Dramatic Reading: Missing the Boat (Matthew 14:22-33)

(Please feel free to use this reading.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer, 2011.)

Good morning.  My name’s Carl, and I hear you folks have been asking about the Messiah.  Well, I’m in a position to tell you ALL about the Messiah.

Now, just looking at me, you might not think I was the Messiah-following type.  I’m just a fisherman from Galilee.  But he called me, and I listened.  Yep, the guy himself.  Frank.  The Great Frank Christ.

There were a lot of guys around calling themselves the Messiah… there was Barabbas, and this guy Jesus Christ… but Frank was the real deal.  Sometimes we’d go and listen to the other guys’ speeches or talk to their disciples, and I always knew that the Great Frank was on the right track.

See, unlike Jesus, who I did see a couple of times here and there, the Great Frank never spoke to big crowds.  If you speak to a crowd, you never know WHO might hear what you believe!  Nope, Frank and us followers kept our beliefs to ourselves.  That way, we could quietly figure out who our enemies were, and talk about them behind their backs.  While Jesus was telling entire towns full of people that they would be sorry if they didn’t change their ways, we just kept silent.  Boy, his disciples must have been so embarrassed about that!  Way to rock the boat, Jesus!  Try to keep a lower profile next time.  Clearly and openly stating your beliefs only causes trouble.  Better to do everything behind the scenes, if you ask me.

Just recently we heard about John the Baptizer being killed by Herod.  Word was Herod was looking for anyone else who might be stirring up trouble.  The Great Frank and us followers, we went into hiding.  But that Jesus, what did he do?  He held a picnic!  Some folks say there was 5000 people there.  I wasn’t there myself, you see.  I’m too smart to show up to something like that, and maybe have my face seen by someone in authority.  I’m sure it wasn’t that great a time anyway.  I mean, how much food are you really going to get if you have to split it 5000 ways? 

Then Jesus did his first smart thing – he decided to split from his disciples and send them across the lake, out of Herod’s jurisdiction.  His little movement was doomed to failure from the start, anyway.  Even if 5000 people showed up for his picnic, he was destined to just be a flash in the pan.  Unlike the Great Frank.  If you ask me, Jesus did the right thing.  Send your followers away, maybe change your name, cut off your beard, and start over.

Only thing was, a wind came up that night.  Oo-ee, I’m a fisherman and even I wouldn’t have ventured out on the lake that night.  I’ve been out in a wind like that one.  You point the nose of your boat into the wind, and then you go up one side of a wave with your nose pointing almost straight up, then you crest and do down the other side with your nose pointing almost straight down.  Half your energy is spent just keeping the boat pointing the right direction. Another half of your energy is spent bailing water out of the bottom of the boat – which doesn’t leave much in reserve for rowing forward.

Nope, I wouldn’t have wanted to be one of Jesus’ disciples that night.  Nothing good could come from being in that boat.  I was glad to be safe in my local tavern, where everybody knows me, and nobody knows my beliefs.  But they must have made it to the other side, because some time later they showed up again.  And guess who was with them!  Yep, Jesus.  Just couldn’t learn his lesson, I guess.  They told me they’d been on a great tour – they went to towns like Gennesaret, Tyre and Sidon, Caesarea Philippi, and Magdala… and everywhere they went Jesus just kept on rocking the boat!

Boy, following a Messiah like that must be a lot like rowing in that wind… You’re not sure where you’re going to end up.  Half the time you’re just trying to figure out what it is he wants from you, and the other half the time you’re rushing to keep up as he tells you to tend to sick people and feed the hungry.  Meanwhile, as you’re doing all the hard work, I bet he just sits there safe in the bottom of the boat and prays.  I bet he doesn’t do a single thing to make it easier for you.  He’d just leave you to fend for yourself and find your own way forward.  I bet if you fell overboard, he wouldn’t even reach his hand out to pick you up.  It must feel so lonely and scary to be HIS disciple.

Nope, that’s why I prefer Frank.  The Great Frank never asks me to take any risks.  He never puts me in danger or does anything embarrassing.  Nobody ever has to know that I follow the Messiah, which means I can go on with my life as usual.  When I think of Jesus’ disciples, well, I’m sure glad we’re not in the same boat.

Liturgy: Communion Prayer based on the Song of Faith (United Church of Canada, 2007)

(Please feel free to use this liturgy.  Credits:  Song of Faith (2007), adapted by Rev. Murray Speer.)

(Portions of the liturgy in square brackets are to be filled in from other resources.)

Introduction
In the sacrament of communion the ordinary things of life
—water, bread, wine—
point beyond themselves to God and God’s love,
teaching us to be alert
to the sacred in the midst of life.

[Sursum Corda]

Preface
Let us pray,
Blessed are you, gracious God,
Creative and self-giving,
generously moving
in all the near and distant corners of the universe.
Nothing exists that does not find its source in you.
From the beginning your Spirit has swept
over the face of creation,
animating all energy and matter
and moving in the human heart.

Creator, Christ, and Spirit,
we praise you for your love expressed to us through Jesus,
a Jew,
born to a woman in poverty
in a time of social upheaval
and political oppression.
He knew human joy and sorrow.
So filled with the Holy Spirit was he
that in him people experienced the presence of God among them.
Jesus announced the coming of God’s reign—
a commonwealth not of domination
but of peace, justice, and reconciliation.
He tended to the sick and fed the hungry.
He forgave sins and freed those held captive
by all manner of demonic powers.
He crossed barriers of race, class, culture, and gender.
He preached and practised unconditional love—
love of God, love of neighbour,
love of friend, love of enemy—
and he commanded his followers to love one another
as he had loved them.

[Sanctus-Benedictus]
[Words of Institution]
[Anamnesis-Oblation]
[Memorial Acclamation]
[Epiclesis]

Intercessions
We pray that we will know your purpose for us,
that faith will be nurtured,
suffering hearts will be comforted,
gifts will be shared for the good of all,
forces that exploit and marginalize will come to an end,
fierce love will be known even in the face of violence,
human dignity will be defended,
and that we will remember the price that Jesus paid
for who he was,
for what he did and said,
and for the brokenness of the world.
Make us, who through this wine and bread
are renewed in faith and hope,
witnesses to your divine mission,
feeding as we have been fed,
forgiving as we have been forgiven,
and loving as we have been loved.

Doxology
Divine creation does not cease
until all things have found wholeness, union, and integration
with the common ground of all being.
As children of the Timeless One,
our time-bound lives will find completion
in the all-embracing Creator.
In the meantime, we embrace the present,
embodying hope, loving our enemies,
caring for the earth,
choosing life.

[Prayer of Jesus]
[Amen]

Prayer after Communion
Eternal and gracious God, we place our hope in you.
     We look to a life beyond life
     and a future good beyond imagining:
a new heaven and a new earth,
     the end of sorrow, pain, and tears,
Christ’s return and life with you,
     the making new of all things.
We yearn for the coming of that future,
     even while participating in your eternal life now.
     Amen.

Dramatic Reading: Good Friday for Four Voices (Peter, Judas, the Other Mary, Magdalene)

(Please feel free to use this reading.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

Part One: Peter’s Tale (Matthew 26:31-56)

I told him I would never leave him.  But, I have to tell you, all this strange talk about how he would have to suffer and die - and how we would leave him to suffer alone - and that I would disown him?  Me!  Peter, the rock!  All this strange talk was getting to be too much.

When we set out on the road for Jerusalem, we knew that big things would happen.  Everywhere we went, people were listening to Jesus.  REALLY listening.  In every town, the local Pharisees debated with Jesus.  They didn’t like that he preached resistance against the government, but they had to admit that he followed the Scriptures.  And the people loved him, so the authorities had to take him seriously.

It would be the same in Jerusalem, we were sure.  The people would love him, and the High Priest would have to admit that his teachings were valid.  Everyone would have to take him seriously.  And things would change.

We knew it was dangerous.  We knew what happened to the Baptizer.  Herod had him executed.  We had steeled ourselves to face danger.  Jesus didn’t want us to fight, but we wouldn’t listen to him.  We were ready to fight and die for him.  It was absurd to suggest that we would desert him.  But surely nothing would happen until after the Passover festival!  He would continue to teach, more and more people would listen to him, the priests would take him seriously, and the government would have to start treating us differently.

So, imagine our surprise when they came to arrest him on the night before Passover.  How dare they disrespect the holiday?  I drew my sword, determined that no one would stop me.  But, somehow, he did stop me.  And then he did something I never imagined.

He went with them, willingly.  Didn’t he have confidence in us?  Didn’t he think we could win a fight?  Does he want us to just give up, now that we’re so close to our goal?

Part Two: Judas’ Tale (Matthew 26:57-27:5)

Where could I find forgiveness?  I never dreamed they would send armed guards to arrest him.  I never imagined they would haul him away in chains like a criminal.  We thought his strange talk about having to suffer and die was just pessimism.  We thought he was just selling himself short.

We’d been in Jerusalem for days and still he hadn’t met with the high priests.  They refused to come out to discuss with him, and he seemed reluctant to go to them.  But what if I could be the one who brought them together, where they could listen to his preaching!  If I could arrange that meeting, I would be guaranteed greatness in the kingdom to come!

When I told the priests where to find him, I thought they would go alone.  I thought they wanted to talk privately with him, without the audience that would gather if they went in public.  But when the time came, they made a public affair of it!  They brought soldiers, and invited a crowd to follow!  There was nothing I could do but beg them to take him peacefully.  I saw the way his other followers looked at me.  As though I had betrayed them all.  It was almost unbearable.

I followed them into the city.  Then I realized that they weren’t going to let him explain himself.  He would be convicted and thrown into prison, because he held demonstrations against them and the government.

When they brought him out, I thought that maybe I had been wrong.  Maybe they had heard him, and everything would turn out okay!  But he was still in chains.  I followed as far as I could, until I realized where they were going.  They were taking him to Pilate.  I couldn’t believe it!  The high priests were turning him over to the Romans!  That a Jew would hand another Jew over to a heathen authority!  My heart turned to water.   There’s only one reason that they would hand him over to Pilate.  They want him killed, and they don’t have the authority.  They’ll frame him.  He’ll be crucified as a terrorist.

I did this.  Where could I find forgiveness?

If he dies, I’ll die too.  There is no life after he dies.  If I can’t live in his kingdom, I’ll take my own life.  So be it.

Part Three: The Other Mary’s Tale (Matthew 27:11-32)

Magdalene and I were the only ones to stay with him through his horrible ordeal.  The men all ran, including my sons James and Joseph.  We saw Peter and Judas in Jerusalem, but by the time the soldiers brought Jesus out of the presidium, beaten and bleeding, they had disappeared just like the others.

I don’t blame them, really.  Nobody outside our group had ever noticed us at all, through all the healings and the debates and the demonstrations.  The men would squabble over who was his greatest disciple, while we got to work bandaging the sick and giving alms to the poor.  This meant that they were so much more visible - so much more recognizable as his disciples.

You never know with the Roman authorities.  When they go after a group like ours, sometimes they take only the leader, and other times they round everybody up to be crucified.  It was probably smart for them to disappear.  But that didn’t make it any easier for me and Magdalene, to watch what happened.

It was horrible when the people called for Bar-Abbas to be released.  Again, I don’t blame them, really.  Let me tell you about Bar-Abbas.  He’s a famous bandit.  He and his men live in the hills and raid caravans.  They’re angry over the suffering of the poor, so they steal from the rich.  But, if you ask me, they’re really doing it for themselves.  How much of the wealth they steal do they give to the poor villages they left behind?  Almost nothing.

But Bar-Abbas says he fights for the poor, so the poor people love him.  And the people he raids are either Romans, or Jews who work with the Romans.  So the people who hate Rome love Bar-Abbas.  They think that a man in the hills with a sword can change things.  I don’t blame them.

How quickly they forgot Jesus - the man who tried to change things by tending to their broken bodies and broken spirits.  They forgot the man who tried to show them that God loves each and every one of them.  They forgot the one who tried to change the world by touching their hearts and opening their eyes.

I don’t blame them, really.  But it was a horrible thing to see.

Part Four: Magdalene’s Tale (Matthew 27:33-66)

What do we do now?  When the Baptizer died, Jesus was there to pick up the pieces and show us a way greater than we imagined.  But who will pick up the pieces now?

I remember when we first came to Jerusalem - the energy and the excitement.  We thought we could change things.  Show people that there is another way to resist the Romans other than violence.  Jesus was building a community of people who cared for each other.  Before him, all you saw was people neglecting others and focusing only on themselves.  That’s what the Empire is doing to us.  Pilate and Herod prefer to rule over selfish people.

We tried.  We tried to show people that by caring for each other, you can have the kingdom of God.

But we didn’t change anything.  We failed, and Jesus is gone.  I watched him, there on the cross.  I didn’t take my eyes off of him.  He called out, “Why have you forsaken me?”  If only he could have seen me, and known that I was there.  If only he could have known that not everyone had forsaken him.

I don’t know what we’ll do next.  I think we’ll find each other and talk about what happened.  It’s still Passover, and Jesus would want us to be together.  Then, when things have quieted down a bit and the Sabbath is over, we’ll go and see where they laid him.

We’ll do our best to pick up the pieces.  But things will never be the same.

Liturgy: Communion Prayer for Creation Time in the Season of Pentecost

(Please feel free to use this liturgy.)

(Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer, adapted from "Prayer D" and other resources in Celebrating God's Presence, and "A New Creed")

In the sacrament of communion the ordinary things of life
—water, bread, wine—
point beyond themselves to God and God’s love,
      teaching us to be alert
      to the sacred in the midst of life.

This is not the table of (local) Church, or (denomination), or the worldwide church.  It is Christ’s table, and all are welcome at the table of the Lord.  If you do not wish to partake, please stay and watch so that you can tell others what we do here.

Come, not because you are strong but because you are weak.  Not because you are blessed but because you are hungry.  Come because you know God a little and want to know God more.  God is present in the act of communion.

We are not alone.
      We live in God’s world.
Open up your hearts.
      We open our hearts in prayer.
Let us give thanks to God.
      It is good to give our thanks and praise.

Let us pray.
Loving God, Source of all,
we praise you with our lips and with our lives,
that, having created all things through your Word,
you enter into intimate closeness with us.
For the goodness of creation,
and the glory of your redeeming love,
we praise you.
For your holiness which calls us to follow you,
and your justice which calls us to repent,
we praise you.
That you have created and are creating,
that you have come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new,
that you work in us and others by the Spirit,
we praise you.
We trust in you.
Therefore, with all the faithful of every time and place,
we join the song of all creation
to proclaim your goodness:
                               
      Holy, holy, holy God,
      power of life and love!
      All of creation glows
      with your glorious light!    
      Hosanna through the ages!      
      Blessed is the one       
      who comes in the name of God.           
      Hosanna through the ages!    

On the night before he died,
Jesus took bread, gave you thanks,
broke it, and said: “Take, eat.
This is my body, given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way he took the cup, saying:
“This is the cup of a new covenant,
poured out for the sake of many.
Whenever you drink it,
do this in remembrance of me.”

Loving God, Creative Parent,
blessing your name, we seek your Spirit.
Come to us and bless these gifts of bread and wine,
fruit of the earth and of our labour,
that they may be for us the sacrament of Christ,
sign and seal of our participation in his ongoing life
and our adoption as children of One Parent.
You call us to be the church,
to celebrate your presence,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil.
As we eat and drink together,
make us one with Christ and with each other,
a sign of your eternal reign in all creation.

      We proclaim Jesus,
      Crucified and risen,
      Our judge and our hope.

This offering of praise and thanksgiving
we make to you, loving God
through Christ your Word made flesh,
and in the creative power of your life-giving Spirit,
now and forever.

      We are not alone
      Thanks be to God.

Now as Jesus taught, let us pray together, saying:

    Our Father who art in heaven,
    hallowed be thy name.
    Thy kingdom come.
    Thy will be done
    on earth as it is in heaven.
    Give us this day our daily bread,
    and forgive us our trespasses,
    as we forgive those who trespass against us,
    and lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.
    For thine is the kingdom,
    and the power, and the glory,
    for ever and ever.
    Amen.

Come, for all are welcome at the table of our God.
Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life.
      Amen.
Jesus Christ, the Cup of Blessing.
      Amen.

Gracious God, may your gifts of love move us
      to live lives of thankfulness.
May your presence among us move us
      to seek you in other times and places.
May your justice, your peace, and your love move us
      to live with respect in creation.
      Amen.