Matins to Begin the First Day of School 2026

in

This man, the Lord Jesus, is the center of all human history. You can learn every fact about Alexander the Great, about Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire, about George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and the founding of our great nation - but without Jesus at the center, you won’t really understand any of it.

Because human history isn’t the story of empires and generals, wars and constitutions, musicians and poets. Human history is the story of man who lost his way, and the God who entered our history, became Himself a man, and descended into our darkness.

Read More

Sexagesima 2026

in

This is the second time I’ve made this particular mistake. A few years ago I bought a book by Victor Davis Hanson called Who Killed Homer? Since we have a wonderful classical school, I try to periodically read books on classical education, and the subtitle seemed to say it was: “The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom.” But the book was about how classics departments at American universities are captivated by LGBTQ ideology, and PhD candidates write dissertations with titles like, “Marxist Postcolonial Genderqueer Themes in The Odyssey.” I’m glad I read the book, but it wasn’t what I thought I was getting.

I made the same kind of mistake last month….

Read More

Baccalaureate Vespers 2025 – Immanuel Lutheran School

in

In the ancient church, the renunciations at the time of baptism were more robust. Today, in many churches, when a person is baptized, he is asked if he renounces the devil, and all his works, and all his ways. But in the ancient church, there were often more extensive renunciations. One of these was the word “pomp.” “Do you renounce the devil’s pomps?”

“Pomp” comes for the Latin pompa - an ostentatious procession or display. A popular piece of music at secular graduations is called “Pomp and Circumstance.”…

Read More

Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending

in

Non nobis - “not to us [be the glory].” The world is filled with people who say the opposite: “To us be the glory; to me be the glory.” If we’re honest, that’s who we are, deep down. What a gift, to learn from early childhood to sing the opposite: Non nobis - “not to us,” Domine, “Lord” - Sed nomini tuo - “but to Your name” be the glory….

Read More

Holy Thursday Matins 2024

in

If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do?

You could try to have fun. Eat your favorite food. Play a game. Watch your favorite movie one last time.

Maybe you’d try to finish up something left undone. Make sure everything was put in order. You might even have some things to get rid of. Things you don’t want anybody else to see. Things that would embarrass you….

Read More

Three Meditations on "Lo! He comes with Clouds Descending"

in

“Why won’t there be food in heaven?” a student asked me recently. I reminded this thoughtful child that in the kingdom of God our bodies will be resurrected, and the Bible often talks about God’s kingdom as a feast. And then I asked, “What made you so sure there wouldn’t be food?”

“Because the Bible says we won’t hunger or thirst.” Ah! Yes, I see why you might think that. But you see, it’s not eating and drinking that’s the problem, but a world where people suffer.

Our world is infected with sin, and corrupted by death. So when the Bible says, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore,” it’s describing a world where people don’t starve, where people have clean water to drink….

Read More

Baccalaureate Vespers 2019

in

After sitting through dozens of graduation speeches that were a terrible waste of time, the brilliant educator and critic Neil Postman wrote the sort of commencement address he wished would be given but never is. In it he talks about two groups of ancient people, the Athenians and the Visigoths. This is because, Postman said, you soon must align yourself with the spirit of one or the spirit of the other. You must choose between the Athenians or the Visigoths.

Read More

Do you believe in monsters?

in

Do you believe in monsters?

Our word monster comes from the Latin monere, which means “to show” or “warn.” I’ve never seen for sure, but I suspect that monster stories arose to warn people about dangers in general. The monster put a scary, if imaginary, face on the general danger that is outside the safety of home and village.

So our history is filled with monster stories: Leviathan, the sea monster; Cyclops; Beowulf’s Grendel; up to more modern monsters like Tolkien’s Smaug.

Read More

Sermon for Teacher Work Week: The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

in

What are we here for, at Immanuel Lutheran School? Our goal as pedagogs is to ago the paidoi, to lead the children to their goal, to their completion, to their perfection. We ourselves are not there, but we are on the path. And this path leads to the kingdom of God, the perfection of the world in the regenesis of the human race. All the subjects—math and literature etc.—are to be employed with nurturing the conscience and shaping the heart. We are preparing our young men for the moment Salome salaciously presents herself and now a decision must be made. We are preparing our young women to not be Salome.

Yet there is something beyond morals here, and obedience to the God-given conscience. There is also preparation for the moment after the moment, the time when we’ve stepped off the path our pedagogs mapped out for us.

Read More