Happy Summer, Immanuel families! While we miss the joyful sounds of your children filling our classrooms and hallways, we pray that you are enjoying a restful and relaxing summer. We’re looking forward to seeing new and returning faces starting this week as we host summer gatherings on the ILS playground to meet new friends and reconnect with old ones before the new school year begins!
As part of our efforts to encourage and shape ongoing conversations with families, each month, we share a new "What we're reading..." blog post. This includes a variety of articles that we have found to be inspiring, thought-provoking, or intriguing, and that we think you might enjoy reading also. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below as you read these!
Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!
Teaching Today’s Young Musicians with Musical Masters - Mrs. Marie Greenway, Prelude to Postlude: CPH Music Blog
“The most powerful teachers lead by example. As such, teachers who continually learn from the “masters” themselves—whatever that might look like in various subject areas— set a good example for their students who take to heart more of what their teacher does than what they say. For example, a teacher who urges the importance of staying in the Church for life makes a bigger impact when their students actually see them in church Sunday after Sunday. If they’re not present, the students come to think that their teacher does not truly mean what they say and begins to ignore the teaching. Likewise, a teacher who urges their students to listen to great music makes a bigger impact if the students discover them, at least one time or another, listening to Haydn or Mendelssohn, playing Mozart or Chopin on the piano, or providing a Buxtehude prelude on the organ on Sunday.
In general, teachers should continue learning from the masters of their respective art, even if the masters do not represent the entirety of their repertoire. In music class, this looks like providing students the opportunity to listen to great works of music that they will probably not hear at any other time in their life. Some students may continue through life uninterested in the great works of music, but one or two may take it upon themselves to look up a playlist of a composer who struck their fancy, like a student of mine did with Maurice Ravel earlier this year. Those one or two students are worth all the effort. Music teachers also have the opportunity to introduce their students to the great “masters” in music class by guiding their students through learning a choral or instrumental piece at their level. Most simply in a Lutheran school, this may look like learning hymns.”
Sermon, Trinity 5 - Pastor Rogness, Rogness on Tap
“On the 4th of July, the country pauses for fireworks and picnics. But why? Well, for many, because we work hard and need a break. But, what is the 4th of July? It’s our nation’s day of independence. It is the day the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, a document few will read, but many will quote these words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
So, you are promised an existence. The right to life – being alive. And you have the right to liberty, meaning you are free. But, you are also given the pursuit of happiness. Well, what does this mean?
Is the pursuit of happiness a state of being, or does the word “pursuit” mean chasing after or seeking happiness? If you ask most people today, they would say the pursuit of happiness is an endeavor citizens seek after. Like being an overcomer, rags to riches story through hard work, grit, and determination. Here is how most of the world thinks and operates.
In the Gospel, there were no riches for Peter, no abundant catch of fish. What he did have in his possession were empty nets to be cleaned. Cleaning the nets would not be enjoyable; it would be downright laborious and tidiest work, yet, this fishing crew worked hard with no bounty to show for it. Their pursuit of food and happiness led to the deep darkness of disappointment. ”
Temporal and Eternal - Gene Edward Veith, The Lutheran Witness
“The two kingdoms doctrine in Lutheran theology is not just distinction between the church and the state, the sacred and the secular, or the spiritual and the physical. Luther often described them as the “temporal kingdom” and the “eternal kingdom.”
Though temporal and eternal includes the other senses, the distinction between the temporal and the eternal is a classic Christian concept that is often neglected today. The temporal is within time; it is the realm of change, instability and what passes away. Creation is time bound, and, as part of the temporal order, so are we. We grow up, grow old and die. The eternal is beyond time; it is the realm of God, everlasting life and salvation.
The Bible contrasts these two realms. “Surely the people are grass,” says Isaiah. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:7–8).
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,” says Jesus, “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19–21).”
Church Musicians Need Rest Too - Mrs. Marie Greenway, Prelude to Postlude: CPH Music Blog
“For many church musicians, summer is a time of rest from the rigors of the rest of the year. Music teachers find a respite in their school schedule, lesson teachers find that students take more time off during the summer, and church music directors, cantors, and organists often take the summer to break from the usual choir rehearsals and demands of festival Sundays. We need rest.
Trinity Season and a Time for Rest
After all, God has given us both our souls and our bodies, and our bodies need rest. Even in His creation of the world, God instituted a day for rest after His work was done. Jesus took time to distance Himself from the crowds that often followed Him. He took time to be by Himself to pray and to rest. Our God has given us a body that we are to treat with dignity as a part of His own creation. As the incarnation of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary makes known to us, bodies are important and are made to be tended to, along with our souls.
The Church Year and the Season of Trinity ”
The Death of Gratitude in the American Classroom - Jeremy Adams, The Public Discourse
“But what about the dearth of letters and gestures at the end of the school year? At the final bell of the year, a handful of students used to give me a handshake or a hug, a hearty statement of thanks, and yes, even a letter or a card. These have all but vanished. The bell rings for the last time, they wave goodbye, and off to summer vacation they giddily trot.
I am self-aware enough to acknowledge that perhaps the students don’t get as much from my class as they used to. Maybe I have become an unknowing crank in my middle age. Maybe I am just unworthy of their gratitude. And yet, other teachers who are universally loved by the students also notice the change.
My real concern is that gratitude may no longer be part of the lives of young Americans. They seem to believe that their blessings—technology that is the stuff of science fiction, unparalleled wealth, unfathomable comforts and forms of communication, bountiful freedom, and opportunities unrivaled in human history—are owed to them. They see no need to be grateful; it makes no sense to them.
The decline of gratitude portends a disturbing pivot in our culture. I worry not that my own world may be crumbling, not that civilization’s decline may be imminent, but that unless the younger generation learns the virtue of gratitude, they will not find joy in life. They will not believe the world is, to quote Hemingway, “a fine place and worth fighting for.””
The Ordinary Beauty of Flower Bouquets - Ali Kjergaard, Mere Orthodoxy
“As I type this I’m staring at a bouquet of hydrangeas, pink roses, and lilies sitting in my window. Hydrangeas never last very long in a bouquet, perhaps it’s better to keep them on the bush, but who can resist the lively, colorful tufts? The roses have thrived in the window, expanding their petals, faces wide open, and the lilies are just shyly beginning to open. It’s tragic how short lived bouquets are, in the next week or two I will need to get rid of them, their petals dropping and leaves drooping, wilted. And yet, week after week I keep the vase filled. Am I merely Sisyphus rolling a stone up a hill? I don’t think so; the short life cycle of flowers isn’t a curse, but it serves as a reminder that the only constant is change. Last week, I had ruffled peonies in the vase, the week before tulips were in heavy supply. Each week ushers in a new flower, and despite the fact I know the flowers will die, I continue to purchase a bouquet week after week.
There is the ever pressing debate among my friends of the beach versus the mountains — which is more enjoyable, which is more beautiful. As someone who loves calm waters surrounded by trees, I mostly stay out of the debate, but no matter the preferred landscape, there is something inside us that is not soothed by the cement high rises of a city; we long for lush landscapes bursting with life.”
The Song of Reality - Austin Hoffman, CIRCE
“Have you ever wished to get into someone else’s head? How does Tom Brady survey the football field or Elon Musk process business decisions? What was Octavian thinking after the battle of Actium? Each person has their own unique way of approaching the world, yet we may also speak of distinct “minds” of history. W. Harry Jellema identifies at least three such minds: the classical Greco-Roman, the Christian-Medieval, and the Renaissance-Enlightenment-Contemporary—each its own objective entity with its own voice. As C.S. Lewis reminds us, hearing the voice of minds outside our own allows the cool sea breeze to rejuvenate our thoughts.
As representative of the ancient mind, Plato claims in his Republic that music shapes and nourishes the soul of the guardian. He directs their musical training so that the guardians will be courageous and spirited, discerning good and evil. Plato is not concerned merely with the words or content digested by the guardians, but also the harmony and rhythm of the music. Modern culture tends to denigrate form, but the classical mind recognized both were essential. Everything is seamlessly woven together into an integrated whole directed towards the telos of education and conforming the soul to nature.”