Music and Motion

This month's lesson is on Peter. Ah, Peter. He's such an interesting character because his life with Jesus is filled with some really high highs and some very low lows. He's a do-first and think-later sort of a person. Here's the three events we'll be teaching on this month.

1. The disciples go on ahead of Jesus in the boat, while Jesus goes off alone to pray. The disciples are straining at the oars in the Sea of Galilee because a storm has come. And then, through the waves, they see a figure walking on the water. The disciples are terrified and think it to be a ghost. When Jesus tells them to not be scared, it's only him, Peter says "Jesus! If it's really you, tell me to come out of the boat and walk on water with you!" Jesus does, and Peter obeys. When he notices the waves around him he begins to sink and cries out to Jesus to save him. Jesus reaches down and pulls Peter up out of the water.

2. Scene: The Last Supper. Jesus is telling his disciples that one of them will betray him. Peter declares that even if he has to die with Jesus, he would never deny him. Jesus says that before the rooster crows in the morning, Peter will have denied him three times. Peter is shocked, and hurt. Later that evening, after Jesus is arrested, Peter follows the guards to see what will happen to his friend Jesus. One of the servant girls sees him and accuses Peter of being one of his followers. Peter denies it. Next, a woman recognizes Peter's accent as being Galilean, and assumes he was with Jesus. Peter denies it. Then, some others near Peter say that he was with Jesus, to which he replies "I don't even know this man you are talking about!"

3. Jesus has died, and has risen, but the disciples do not know it yet. They are out fishing, when Jesus calls out to them from the shore. They don't recognize him at first, but when Peter realizes that it is Jesus, he leaps from the boat and swims frantically to shore. After a breakfast of miraculously caught fish, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him. Peter, exasperated at being asked three times, declares that he does love Jesus. Jesus tells him, "feed my lambs".

This morning, after briefly going through these three stories, we had the kids choose music from a pre-made sound track. Their task was to match the mood of the music to the feelings of Peter and the tone of the story. They did awesome! After we chose our soundtrack, we had the kids act out the story and I played the songs they had chosen. They did so well! They fought over who got to be Jesus and Peter, and enthusiastically played the parts well. The rest of the kids who didn't get a speaking part for the scene were the rest of the disciples. It worked out well and they seemed to really enjoy it.

This lesson was really a double-whammy in the fact that the kids were using music and a storytelling method (acting) to help reinforce the lesson. Music is tremendously powerful and I loved watching their faces as they listened to the sounds while they were picking them for the soundtrack. They were very concentrated on how Peter would feel in each scene, and I really think that the experience will be memorable because of the music. GREAT!