Although our full schedule of Lutheran Schools Week activities have been hampered by the snow, ILS and her families still join the nearly 2,300 LCMS preschools, elementary schools and high schools throughout the country celebrating this week. This year’s theme, Life Together in Christ, provides the opportunity to acknowledge that Christ is the creator of our life together and has sustained the our community for more than 70 years.
The theme verse for the week:
"God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (I Cor. 1:9 ESV)
...focuses our attention on the joyful fellowship we have with one another, centered on Christ crucified.
Rather than being together in the classroom and on the playground together all week, students have benefited from time together with siblings, parents, and friends during our absence from school. At both home and school we celebrate our life together in Jesus - praying together, learning together, serving together, and playing together.
ILS staff have reflected on our Life Together considering prayer, learning, service and play. Enjoy this first reflection from Miss German, ILS Music Teacher.
Pray Together - Miss German
Why do we pray? It is both commanded of us (“Pray continually” – 1 Thess. 5:17) and gifted to us from our heavenly Father as a promise (“Ask, and it will be given to you” – Matt. 7:7).
Not only do we pray every day together at Immanuel, but have you wondered why sometimes we even sing our prayers? For instance, every Wednesday at chapel, we confidently proceed in familiar chant whenever it is time to participate in the Lord’s Prayer. Many of our hymn stanzas are also penned as prayers to our triune God. It is as though the music lifts our words to God, much like our prayers rise as the smoke of burning incense.
It was Martin Luther who said that music deserves our praise, second only to the Word of God. Quite often, this is because a well-wedded text and tune, over time, will obtain a beautiful, universal transcendence, offering us a glimpse of what we would call sacred, i.e. set apart from the distinct cultures and personalities of our world. More than serving any practical function, good music reflects the core values of a community, and it becomes ever more strengthened by the permanence of God’s Word, which is in itself the richest fodder for our prayer life.