I tried something of an unconventional approach to teaching an introduction to the Gospel of Luke yesterday, presenting the four songs of the first two chapters as a musical.  Have you ever noticed that the first couple of chapters of Luke actually read something like a musical?!?  Seriously!  There’s a paragraph or two of narration, and then someone breaks into song... Then there’s a bit more narration, and then someone breaks into song again.  Mary, Zechariah, the Angels, Simeon... A lot of singing.  They're absolutely beautiful songs, too.  And since I've always enjoyed the way that musicals provide beautiful stylized examples of story-telling, all set to music and rhythm -- often causing the stories and songs to get stuck in one's head for hours (or even days) afterwards -- I actually attempted to do something of a "musical sermon," with bits of story-telling and analysis mixed with new musical adaptations of the four songs from Luke 1-2.  Perhaps it sounds a bit ridiculous (and perhaps it was a bit ridiculous!), but I thought it was an interesting idea.   And what’s really cool is that the songs from the introduction to Luke are not just dopey little songs about “Doe, a deer, a female deer” or “I Feel Pretty.”  In fact, they’re incredibly meaningful songs that have implications for understanding the rest of Luke’s story about Jesus’ life and ministry!  So with some help from my brilliant musical friends, Leslie and Eva (offering original musical arrangements of the songs), we did our absolute best to get the four songs of Luke 1-2 stuck in our heads -- preparing us for the rest of our 16-week series studying the Gospel of Luke.

The worship gathering (including the "musical sermon") actually came off smoother than I might have expected.  A lot of people remarked that they enjoyed the message, afterwards.  But to be honest, I couldn't tell if they really enjoyed it (and were genuinely benefitted by it) -- or if it was more of the "new haircut" phenomenon.  You know what I mean?  A lot of times, if you get a new haircut, people will often say "Hey, I like your new haircut" -- when what they really mean is "Hey, I notice that you have a new haircut!" (and either the jury is still out on the actual opinion, or the old hair style was genuinely preferred).  And I wondered if people's compliments were simply a way of saying that they noticed a difference, or if they really enjoyed it.

I had to ask myself:  Was any meaningful truth communicated?  Were people genuinely motivated to continue studying Luke?  Would the four songs from Luke 1-2 actually get stuck in our heads?

This morning, however, I received one of the best assurances for which I might have hoped.  I woke up, took a shower, unloaded the dishwasher, and then opened up the door to the kids' bedrooms to signal "the beginning of the day."  And instead of the sleepy-headed curmudgeons that I'm used to seeing at the crack of dawn, Elliot popped right up in bed and proudly presented me with a piece of paper.  When I asked him what it was, he told me just to read it.  So I walked out into the living room, where there was more light, and there I read Elliot's hand-written verse representing his own adaptation of Simeon's Song and the Angels' Song from Luke chapter 2.  It was largely based on pure Bible text, copied from his "Kids Adventure Bible" -- but it also demonstrated a clear and undeniable sense of Elliot which made it, well, awesome.

Turns out Elliot had listened to the "musical sermon" and indeed gotten those songs and stories so stuck in his head that when he went to bed that night, he had looked up the Biblical texts for himself and spent time mulling over them until he came up with a song that he wrote down to share with me in the morning.  And in that moment, I knew that the unconventional teaching approach had at least had one significant effect...

And frankly, one is enough for me.