Props: two podiums, a large piece of black fabric; a large, sturdy easel; a large canvas with a rainbow penciled so lightly on it that it isn’t visible to the audience; violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red paint; seven paint brushes; a large dropcloth; a small table; a chair; a cot; two violet shawls; indigo fabric the size of a small tablecloth; a small blue vase; two green baskets with handles; enough bookmarks for each person present [bookmarks are made of spring-green paper with “God is making everything new!” printed on them]; a large, yellow star cut out of cardboard; a yellow baby blanket or yellow fabric; a pair of bright-orange knee-high socks; an orange mat or blanket; a cloth shoulder bag; two red shawls.
Five Participants: two readers, two actors (Person 1 is female; Person 2 is male), one painter (Person 3)
Before the drama begins, the congregation is instructed that whenever “God is making everything new!” is spoken and the speaker signals with his/her hand, the audience will repeat the words. You may want to practice this once or twice before beginning.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Scene 1
Creation and the Fall into Sin
[As the drama begins, Person 1 and Person 2, each wearing a violet shawl around their shoulders, are standing at center stage. A large piece of black fabric is spread on the floor of the stage behind them, and they are standing by the corners of the fabric closest to stage front. The canvas lies beneath the fabric. Person 3, who will remain onstage for the entire drama, is standing on the dropcloth by the easel with paints and brushes, stage right. A cot, a small table, and a chair are standing at stage right, far back. Reader 1 stands by a podium at stage far-right. Reader 2 stands by a podium at stage far-left.]
Person 1: God is making everything new! [Raises hand.]
All: God is making everything new!
Person 2: God is making everything new! [Raises hand.]
All: God is making everything new!
Reader 1: When God created the world in the beginning, everything was new! New! New! Yes, it was!
Reader 2: But, oh, Adam and Eve’s sin made new things old! Old! Old! Yes, it did!
Reader 1: Old and broken! Fractured and shattered! Disjointed and degraded!
Reader 2: Disbelief ran rampant! People didn’t want to be bothered with God anymore.
Reader 1: They put up a wall—a sin wall—that separated them from God.
[Person 1 and Person 2 each pick up the corner of black fabric closest to him/her and hold the fabric at shoulder height, creating a wall.]
Scene 2
Noah (Genesis 6:5–22)
Reader 2: “GOD saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. GOD was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart. GOD said, ‘I’ll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds—the works. I’m sorry I made them’” (Genesis 6:5–7).
Reader 1: “But Noah was different. GOD liked what he saw in Noah. This is the story of Noah: Noah was a good man, a man of integrity in his community. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:8–9).
Reader 2: “As far as God was concerned, the Earth had become a sewer; there was violence everywhere. God took one look and saw how bad it was, everyone corrupt and corrupting—life itself corrupt to the core” (Genesis 6:11–12).
Reader 1: “God said to Noah, ‘It’s all over. It’s the end of the human race. The violence is everywhere; I’m making a clean sweep. Build yourself a ship from teakwood. Make rooms in it. Coat it with pitch inside and out. . . . I’m going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction’” (Genesis 6:13, 14, 17).
[As the next section is read, Person 1 and Person 2, each still holding a corner of the fabric, allow the center part of the fabric to go slack, creating the shape of a boat. They step onto the fabric so that now they are in the “boat.”]
Reader 2: “‘But I’m going to establish a covenant with you: You’ll board the ship, and your sons, your wife and your sons’ wives will come on board with you. You are also to take two of each living creature, a male and a female, on board the ship, to preserve their lives with you: two of every species of bird, mammal, and reptile—two of everything so as to preserve their lives along with yours. Also get all the food you’ll need and store it up for you and them.’ Noah did everything God commanded him to do” (Genesis 6:18–22).
Reader 1: God protected Noah and his family and the animals on the ark. Eventually the rain stopped and the earth dried up, and God told Noah to come out of the ark with his family and all the animals.
[As the next section is read, Person 1 and Person 2 step off the fabric to either side and pull it to the back of the stage, then pick up the canvas and carry it to Person 3 by the easel, who takes it from them, sets it on the easel, and begins to create a rainbow by painting a violet arc as Person 1 and Person 2 look on.]
Reader 2: God made a covenant with Noah and said, “‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I’m putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth’” (Genesis 9:12–16).
[Person 1 and Person 2 take the violet shawls from around their shoulders.]
Person 1: God is making everything new! [Raises hand holding violet shawl.]
All: God is making everything new!
Person 2: God is making everything new! [Raises hand holding violet shawl.]
All: God is making everything new!
Solo: “When Trials Come” Getty, v. 5
[As the solo is sung, Person 1 and Person 2 exit the stage jubilantly, holding high the violet shawls. The black fabric remains on the floor at the back of the stage.]
Scene 3
The Shunammite Woman and Elisha (2 Kings 4:8–37)
[Shunammite Woman (Person 1), Elisha (Person 2). Throughout this scene, Person 3 paints the indigo arc of the rainbow.]
Reader 2: Elisha was a prophet who lived long ago. He was sent by God to proclaim God’s power and holiness and to show in small and big ways that God is making everything new.
[Person 1 comes on stage carrying a piece of indigo fabric. She goes to the cot, table, and chair at the back of the stage, then brings the items to center stage and arranges them into a room setting. Person 1 drapes the indigo fabric over the table with a dramatic flourish, drawing the audience’s attention to it, then exits the stage to the front pew.]
Reader 1: Often on his journeys, Elisha stopped in Shunem. There, a well-to-do woman and her husband offered him hospitality by sharing meals with him and providing a rooftop room with a bed, table, chair, and lamp where he could stay whenever he passed through.
[As the next section is read, Person 2 walks down the center aisle to the stage and sits down on the chair.]
Reader 2: At one time, Elisha, through his servant Gehazi, had asked the woman if there was anything he could do for her, possibly by speaking to the king or the commander of the army on her behalf. But the woman assured Elisha that there was nothing that she needed.
Reader 1: But Gehazi was aware of a need in the woman’s life. She had no son, and her husband was old. So, when Elisha wondered again what could be done for the woman, Gehazi told the prophet Elisha that the woman was childless.
Reader 2: Elisha told Gehazi to call the woman.
[Person 1 walks on stage and faces Person 2, who is still sitting on the chair.]
Reader 1: When the woman stood before Elisha, he said, “About this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.”
[Person 1 looks shocked and ecstatic. As the next section is read, Person 2 stands up, pulls the indigo fabric off the table, quickly forms it into a bundle, and places it in the outstretched arms of Person 1.]
Reader 2: And it happened as the prophet said it would. The next year about that time the woman gave birth to a son.
Musical Interlude: “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” Van Dyke, LUYH 581, GtG 611, PH 464 [play through once]
[During the musical interlude, Person 2 exits the stage down the center aisle while Person 1 holds the indigo fabric in the form of a swaddled baby. As the next line is read, Person 1 allows the indigo fabric to unfurl as she twirls around, as if she is playing with a toddler and swinging the child in her arms.]
Reader 1: For a time, the boy grew and flourished.
[As the next section is read, Person 1 looks horrified. Person 1 lays the indigo fabric on the bed and exits the stage, running down the center aisle.]
Reader 2: But a few years later, he became sick and died.
Reader 1: The woman laid him on the prophet Elisha’s bed and shut the door. She saddled her donkey and traveled with her servant to Mount Carmel, where she found Gehazi and Elisha. She fell at the prophet’s feet and wept bitterly.
[As the next section is read, Person 1 and Person 2 run back to the stage. Person 2 kneels by the bed in prayer, while Person 1 stands to the side.]
Reader 2: Gehazi, Elisha, and the woman rushed back to Shunem. Elisha went up to his room. There the dead boy lay on Elisha’s bed. Elisha closed the door and prayed to the Lord, the God of Israel, who makes all things new. Then Elisha stretched out on the boy. Two times he stretched out over the child.
[As the next section is read, Person 2 picks up the indigo cloth (resurrected boy) from the bed, and hands it to Person 1, who holds it against her as if carrying a child.]
Reader 1: And God—who promises that he is making all things new—resurrected the boy, and Elisha gave him back to his mother.
Person 1: God is making everything new! [Holds the indigo fabric against her with one hand and raising the other hand.]
All: God is making everything new!
Person 2: God is making everything new! [Raises hand.]
All: God is making everything new!
[As the solo is sung, Person 1 and Person 2 exit the stage.]
Solo: “When Trials Come” Getty, v. 5
Scene 4
Mary and Gabriel (Luke 1:26–38)
[Mary (Person 1), Gabriel (Person 2). Throughout this scene, Person 3 paints the blue arc of the rainbow. Person 1 comes down the center aisle to the stage and moves the cot, chair, and table to the back wall as if tidying up a house. As the next section is read, Person 2 walks down the right aisle carrying a small, blue vase, approaches Person 1, and extends a hand in greeting.]
Reader 2: Many years ago, “God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a virgin engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin’s name, Mary” (Luke 1:26–27).
Reader 1: “Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her: ‘Good morning! You’re beautiful with God’s beauty, Beautiful inside and out! God be with you’” (Luke 1:28).
Reader 2: “She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, ‘Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus. He will be great, be called “Son of the Highest.” The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; He will rule Jacob’s house forever—no end, ever, to his kingdom’” (Luke 1:29–33).
Reader 1: “Mary said to the angel, ‘But how? I’ve never slept with a man’” (Luke 1:34).
[As the next section is read, Person 2 holds the blue vase over the head of Person 1.]
Reader 2: “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest hover over you. Therefore, the child you bring to birth will be called Holy, Son of God. And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God’” (Luke 1:35–37).
[As the next section is read and the solo sung, Person 2 hands the blue vase to Person 1, who holds it by her womb. Person 2 exits down the left aisle. Person 1 exits down the center aisle, still carrying the blue vase.]
Reader 1: “And Mary said, ‘Yes, I see it all now: I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say.’ Then the angel left her” (Luke 1:38).
Solo: “Told of God’s Favor” Leach, LUYH 68 (v. 1–3)
Scene 5
Mary and Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-41)
[Mary (Person 1), Elizabeth (Person 2). Throughout this scene, Person 3 paints the green arc of the rainbow.]
Reader 2: “Mary . . . traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:39–41).
[Person 1 and Person 2 walk down the center aisle to the stage, each carrying a green basket filled with bookmarks made of spring green paper with “God is making everything new!” printed on them—enough for each person in the audience.]
Reader 1: Mary praised God while she visited with Elizabeth!
Person 1: God is making everything new! [Raises hand.]
All: God is making everything new!
Person 2: God is making everything new! [Raises hand.]
All: God is making everything new!
[As the solo is sung, Person 1 and Person 2 go down the center aisle and pass the baskets down the rows. They make sure everyone gets a bookmark, then they go to the back of the sanctuary.]
Solo: “My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout” Cooney, LUYH 69, GtG 100
Scene 6
The Birth of Jesus (Luke 2:1–7)
[Mary (Person One), Star-Holder (Person Two). Throughout this scene, Person 3 paints the yellow arc of the rainbow. Person 1, carrying a yellow blanket bundled in the form of a baby, and Person 2, carrying a large yellow star made of cardboard, come down the center aisle to center stage and remain there for the reading and the solo.]
Reader 2: “About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant” (Luke 2:1–5).
Reader 1: “While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel” (Luke 2:6–7).
Solo: “In the Heavens Shone a Star” Malicsi and Chandlee, LUYH 94, GtG 131
Musical Interlude: “In the Heavens Shone a Star” Malicsi and Chandlee, LUYH 94 [Once, instruments only]
Scene 7
Jesus Heals a Paralytic (Matthew 9:1–8)
[Paralytic (Person 1), Jesus (Person 2). Throughout this scene, Person 3 paints the orange arc of the rainbow.]
Reader 1: Thanks be to God for sending Jesus to earth to establish his kingdom here, to save us from our sins, and to restore us to himself. Thanks be to God that in Jesus’ first mission to earth—so new! so amazing!—we receive a foretaste of his second coming, when there will be “a new heaven and a new earth” where there will be “no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:1, 4, NIV).
Reader 2: Till that time, we wait. People waited in Jesus’ day, too. At that time, there was no shortage of death or mourning or crying or pain either. But Jesus “had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matthew 14:14, NIV). Each miracle was a signpost pointing to God’s kingdom coming on earth—a new kingdom! A new way of living life in freedom and in grace!
[Person 1, carrying an orange blanket or mat, comes down the center aisle, crouching to make herself unobtrusive. She quickly spreads the blanket or mat on the floor at center stage, then lies down on it. At the same time, Person 2, carrying the orange socks in a cloth shoulder bag, comes down the right aisle to center stage and kneels by Person 1.]
Reader 1: One day, “[s]ome men carried a paraplegic on a stretcher and set him down in front of them. Jesus, impressed by their bold belief, said to the paraplegic, ‘Cheer up, son. I forgive your sins.’ Some religion scholars whispered, ‘Why, that’s blasphemy!’” (Matthew 9:1–3).
[During the following reading, as the words “Get up . . .” are read, Person 2 gives Person 1 a pair of bright orange socks and helps Person 1 put them on. Then Person 2 takes the hand of Person 1 and helps Person 1 to stand up.]
Reader 2: “Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, ‘Why this gossipy whispering? Which do you think is simpler: to say, “I forgive your sins,” or, “Get up and walk”? Well, just so it’s clear that I’m the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both. . . .’ At this he turned to the paraplegic and said, ‘Get up. Take your bed and go home’” (Matthew 9:4–6).
[As the next section is read, Person 1 dances around the stage, kicking up her feet so the audience sees the bright orange socks.]
Reader 1: “And the man did it” (Matthew 9:7).
Reader 2: “The crowd was awestruck, amazed and pleased that God had authorized Jesus to work among them this way” (Matthew 9:8).
[As the solo is sung, Person 1 and Person 2 exit the stage.]
Solo: “When Trials Come” Getty, v. 5
Scene 8
Christ’s Death and Resurrection
Reader 1: The people were excited about all the new things Jesus was doing. But the Pharisees and religious leaders increasingly hated Jesus. All the people were rushing to him. Where did that leave them?
Reader 2: Stuck in their old ways, lost in their old pride, dead in their old sin, the Pharisees and the religious leaders wanted Jesus dead, too. They finally got what they wanted.
[As the musical interlude is played, Person 3 begins to paint the red arc of the rainbow. Person 1 and Person 2, each wearing a red shawl, walk down the center aisle to the stage and pick up the black fabric from the floor.]
Musical Interlude: “Oh, to See the Dawn” Getty and Townend, LUYH 177 [Play through once.]
Solo or Congregation: “Oh, to See the Dawn” Getty and Townend, LUYH 177
[As the singing begins, Person 1 and Person 2 hold up the black fabric like a wall, as they did in the beginning of the drama. At the end of the third verse, following the line ‘“Finished!” the victory cry,’ Person 1 and Person 2 drop the black cloth to the floor, take off their red shawls and drop them to the floor, and lift their hands in praise. Person 3 takes the canvas with the completed rainbow off the easel and carries it to center stage facing the audience. The rainbow is a symbol of God making all things new, and its shape is a reminder of the empty tomb. Person 1 and Person 2 stand on either side of Person 3. While this happens the congregation continues to sing.]
Reader 1: Christ rose from the dead! The tomb is empty!
Reader 2: We are made new in him!
Reader 1: God is making everything new! [Raises hand.]
All: God is making everything new!
Reader 2: God is making everything new! [Raises hand.]
All: God is making everything new!
[Person 1, Person 2, and Person 3 exit the stage.]