Wanna Get Away
Jonah
Matthew
25:14-30
Cast: Two people of
either gender who are already friends and who know God and know their Bible.
Person 1 (P1) is on stage singing frantically as if very
worried. Person 2 (P2) approaches.
P1: [Singing
frantically.] I’m leaving on a jet
plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again.
P2: Time for vacation
again? I thought you just took one.
P1: No vacation. I just need to get away.
P2: Oh, you found one
of those Wanna Get Away deals like
they advertise on TV?
P1: No I didn’t have
time to look for a special. I just need
to get out of town.
P2: Anything that I
might need to know about. Is your
picture on display in the Post Office?
P1: No. It’s worse.
P2: Really? Sounds like you are on the lamb.
P1: I am and I don’t
like that metaphor.
P2: OK. I will try this again. Are you on the run?
P1: Yes.
P2: From the law?
P1: Worse.
P2: You have my
complete attention. From what?
P1: Not what, who.
P2: The objective
case is whom.
P1: Don’t go Grammar Nazi
on me now. I’ve got to hit the road.
P2: OK. Tell me the who or the whom or the whomever.
P1: God.
P2: God?
P1: Yes, God. I’m running away from God.
P2: Do you think it
is going to work?
P1: No, but what
choice do I have?
P2: Whatever you did,
he will forgive you. The blood of Jesus
has all of your sins covered.
P1: It’s not
something that I did. It’s something
that he wants me to do.
P2: What does he want
you to do?
P1: He wants me to
invite the people across the street to worship this Sunday.
P2: Wow! God spoke to you. Wow!
P1: Not in
words. You know that Spirit that
everyone says you have in you.
P2: Yes, God’s own
Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
P1: That’s the one
and he is telling me to talk to those people across the street.
P2: And that’s why
you are running away.
P1: And I think he
wants me to be a part of a fellowship team and help in the food pantry.
P2: These are all
things that you can do. I know you,
these things are right down your alley.
P1: I know and that’s
what scares me. I might be good at them
and then he might ask me to do more.
P2: Well, Jonah, what
are you going to do?
P1: I’m not going by
sea so I am not going to get swallowed by a fish. So don’t call me Jonah.
P2: No, but you are
running from God because he is telling you exactly what you need to do and you
know it.
P1: I know that I
know it, but if I invite those people then they might come and want to be a
part of God’s love and profess him as Lord and Savior.
P2: And this is a bad
thing because?
P1: They might repent
and believe the good news about Jesus.
They might get away with all of the bad stuff that they have done.
P2: You are right.
P1: That I should run
away.
P2: No, that I
shouldn’t call you Jonah. I think that I
will call you Saint Jonah.
P1: I’m no saint.
P2: Actually, you
are, but not in the goody-two-shoes sense that I was using the term.
P1: I know, I know,
but it seems like these people would get off Scott free.
P2: You mean like us?
P1: Yes, like
us. [singing.] Jesus
paid it all, all to him I owe.
P2: This is a good
thing! But what about being on a
fellowship team and helping in the food pantry?
P1: I am afraid that
I will mess up and then God won’t like me.
P2: There is unsound
theology and there is downright terrible theology.
P1: I know, I
know. I am burying my talent in the
ground, right?
P2: No. You are burying your talents—plural—in the
ground. You have been trusted like the
first servant and trying to live like the third servant.
P1: It’s just hard to
wrap my head around the fact that God loves me and trusts me.
P2: Well, I am going
to use a highly theological term for what you need to do. Ready?
P1: Sure.
P2: Suck it up,
Buttercup!
P1: Buttercup,
really?
P2: Would you prefer
Jonah?
P1: No, and that Buttercup
business is not in the Bible.
P2: Remember, in the
Parable of the Talents, the master called the third servant wicked and lazy?
P1: Yes, but…
P2: I thought that I
would try suck it up Buttercup before you decided to act like the third servant
and have to wear those labels.
P1: Thanks, I think.
P2: Do you remember
what the master called the first two servants?
P1: Good and
faithful. I remember.
P2: Do you also
remember that they put what their master had given them to work right away?
P1: I remember. I get your point. I need to stop running away from God. I need to take what he gave me and put it to
work and I need to produce some good fruit for God’s kingdom.
P2: Sounds like you
know exactly what to do.
P1: I do. I just want
to do it because I want to bring glory to God and not because I’m afraid of
ending up in a big fish or thrown out into the outer darkness.
P2: That’s good
motivation. Hey, why don’t we both walk
over and talk with your neighbor.
P1: OK. Let’s get this putting my gifts to work show on the road.
P2: Better than
hitting the road trying to run away from God, don’t you think.
P1: Amen to that.
The end.
