love

Sermon for Grandparents Day Matins, Friday, April 27, 2018

Rev. Peter J. Eckardt, Associate Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church and School

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We are blessed to have you grandparents here with us today. You are a blessing to your children and to your grandchildren. And I’m sure that the grandchildren who have grandparents here with them today feel that way as well. It’s such a blast to have Grandma and Grandpa come by. It’s fun and exciting to spend time with them. And grandparents are a blessing to you grandkids not just because they’re the ones who spoil you and maybe give you treats that your parents wouldn’t give, and play games with you, and spend extra time with you, but even more importantly, because they are examples and models for you. They model virtue and character, the wisdom that they have gained over many years. You children, should be watching and learning from your grandparents. And we ought to honor our grandparents; just as, God says, we ought to honor our father and mother, so also we honor the fathers and mothers of our father and mother.

God says in Proverbs, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” You grandparents have been a part of this training up, not only of your own children but of your grandchildren, in many and various ways, and by your examples and have thus blessed them.

Lutheran Schools Week - Serve Together

Why do we serve together? Why take precious time away from academics to work on service projects?

I am reminded of Saint Paul’s warning to the Corinthians. Don’t gloss over the text; it’s worth reading:

“If I speak with the tongue of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

In other words, we fail as a classical school if the only outcome we achieve is a well-trained mind. If our students graduate as intellectually robust defenders of truth yet lacking love and vision to use their gifts in service to neighbors, then our work has been in vain.

Reflection on Leisure by Mrs. Stone

By Mrs. Stone

This summer I set out to create moments of “leisure” for myself. I had it all planned out. I was determined to have leisure and have it to the fullest and in great abundance by scheduling after-work excursions to the park or pool, where I would sit and read a plethora of educational or theological books and journal about any deep and meaningful revelations I should have. I expected leisure time to simply occur during my week of vacation with my family in Michigan, where I thought, “With five unscheduled days, there should be no shortage of leisure to be had.”