What We're Reading - May 2020

As we near the end of the 2019-2020 school year under circumstances that no one could have ever predicted when the year began, we still give thanks for the relationships and partnerships we have with our families. We are grateful for the ways that our Immanuel community continues to come together and support one another as we navigate this new path and figure out new rhythms and routines for our families. While seeing photos of your Learn at Home days, videos of students learning with siblings, or checking in via Zoom can never replace the joy and delight of our days together in the classrooms and on the playground, we are grateful for the ways that we are still able to connect and engage with one another and continue on the path we began in September as we started our year.

We wanted to continue our "What we're reading..." series for May and include some articles our faculty and staff have found inspiring or encouraging in these uncertain times, and that we hope will continue our ongoing conversation about how we shape our culture together at home and at school.

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us in these ongoing conversations and for sharing items you have read that may be inspiring to others in our ILS community! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

“We need this communal response especially now when we are forced out of our physical gathering spaces by disease and death. We are beings who need to gather physically. We are a combination of body and soul, meant to live in physical community. When that is taken from us, we struggle. Of course, technology is a gift in a time like this, allowing us to gather virtually, if not physically.

Our hymns carry us through this time because we are still able to sing them in community, even if not while physically in the same space. My church has been livestreaming services with a miniature choir to sing the hymns and to speak and sing the congregational responses. Even as the small group of us gather in the building, we know that many others are gathering online and are singing the same things we are. In this time of uncertainty, we still sing our old, familiar hymns that remind us of our salvation and Jesus’ victory over sickness, disease, and death.”
— Marie Greenway, "Cling to Hymns in a Pandemic"
“The word “witness” in the New Testament is extremely important. After the ascension of Jesus, Peter gathered the apostles (and the broader number of some 120 disciples) and informed the group that Judas, having betrayed Christ and committed suicide, must be replaced. His “office” had to be filled. Peter said, “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us — one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21–22).

Jesus had told His disciples, “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:27). The apostles were sent by Christ to bear witness to the world (Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8). They bore witness in a legal sense, telling others what they had actually seen and heard of Jesus (1 John 1). Some of them bore witness by writing Gospels (Matthew and John) or writing down the witness of an apostle (Mark for Peter; Luke for Paul).

This witness of the apostles has always been tremendously comforting for me when I encountered the views of numerous liberal theologians from the past two centuries. These radicals denied that Jesus said almost everything attributed to Him in the New Testament, denied Jesus’ miracles and even the resurrection itself. In contrast to these scholars’ canards, I considered the witness of Jesus’ closest followers.”
— Matthew Harrison, "He Rose Again According to the Scriptures"
“According to this list of daily bread, we have been blessed immeasurably! Thus, I have been pondering the gift of good neighbors and the calling we have to act as faithful ones to those around us.

I met these neighbors by pure coincidence almost one year ago. With my eight-day-old son in arms, I took a short stroll outside around the courtyard and ran into my neighbor who greeted me kindly, which led to introductory remarks. Following interactions then led to a friendship of families. These are the neighbors for whom we pray in the fourth petition. The wife and mother of two used to hold weekly soup lunches for her other friends who are mothers with children, and I witnessed her selfless hospitality extended to all of us week after week. These simple gatherings allowed all of us mothers to share the happenings in our lives and often seek advice on child-rearing. In addition to these social gatherings, our neighbors freely lent us their high chair for our son to use, toys, diapers when I suddenly ran out and needed one immediately, and other odds and ends. I knew then and still know that if I reach out with a need, they will respond to lend a helping hand. In many more ways, they have taught us how to be faithful neighbors.

So what do “good neighbors” look like now in this time of isolation? We as Christians are called to remain faithful neighbors in all times. At the least, we can utilize the wise use of our phones and technology to remain in contact. A simple, “how are you today?” might be just what our neighbors need. A good dose of human creativity seems to be on the rise where we live. Many neighbors in the community are engaging in a “teddy bear hunt” wherein participants place teddy bears in their windows for walkers to seek and find. This little game has become a delightful ray of sunshine in an otherwise cloudy atmosphere. ”
— Molly Barnett, "Faithful Neighbors, and the Like"
“During the fifty days of the Easter season, the Church rejoices in the resurrected Lord and the new life He brings. This season includes three great feasts that we celebrate: the Feast of the Resurrection, the Feast of the Ascension, and the Feast of Pentecost. This year, the Easter season looks and feels different, as many churches are streaming worship online. As you prepare for upcoming services, use the hymns and suggestions below in preparation for worship throughout the Easter season.”
— Concordia Publishing House "Prepare for the Easter Season at Home"
“THERE ARE QUIET SPACES in museums across the country I treasure as almost private retreats. While crowds swarm the European and modernist galleries abuzz with selfie sticks and school field trips, I relish the hush of the decorative arts collections. Secluded, blissfully neglected by the guidebooks, these are spaces to linger and, fittingly, dwell.

The period rooms at the Met, for example, are sumptuous transports. I could spend days in the bedroom from the Sagredo Palace or the tapestry room from Croome Court, each a feast for the senses. I lose myself in carved curlicues on seventeenth-century bedposts, want to dive into the red plush of velvet wall coverings, am mesmerized by intricate silver inlays that adorn a mahogany desk, dreaming of what it would feel like to write in such environs.

At the Art Institute of Chicago, I’m enthralled by the art-deco wall coverings from the Chicago Stock Exchange trading room. Adler & Sullivan’s design has the feel of controlled chaos (perhaps mirroring the trading room floor), with looping, oblong spirals in greens, golds, and reds like a Persian rug on a wall. Nearby is gallery 162, home to American decorative arts from the twentieth century, where the luxurious bends that the Eameses imagined for humble plywood always bring a sense of delight. And then there are the graceful, alluring curves of Noguchi’s coffee table, at once whimsical and sensual, its base the outline of a lounging body, its glass top disappearing yet still functional, a kind of invisible magic.”
— James K.A. Smith, "The Art We Live With"
“If you are anything like me, you are starting your days looking for your “marbles”—those elements of clear thinking, emotional steadiness, calm relational clarity, and clear purpose that normally anchor your mental well-being. Yet now we are socially separated with multiple barriers to our normal modes of communication and relationship maintenance.

Weeks ago, we could walk down the hall, respond to questions face-to-face with colleagues, and, importantly, use our social and emotional IQs to read one another’s responses to our communication. We could add a moment of “blowing off steam” or even “taking a breather” along with the actual business of sharing ideas and strategies. We were able to shake a hand, hug our children or grandchildren, share a meal, and worship together under the same shelter. Not now. We’re experiencing isolation.”
— John D. Eckrich, "Maintaining Your Marbles During COVID-19"
“Gradually I am learning how much more pleasant life is when we embrace the present season rather than covet the blessings of the past or the future. This includes not coveting how my neighbor seems to be in the same season of life and yet accomplishing so much more than I can manage. My selfish heart is so very good at seeing the blessings I don’t have and the crosses I do while ignoring the good I would miss and the pains I would suffer if circumstances differed.

In my present season of baby-raising, I could make a long list of things I am not currently accomplishing: learning German, reading epic poems, sewing adorable toddler toys, staying abreast of the news, writing regularly, let alone keeping the kitchen floor free of crumbs and yogurt splotches. However, I have found that this is a very good season of life for something with a different sort of value: memorizing.

I stumbled my way into memorization through sleepless nights with a colicky infant, but as I have incorporated it into the rhythms of my days, I have come to appreciate how wholesome it is for mind and spirit. In the interest of encouraging others to share the refreshment of memorization, I offer some of the practicalities I have learned.”
— Heather Judd, "Memorization for Moms (and Other Busy Ladies)
“This current trouble points us to eternity

Luther most likely wrote our favorite Reformation hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” around 1527 — during the plague. Temporal tragedy points us to eternal hope and consolation. Jesus foretold what we see: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven” (Luke 21:10–11).

We see such things now. Great fear has spread across the globe. Confusion abounds. The church is stressed and pressed. I am hearing of LCMS pastors in deep distress as parishioners die in hospital quarantine outside of their pastor’s spiritual care. Virtually all of us are having to forgo gathering as the church, receiving the Sacrament from our pastors only in small groups or not at all.

Jesus also reassures us: “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). We have been redeemed, paid for by Christ’s death on the cross, declared righteous by His resurrection (Rom. 4:25). We anxiously await the “redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23) — that is, the resurrection of our bodies to live with Christ for eternity. We do not cower, least of all in the face of a pandemic. “Straighten up!” says Jesus. “Lift up your heads.” “Surely I am coming soon” (Rev. 22:20).”
— Matthew Harrison, "This pandemic is temporary"