today? What problem do I have to mull over? Well, those emails aren’t coming anymore and our routine in these early months of retirement is catching up and cleaning up. Those emails I got weren’t countless. Yesterday I emptied the “Deleted Items” folder, all 18,960 emails. Yup, 18,960. 

What an illustration of guilt and forgiveness! “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” I didn’t respond to some emails that deserved a response. Illustration of sins of omission. Other emails I answered impetuously, too quick to hit “send” with an unconsidered reply. Think sins of commission. Emails are always on my mind when I confess in church, “by what we have done and by what we have left undone.” You have how many emails, how many sins? No wonder your computer/life isn’t working well!  

“But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared” (Psalm 130:3-4). “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove (delete) our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). Genuine sorrow for sins, contrition, with dependence on Jesus’ work is repentance; God cleans out the folder against me, something I couldn’t do by myself. But that doesn’t take away my guilty feelings. Computer gurus tell me those deleted emails are still out there somewhere. Same way: My sins are still there in at least two places. One is with people who have dealt with me. Some won’t forgive and won’t forget. They’ll remind me! See Zechariah 3. The second place guilt lives is deep within me. Since sin is breaking the First Commandment, putting my will ahead of the Creator’s truth and lordship in my life, conscience nags at me, Romans 2:15. Even though I am completely forgiven by my Father (Psalm 103:13-14), I’m still hard-wired to feel guilty.  

Right now, I have only 37 emails in my inbox. I’ll never have a clean slate, saint and sinner at the same time. That’s why I need Sunday worship, to keep hearing my Father say, “deleted, deleted, deleted.” 

The Meyer Minute for October 6, 2020

A good way to think about your relationship with God is to think about His promises. Some of God’s promises are scary. “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). Sure enough, “Death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). But the more encouraging takeaway from Bible reading is in the promises of God that are inviting, the promises of the Gospel. Just one example: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, ...God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Centering yourself on Gospel promises makes you forward looking, hopeful.  

What’s hard is waiting. Sometimes God seems slow in keeping His promises. For example, “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). In the dysfunction all around us, exacerbated by the pandemic, we’d like to see the good now rather than wait for it. A classic passage about God’s apparent slowness comes from Habakkuk. “The vision awaits its appointed time…. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come…. The righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:3-4). 

However, there are times when we do see God keeping His promises. Let me share one. This may seem small in our world of troubles, but I believe it’s God giving us hope. First-year enrollment in Concordia Seminary’s main program for ministry is increasing. Enrollment of new students in the Master of Divinity program is up nearly 50% over last year. For years, M.Div. enrollments have been in decline throughout the 270 schools in the Association of Theological Schools. There are reasons but Concordia Seminary began to respond several years ago. We began to alert the church about the pressing need for pastors, we added new positions and personnel, and because of the generosity of donors, we now provide financial aid at least equal to 100% of tuition. This year we have 201 students in the Master of Divinity program. Our five other programs for ethnic and specialized ministry have 180 students. Adding graduate programs, total enrollment is 628. 

The Seminary will share more information in coming weeks. Please keep talking to young people about church work is. Today’s Minute is about God’s promises. Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38). This is a promise God is keeping right before our eyes!   

The Meyer Minute for October 5, 2020

Sometimes an author begins a story in the middle, not at the beginning, not at the end. In medias res literary people call it. When the author has finally led you to the end, you see things more clearly, you have grown in understanding. 

We are in medias res of a truly historical pandemic. At the beginning, we didn’t know what was ahead, and if some leaders did know, they didn’t prepare us for what was to come. We do pray for President Trump’s recovery. Now in the middle, we can draw some conclusions. Yesterday I read columnist Ross Douthat with great appreciation. “Many of the people making those jokes (about how bad 2020 is) don’t believe that history really has an Author. But I do. And the aspects of our circumstances that seem ridiculously scripted to the atheist are, for religious believers, a reason to meditate on what is being revealed, how we’re being tested and what lessons and examples we can draw from watching the tragedies unfold” (New York Times, October 4; Sunday Review, 9). 

A similar reminder comes from a publication on the other side of the partisan divide. Writing on Pope Francis’ letter about St. Jerome in the desert, Kevin D. Williamson says, “This points us back again to our own predicament: ‘No man can serve two masters,’ Matthew’s gospel says – much less the 10,000 masters among whom we contemporaries must divide our attention. Our world is very loud, very crowded, full of terror and temptation. Saint Jerome had to retreat to the desert to ‘discover the importance of tears.’ And the same is true for us” (National Review, October 4, online).  

“‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’” (Acts 8:31). Faith not only seeks understanding, as St. Anslem said, but when we seek Him, faith does give us understanding.  In medias res the Author promises to guide us through this human tragedy to a good conclusion. “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous” (Psalm 11:4-5).  

“I know that as in night and day, / God’s purposes are vested.  

My heart His wishes must obey / Through pain and joy, be tested. 

My good is meant, by each intent, 

By all my Father’s doing / My welfare He is pursuing.” 

(Johann Pachelbel, On God and Not on Human Trust) 

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The Meyer Minute for October 2, 2020

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). That’s dear to many people, but is it dear for the right reason? 

Sunday we’ll hear Jesus tell a story. A man had a vineyard, leased it out, and sent messengers to collect the rent, but they abused the messengers and finally killed the owner’s son. Jesus is talking about Himself, but also taking a swipe at the religious establishment for rejecting Him (Matthew 21:33-46). “Who do You think You are? Prove it with a Bible passage!” 

He does, Psalm 118 about stones. Diane teases me because I like rocks in landscaping. At the Seminary I used stones to build a low retaining wall. Here in Collinsville I used different shaped stones for a walking path. “Hmm, what stone will fit here?” I look at several and toss most of them aside, choosing a stone that suits me and my purposes. That’s what we do, but when it comes to the things of God, Jesus turns our natural inclinations upside down. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Matthew 21:42). The religious hoity-toities didn’t like Jesus’ message to repent, that the outcast of society would enter the kingdom before them, that we are to be servants and follow Him even to the cross. You and I can also stumble on that Stone, “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). 

“Have you never read in the Scriptures?” Jesus asked. Of course, they had, just as the rejected stone passage won’t be new to you when you hear the Gospel read Sunday. What was new to them was the twist, “That psalm is about Me.”  “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). So, what makes this a day to rejoice and be glad? Not the things that we’re prone to like, good health, loving family, satisfying employment, those attractive “stones” we would choose as we try to build our lives. Those are gifts of God, not to be despised, but the cornerstone of our faith and life is the One rejected but finally raised and exalted. Rejoice today because your faith in Him will be vindicated. “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:23-24). 

The Meyer Minute for October 1, 2020

Here’s why I didn’t write a Minute yesterday. I had planned to watch Tuesday night’s presidential debate and then, come Wednesday morning, would offer some spiritual observation, something like “We’re blessed to live in a democracy,” dah, dah. Yes, we are blessed, but yesterday morning I was so discouraged I found no good words to put on paper. 

This morning is different. There’s Law and there’s Gospel. The Gospel tells us what God through His Son does for us now and for our eternal salvation. There was no Gospel in the debate, nor would there have been even if the debate had been normal. That’s our American distinction between church and state. But oh, did the debate show God’s Law! God gave His “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots” to promote order in society, to show us our sin, and guide us how to live. When we disregard God’s will, we experience unpleasant consequences. Welcome to today’s America! 

For example, pundits criticized the words spoken in the debate. A spiritual analysis goes deeper. “On the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37). It’s not just what politicians say, it’s words we all sometimes use. Wrote the church father Origen, “It is difficult even for the perfect to escape the fault of the word” (Homilies on Leviticus, 190). 

In political debates as in much of daily life, you’re not going to hear Gospel, but you’ll often hear improper words that fall under the judgment of God’s Law. In the Church we get analysis that points us to the Gospel. “No human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8). Who can “tame the tongue”? The Spirit of God who puts our natural inclinations to death and sweetens the water, the words that flow from the spring of our divinely recreated being. This is the result of daily repentance. Theological thinking goes from demonstrating the effects of the Law to the Church’s proclamation of the Gospel. 

In class yesterday I told students the debate showed why they are at the Seminary and why our congregations are so important. It’s in our churches that Law and Gospel show people how to understand, believe and act in this dysfunctional world. Sad but true, this is a great teaching and learning time for the Church!