A Short Play based on 1 Peter
May 29, 2008
FIRST PETER
Based on 1 Peter 2:4-10
By j. Snodgrass
12 April, 2008
The Characters
PETER
MAN (Can be played by a Man or Woman)
ISAIAH
PETER : (Standing on a soap-box, preaching to passers-by) Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Love God, and honor the Emperor! Slaves obey your masters, especially when they’re cruel! Remember, the more abuse you take on Earth, the greater your reward in Heaven!
MAN : (Walking by, very tired, hears PETER) …What is this, a comedy routine?
PETER : (Ignores him) Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, and grow up in your salvation. You are coming to Christ, the living cornerstone of God’s temple. Rejected by people, but chosen by God for great honor. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.
MAN : But I just spent the whole day breaking my back, hauling stones for a new Coliseum!
PETER : What’s more, you are his holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices that please God. As the Scriptures say, “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” (Isaiah 28:16)
MAN : Where do the scriptures say that?
PETER : Isaiah, chapter twenty-eight.
MAN : Yeah, but you’ve gone and taken it completely out of context! Isaiah twenty-eight isn’t about making sacrifices! It’s about lying priests getting drunk! And the Lord destroys their city!
PETER : Well maybe the cup’s half empty for you, but—
MAN : I’ll tell you what the cup is filled with! In Isaiah 28:8 “All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth.”
PETER : That’s disgusting. Besides, you’ve got to read between the lines. Isaiah was confused, obviously, but one thing he was sure of was the coming of Jesus the Christ – that’s what he meant by the cornerstone!
MAN : What? You have no idea what you’re talking about!
PETER : I’m entitled to my interpretation.
MAN : But I actually happen to have Isaiah, right here.
Folks should watch this! It does a great job of looking at the systemic problems that arise from materialism and consumerism, and it reminds me why I have so much respect for Quakers, Amish, and Monastics. As Christians, we really need to consider the lilies of the field more often.
Thanks to Allen for sending this to me.
Christianity Lite!
May 22, 2008
This is cute…
Transmission this week! and lots of news!
May 18, 2008
It’s that time again! We welcome back Bowie who is freshly arrived from her recent wedding/vacation/pilgrimage to India. She’ll be celebrating her return to Transmission by leading us in our ritual, and she had this to say about it:
the ritual will be planned around St. Thomas, who brought Christianity to India in 52 AD. George and I visited the place where he landed and the Pontifical Shrine and hospital that have been built there. We will also talk about the two main stories about Thomas in the Gospel of John - 14:5-6 and 20:24-29 (the story that got him dubbed “Doubting Thomas”). I like the idea of “doubting, yet doing” and of “not knowing the way”…
Transmission will be Wednesday, 7pm, at Bowie’s place. If you get lost, feel free to call me. I’ll be cooking.
We’ll also have four pieces of business to discuss:
- Our beloved Katherine has moved to Chicago to be with her family, which means that we need someone else to step up and replace her as co-facilitator. I think it’s really important to have two people putting Transmission in the front of their brainspace, not only because it’s a lot of work but also because a community shouldn’t become centralized around one person.
- Starlight Ministries, another church-ish group that has a peculiar calling to sex worker ministry, wants to sponsor a program with us this summer called Exotic Dancer, MBA, which basically gives basic business and personal finance education to people in the sex industry. It’s very important work, and I think it’s exactly the sort of thing we should be involved with. You can read about it here: http://starlight-ministries.org/wp_blog_1/
- Mabel and Paul want to organize a trip to the Creation museum in Kentucky in August, which I think could be a great time. Note that this is *not* an endorsement of creationism…
- We’re meeting this Tuesday, 2pm with Intercession to discuss the possibility of inhabiting their currently vacant rectory, which would be a big move for Transmission. Anyway who wants to come and meet them, see the space, and be a part of our initial conversation should totally come, just let me know.
Congrats to Bishop Bob Rimbo
May 18, 2008
The New York Synod of the Lutheran Church elected a new Bishop this weekend, and I was lucky enough to get to be part of the voting process. There were a bunch of great candidates, and in the end the winner only won by four votes: 236 to 232. I can only imagine that it must be tremendously humbling way to begin a term as Bishop.
I have high hopes for this guy. He mentioned the emerging church in some of his introductory remarks and seems hip to a lot of emerging concepts. He also seems open to new models of ministry and expressions of church, so I’m hoping we might be able to count on some support from the Lutherans as we continue to evolve as a community.
Like many mainline denominations, the Lutherans are facing a severe drop in attendance and many of the churches in NYC are failing. Many of the candidates for bishop talked about closing churches and consolidating congregations, which means that the Synod might have some extra real estate on its hands, and there are LOTS of ways I could imagine Transmission putting those to use…