Easter Puppet Show

Gospel Puppet Show

April 8, 2012

Easter Sunday

Scene: The Tomb

Characters:

Soldier guarding the tomb: Ed

Jesus: Eric

Young man (angel): Alex

Mary Magdalene: Michelle

Salome: Rylie

Peter: Ed

Miss Debbie (in front of the puppet theatre)

There is a tomb with a round stone on it hanging from the curtain at the back of the theatre

Miss Debbie:  Boys and girls let us visit the tomb of Jesus.  His friend Nicodemus gave this tomb so that Jesus could be buried there.  It was so sad for the friends of Jesus when he died.  They loved him.  He was a special friend and teacher.  Look there’s someone at the tomb now.

Soldier: (pacing back and forth) Stop young lady.  You cannot go near the tomb.  The chief priests told me to guard the tomb.

Miss Debbie: Well, why are you guarding the tomb?

Soldier: Well, I’m just doing my job.  Those chief priests were jealous of this man Jesus and they think that someone might come and steal his body.  That’s strange thinking, but I’m just doing my job.  Just run along.  You can’t be hanging around here.

(Miss Debbie moves to the side)

(Multiple Flashing camera lights in the puppet theatre)

Soldier: Oh my!  I’m blinded!  I can’t see what has happened.  I think that I’m going to faint. Oooooooooooooh!

(Soldier falls off scene)

The stone has been taken off the tomb a grave cloth hangs on the opening of the tomb

Miss Debbie: Children did you see some flashing lights?  I wonder what is happening at the tomb.  Maybe I should go back and check it out.  Do you think the soldier is still there?  Maybe I can sneak back and take a peek.  Will you take a peek with me?

(Mary Magdalene and Salome are now coming to the tomb before they look at the tomb Mary Magdalene says)

Mary Magdalene:  Salome, we’ve got to get to the tomb of Jesus.  We collected so many more spices from our friends to help prepare his body.  He had to be buried so quickly, but now we have more spices.  But I’m worried Salome.

Salome: Mary, why are you worried?

Mary Magdalene:  There is a big stone that is on the entrance of the tomb.  It is too heavy for you and I to roll open.  Maybe there will be some one there to help us open the tomb.

Salome:  Mary, you don’t have to worry.  The stone is already rolled away.

Mary Magdalene:  Oh, no!  Something has happened?  Where’s the body of Jesus?  All I can see is his empty grave cloth.  Who stole his body?   This is terrible.  Why would someone steal the body of Jesus?

(Young Man sticks his head out of the tomb)

Mary Magdalene(seeing the young): Oh, you frightened me!  Did you do this?  Did you take the body of my friend Jesus?  Where did you take him?  Why did you do this?

Young Man: Calm down and don’t be afraid!  Your friend Jesus is not here.  He has been raised from the dead.  You can see his empty grave clothes.  Now I want you to go and tell the disciples and tell Peter that Jesus has risen from the dead.

Mary Magdalene:  Wow!  What does this mean?  When will I see Jesus again?  Let us go quickly and tell Peter.

(Peter shows himself in the left panel)

Peter: Mary Magdalene and Salome…slow down, why are you running?  What has happened?

Mary Magdalene:  We went to the tomb to put more spices on the grave clothes…but the tomb was already open and the grave clothes were empty.  And a young man or angel told us that Jesus had risen from the dead.  He told us to come and tell you.

Peter: Wow!  You know what this means don’t you?

Salome:  What does it mean?

Peter: It means that everything that Jesus told us is true.  He said that he would come back to life after three days.  This is so wonderful.  God did the most special thing ever on this day.  I can’t wait until we see Jesus.

(They disappeared in the left panel and reappear in the middle panel and Jesus pokes out from behind the curtain)

Jesus: Greetings my friends!  Peace be with you!

Peter:  Thank you Jesus for coming back to us.

Mary Magdalene:  We were so worried.

Jesus: Remember this day.  All you will be witnesses to tell everyone what happened.

Salome:  Now I know why Alleluia returns on Easter Day.

Miss Debbie: Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!  Can you say that?

Everyone: Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

Miss Debbie: The Lord is Risen indeed.  Alleluia!  And now all of us are witnesses too of the resurrection of Christ.  Because Christ lives in us too.

Easter and Utopia

Lectionary Link

Easter Sunday        April 24, 2011

Acts 10:34-43      Ps. 118:14-17,22-24

Col. 3:1-4             Matthew 28:1-10

   The longer that I have lived, the more I believe that no matter what our religious or philosophical beliefs are, we live by the imaginations of the utopian.  We live through the imaginations of what seems to be mostly impossible.  We live for future events that would falsify some of the current events of human life.

  I would classify most of the Biblical literature as utopian.  It is written by people who aspired always for more; always for the not yet.  And these aspirations are consistent with a belief that the world is not yet complete; there is more creative evolution that needs yet to occur in the universe, on our globe, in our nations and communities and in our personal lives.  And even as my life seems to be devolving through the aging process,(surely you don’t need time lapsed photography to have noticed)  I still hang on to an even more hopeful future.  And perhaps the cynics think that I should be pitied for my wishful thinking.  I think that we should pity the cynics because the cynics often pin their hope and future on a dsytopia, a world of disorder and demise.  Just because there are cynics, it does not mean that they don’t have a future.  It’s just that they might imagine a different future.  In a real sense life is all about choosing the imaginations of our future to motivate our current lives.

  Easter is a day that we celebrate because we believe that Hope found a narrative in the events in the life of Jesus Christ.  Are we to be pitied for embracing this long-standing tradition of Hope?  Are we to be pitied for embracing the accounts of those backward people who lived long ago without the benefit of our modern science that seems to be based upon not believing anything that cannot be replicated by subsequent experiment? 

  As much as I believe in utopian imaginations that inspire us in the parallel existence in the inner realm of hope and faith; I believe that utopian imaginations are inspired from actual life experience.

  The Isaian prophet had a vision of wolf and lamb co-existing in peace and over-coming of the predator-prey antagonism.  And yet there is known in actual experience the uncanny events where actual harmony occurs in situations deemed impossible.  We are amazed and humored by occasions when natural enemies express harmonious interaction.  Siegfried and Roy of Las Vegas seem to co-exist with white tigers; St. Francis, apparently was so friendly with birds that birds would fly and rest on his shoulders.  We are amazed at people who seem to have a way with animals, dog whisperers or horse whisperers.  What is the science regarding this uncanny interspecies communication?

  The uncanny happens within the human community; how do we explain child prodigies or the savant syndrome?  How is it that Mozart composed at such an early age?  There is enough of the uncanny happening within the human community and within human experience for us to imagine one such as Jesus Christ.

  Just as every person is like a one of a kind snowflake, Jesus was a one of a kind person.  But his snowflake uniqueness stands as an avalanche compared to our uniqueness.  Jesus was bound to be remembered.  Jesus was bound to make an impression.  Jesus was bound to be known because of his uncanny uniqueness.  We can either disbelieve about Jesus regarding his uniqueness or we can embrace that uniqueness and find meaning in what the Uniqueness of Jesus can do for us.

  What the church confesses about the Uniqueness of Jesus Christ is the Incarnation of God in human experience.  What that means for us is that Jesus Christ had a way with human life.  Jesus Christ was a “people whisperer” and because of the profound level of his divinity, he has been able to communicate with the seeming lost aspect of our human divinity that we have because of our being made in the image of God.  Jesus was the ultimate people whisperer…he was a child prodigy in learning; he was a healer; he was a wonder worker; he was an avid communicator; he was a story teller; he was a provoker; he was one who attracted close and devoted friends;  he had a way with nature;  he had a way to reconcile the outcast and the “sinners” by his inclusive welcome.  The full extent of the incarnation of Jesus was seen on Good Friday, as Jesus embraced the human experience of death, the gate to the place of no return.  And why are we here today?  Because Jesus Christ also had a way with the afterlife.  Humanity has always wondered about the afterlife.  Many cultures have devised many imaginations about the afterlife.  And what did the resurrection of Jesus do for the utopian imaginations of the afterlife?  The resurrection appearances of Jesus resulted in the writing of the accounts of actual interactions between a man who was formerly dead and who lived again in a marvelous way.

  So the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives utopian visions of the afterlife an actual instance that life after death can and does happen.  And so we are here today to proclaim that our utopian and impossible vision of hope does actually have a story and narrative that gives us a solid basis for our hope.

  Now we will not resurrect like Jesus did.  We will not be able to convince people after our deaths of our continued physical existence with them for fifty days after our departure, because our lives are not unique in the same way that the life of Jesus was unique.

  Let us embrace the Easter story as our belief that God has embraced our lives completely from cradle to the grave, and Beyond. Let us look to God as the only one who can ultimately preserve our lives in the most significant way.

  Today, we need not argue about precise understandings about the nature of the resurrection of Christ; today we simply confess the fact that it happened.

  Today for us the resurrection of Jesus Christ is part of our baptismal metaphor: When we go under the waters of baptism, we are buried with Christ in his death.  When we come out of the waters of baptism, we are raised with Christ in his resurrection.  And that resurrection for us now means that we in this life now partake of the eternal life of the Spirit of Christ.  The Spirit of Christ now makes us feel our resurrection eternal life, even as the rest of our mortal lives experience decline.

  Today, what are we going to believe more? That our mortal lives that are slipping away, or that our inward Spirit, resurrection, and abundant  life cannot be killed?  I tell you today that eternal life is within us and it is evidence of a utopian future; but this future is grounded in an actual event.  And this event inspired the cry of this day:  Alleluia! Christ is Risen.  The Lord is Risen, Indeed.  Alleluia!  Amen.