JESUS at the BORDER LANDS: A SKIT with AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION · A SKIT with AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION BY THE REV. JULIE BLAKE FISHER, AUGUST 22, 2014. ... • Give people an opportunity

E P I S C O PA L M I G R AT I O N S M I N I S T R I E S

J E S U S a t t h e B O R D E R L A N D S : A S K I T w i t h AU D I E N C E

PA RT I C I PAT I O N

BY T H E R E V. J U L I E B L A K E F I S H E R , AU G U S T 2 2 , 2 014


Jesus left Gennesaret and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting,

“Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”

But he did not answer her at all.

And His disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps

shouting after us.”

He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”

He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as

you wish.”

And her daughter was healed instantly.

M AT T H E W 1 5 : 2 1- 2 8 ( N R S V )


I N T R O D U CT I O N

Christians have always been puzzled by Matthew 15:21-28. Why does Jesus sound so mean and insulting to this poor woman, who so desperately wants Jesus to cure her daughter? Many Bible commentaries attempt to answer that question by blaming the Canaanite wom-an for being too loud and pushy, but I think that’s sexist. I think something else was going on in this story, something that is very consistent with the way Jesus typically works with his disciples. The skit leader will work with the audience members the very same way that Jesus does with the disciples to help them think through and discover a different interpre-tation of the gospel passage, one that hopefully opens hearts and minds to the challenges faced by foreigners at our borders.

This skit is performed by one prepared person for an audience of any size, using four to seven unprepared volunteers from the audience. (See notes at the end about how to do this with puppets.)

The script below is meant to guide your presentation of the material. You do not need to repeat it word for word, unless it would make you more comfortable to do so. Feel free to either memorize its general outlines, or if you prefer to stick with the script, print it out and put it on a music stand. Just be sure to familiarize yourself with it thoroughly in advance, because you will be spending a lot of the time looking at the audience and volunteers to guide them through the experience.

M AT E R I A L S N E E D E D

• Enough half-page handouts for the anticipated number of people in the audience. (Handouts will be double-sided, with the gospel reading on one side and contact infor-mation for Episcopal Migration Ministries on the other. Photocopy master attached at end.)

• Cards with lines on them for the disciples and the Canaanite person (photocopy master attached at end – copy on cardstock and cut up)

• Optional: a doll (large enough to be seen from the back of the performance space) to be the Canaanite person’s daughter


• Optional: basket(s) for the handouts so they are easy to pass out

• Optional: a large black bag (a garbage bag works well) to put everything in to take advan-tage of the element of surprise

• Optional: prepared script and music stand (if not leading the skit without notes)

S U G G E S T I O N S FO R VO LU N T E E R S E L E CT I O N

People are sometimes reluctant to volunteer to get up in front of a group. You can increase the likelihood that people will volunteer if you do a few things.

• Smile and be informal right from the start. This will help everyone relax and realize that you are a nice person who is not going to make anyone look foolish.

• Give people an opportunity to volunteer for something easy and low-risk before you ask for volunteers to stand up in front of people. Asking for volunteers to pass out the gospel handouts right at the beginning helps to break the ice for when you will be asking for volunteers to do something that may feel a little riskier, such as standing up in front of others.

• People are more likely to volunteer if they are assured up front that you have structured the experience so that they can’t fail. That’s why you tell them first that you have all their lines on cards, that you will guide them through all their actions, and that there is no way for them to make a mistake.

• Asking for as many volunteers as possible (seven instead of the four minimum you need to make it work) makes people more likely to volunteer because they won’t be up front, all alone and exposed. They will have some buddies to share the spotlight with.

• Once you have your seven volunteers, let them choose who will be the Canaanite per-son from among themselves. The person with the most confidence about being in front of the crowd will probably step forward, or be pushed forward by his/her friends. And emphasize that the Canaanite person can be a man or woman – it doesn’t matter which for the story.

• What if nobody volunteers? Here are two sure-fire ways you can get volunteers.


° When you ask, just stand up there smiling and wait until people volunteer. Don’t worry, they will. You might have to stand up there for what seems like an eternity, but believe me, somebody will eventually crack. And that somebody will probably grab a few people to come with him or her. Whoever cracks will have the admiration and goodwill of everyone else who chose to stay in their seats. And of course, you will welcome them enthusiastically when they come up front.

° The larger the crowd, the more difficult it will be for people to volunteer to come up front. If you see that there is a large crowd (or a lot of shy people), you can change how you ask for volunteers. Instead of asking for seven volunteers, say you need a single volunteer to do something very important. Then fold your arms and smile and wait until somebody cracks. It might take a minute or two. Just wait. Somebody will finally stand up. Then tell that person that their job is to choose the seven real vol-unteers that you need. Everyone will laugh hilariously that the brave first volunteer gets the easiest job of all. Now the ice is broken, and the first volunteer will probably easily get the other seven you need. People will probably even raise their hands to be chosen. (Credit for this tactic goes to the late Malcolm Knowles, father of the field of Adult Education, who used this at a conference I attended to get volunteers from a crowd of hundreds of people).

Suggested Script

Leader: Thanks for being here! I need your help. I have a gospel passage here [show gospel handouts] that has stumped famous Bible scholars for literally two thousand years. But today YOU are going to figure it out. [Ask for a few volunteers to pass out the gospel handouts.]

Before we read the Bible passage, I’d like to give you a little background about where it takes place. Jesus and his disciples mostly stayed in the traditional territory of Israel and focused mainly on teaching and healing Jewish people like themselves. But not in this story. In this story, Jesus takes his disciples out of familiar territory to the far northeast border lands of the country. On the other side of the border were the territories of Tyre and Sidon. The peo-ple who lived there were Canaanites. They were a different ethnic group of


people who were the traditional enemies of the Jewish people. According to Jewish Law, the Canaanites were unclean. Some Jewish people even called them “dogs” as an insult. But the borders in this part of the country had moved back and forth so much over hundreds of years, that by now there was a mixed population of both Jewish people and foreign migrants living in the border lands.

So why did Jesus take his disciples up to the border lands in the first place? Because he had something to teach them.

[Make sure everyone has a copy of the gospel handout.] OK, let’s read this Bible passage. You can follow along with me on your copy. [Read passage out loud, in neutral voice, without any attempt at interpreting what the words mean. Give them a few seconds for it to sink in.] OK, who else here thinks Jesus sounds kind of mean? [Raise own hand to encourage show of hands.] I mean, here’s this poor woman, who just wants to have her daughter healed, and instead of welcoming her with his usual love and compassion, Jesus lets the disciples tell her to push off. Then he says that he only helps people of his own ethnic group. Then he compares her to a dog! You get the impression that if she hadn’t come up with that snappy comeback that he would have sent her away. That doesn’t sound like the Jesus we know. What’s going on here?

Well, Bible scholars through the ages have always tried to explain this away by saying that the Canaanite person was just so pushy and loud so she didn’t de-serve a warm welcome from Jesus. What do you think of that interpretation?

The reason why this passage can be so easy to misunderstand is that the Bible, like most ancient literature, doesn’t have many words explaining what was go-ing on in a given passage. It just gives the bare facts of what somebody said, and very little about how they said it, and what they did while they were saying it.

In that sense, reading the Bible is a lot like reading a play. Plays – especially ancient plays – didn’t have many stage directions to tell actors how to say the lines or what to do while they were saying them. Playwrights depended on the actors and the director to work out their own stage directions as they rehearsed the play.


So what we really need for this gospel story is some stage directions, some ideas about how Jesus was speaking and moving so we can get a clue about what was going through his mind. And the best way for us to figure out the stage directions is for us to actually put this story on as a play.

So here’s what we are going to do. I will need seven volunteers [or you can say as few as four if the audience is small] from the audience to be the disciples and the Canaanite person. Now don’t worry about what you are going to do when you get up here. I have all your lines on these cards right here [show the cards] so you don’t have to memorize anything, and I will guide you in every-thing you are supposed to do. So there is no way to make a mistake. Do I have any volunteers?

[Warmly greet the volunteers as they come up. Have them select one of them-selves to be the Canaanite person – it can be a man or woman. If using the doll, take it out of the bag and hand it to the Canaanite person to be his or her daugh-ter. Give the volunteers the cards with the lines on them – one each for each disciple, three for the Canaanite person. Tell them to take a few seconds to look them over. Put the disciples to your left and have them face the audience. Put the Canaanite person off to the far right.]

OK, you in the audience are going to help too. Whenever we get to what Jesus says and does in the story, you will feed me the right lines.

Okay, so Jesus is traveling along the road with his disciples and a Canaanite person catches up with them. [Turn to the Canaanite person.] In a nice, loud, playground voice, the Canaanite person reads from card #1 …

Canaanite [Reads loudly from card #1.] Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.

Leader [Turn to the audience.] Note how this Canaanite person addresses Jesus as Lord and Son of David. This is a powerful statement of faith that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus couldn’t have asked for a better expression of faith. This is an A-plus request for his help. What does Jesus do?

[Have the congregation look it up on the handout. Encourage them to call the


answer out loud.] Right. He says nothing. What’s going through his head? Let’s put in a stage direction. Where do you think he is looking? [Let them work it through. If they say at the Canaanite person, ask if that is necessarily so. Even-tually somebody will suggest that he is looking at the disciples.]

Right, I think he is looking at the disciples. [Put your chin in your hand, tilt your head, and look inquiringly at the disciples.] Why would Jesus turn to the disciples? Because he did that all the time. When people came to Jesus for help, frequently he would look to the disciples first to prompt them for a response.

Like when 5,000 people needed to be fed, he actually told the disciples to feed them. Of course, they couldn’t feed 5,000 people by themselves. But that got them talking, and problem solving, and then they scrounged up a few fishes and loaves that Jesus could use for the building blocks of a miracle – and before you know it, 5,000 people got fed. Asking challenging questions to get people to think was how Jesus typically trained people to be leaders. So when he didn’t say anything to the Canaanite person, and just looked at his disci-ples, his look meant, “What do you think we should do?”

So how did the disciples respond? They turned to the Canaanite person and read loudly from their cards, one at a time. [Have disciples read from their cards.]

Disciple #1 [Reads loudly from card #1.] Get lost, dog.

Disciple #2 [Reads loudly from card #2.] This is our country. Go back to Canaan.

Disciple #3 [Reads loudly from card #3.] Ewww, it’s a Canaanite. They’re unclean! Just like dogs!

Disciple #4 [Reads loudly from card #4.] We’re closed for business today.

Disciple #5 [Reads loudly from card #5.] We don’t serve your kind here.

Disciple #6 [Reads loudly from card #6.] Jesus only does miracles for people like us.

Leader [To the audience] How do you think the Canaanite person feels? [The audi-ence will probably say things like bad, discriminated against, discouraged.] Yeah, bad, discriminated against, probably pretty discouraged.


How do you think Jesus felt about what they said? [Encourage the audience to say things like disappointed in them, maybe mad.] But does he tell them that? [Let them look at their handout, shake their heads, say no.] That’s right. He doesn’t tell them. Instead he says … [Encourage congregation to look on their handout and feed you the line.] Right, he says, “I was sent ONLY to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Let’s put in some stage directions. Which way is he facing? Who is he talking to? [By now, the audience will be saying “the disci-ples.” Turn to face the disciples. Speak the line as a prompting type of question.]

“So, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, then?” In other words, he was prompting them to think through what they were saying. He wasn’t being mean to the Canaanite person at all.

How do we know that he was talking like this to the disciples? Because of what the Canaanite person did next. Let’s check in with the Canaanite person. [Turn to face the Canaanite person.] The Canaanite person was feeling pretty bad and discouraged by what the disciples said. But he [or she if the volunteer is female] realized that Jesus is trying to help. So instead of running away, he [or she] moves in closer and speaks directly to Jesus, reading right off his [or her] card #2.

Canaanite Lord, help me.

Leader The Canaanite person knows what Jesus is getting at here. But the disciples are still not giving in. Why not? Because people don’t just drop their fears and prejudices all at once. So Jesus says to the disciples … [have the audience feed you his next line. Turn to the disciples and say the line sarcastically. Lean on them at the word “dogs”.] “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the … dogs.”

Jesus wasn’t afraid to push people a little to get them thinking. Even his own mother! Once, when they were at a wedding together, Mary came up to Jesus and said “Hey, they’ve run out of wine!” like he should wave his hand or some-thing and fix it. He answered her, “What does that have to do with me?” That got her thinking. She realized that he would need some helpers to make that kind of miracle happen. So she got together a group of servants and told them,


“Do whatever he tells you.” So Jesus had the helpers set up the miracle, and then he did it. He turned water into wine.

And that is what he is doing here. He is using reverse psychology with the dis-ciples. He is pitching their own attitude right back at them and letting them hear how it sounds. How do you think they are feeling about now? [Audience will start to say something like “ashamed, regretful.”] Yeah, I think that about now the disciples are starting to look down and shuffle their feet. [Prompt the disciples to look down and shuffle their feet.]

Disciples [Look down and shuffle their feet.]

Leader So Jesus has made his point. They know they will hear more from Jesus about this later.

And the Canaanite person is on board now, playing right along with Jesus. He [or she] whips out his [or her] third card and says his [or her] killer comeback line …

Canaanite Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.

Leader [Put your arm around the Canaanite person’s shoulders and smile and nod approvingly.] And Jesus replies [prompt the audience for the line], “Canaanite person, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And instantly the child was healed.

[Thank the volunteers for helping. Have everyone sit back down. Lead a round of applause for them.]

Yes, they will hear more about this subject from Jesus later. Why? Because it relates back to the whole reason why he brought them up to the border lands in the first place. Because he is training them to become the people who will lead the Christian church after he is gone. They need to have the right attitude about foreigners. Because when Jesus dies on the cross it will be for the whole world, not just for people like them. And after he has risen from the dead he will commission them to take the message of salvation to the whole world, not just to people like them. And the disciples will be heading up a church that within just a few short years will be composed of mostly foreigners, not


people like them. So these disciples had better start opening up their minds, and their hearts, right now.

So what does this have to do with us today? Here in America, we are all immi-grants. Even Native Americans’ ancestors came here from someplace else. We are a nation composed of foreigners from all over the whole world who have come together to form a free community that is enriched by all the treasures of culture and experience that diverse people have to share. We have always welcomed foreigners.

Or have we? [Encourage responses from the audience.] Right. Sometimes we have been less than welcoming. Sometimes we have said to foreigners, “Go back to your own country” or “We only want to help people like us.” Is there any situation going on right now where there are foreigners at our borders? [If there is a particular situation you want to address here, like child migrants, undocumented workers, war refugees, etc., say a few words about the situation now. Encourage audience members to add any facts they have heard about.]

Sounds like these people need a miracle. But Jesus is not going to just wave his hand and fix it. What do you think Jesus is doing now? [Encourage re-sponse, “He is looking at us.”] Right, Jesus is looking at us. Just like he looked at his disciples when 5,000 people needed to be fed. They started thinking it through, and before long they got together the building blocks he needed to make a miracle. Just like he challenged his mom when people needed wine for their wedding. She thought it through and went out and got together a group of helpers for him so he could make a miracle.

So let’s get thinking. What are the building blocks we need? What kind of helpers? On the back of your gospel handout you’ll find contact information for Episcopal Migration Ministries. Visit their website and you’ll find plenty of ways you can help. [Add any details about how they can help in the particu-lar situation you are addressing, such as political advocacy, sponsoring people, raising funds, etc.]

Jesus is looking at us right now. Because we are the disciples. We are the lead-ers now. Together with Jesus, we can make a miracle.


Suggestions for Adapting This Skit for Use with Puppets

• You’ll still need a human leader to stand up front and lead the skit because of the high amount of audience participation required. However, you can use puppets instead of human volunteers to help the leader act out the script.

° You’ll need four to seven puppets that are large enough to be seen from the back of the performance space.

° Either animal or human puppets would work fine.

° Instead of a doll, you can have an eighth, smaller puppet with no speaking lines to be the Canaanite person’s daughter. This is ideal for a less experienced puppeteer. There are no lines to say, and the puppeteer can just have the daughter puppet follow the Canaanite person puppet around.

• Although the puppets will pretend to be unprepared volunteers, you’ll need to rehearse with the puppeteers in advance so they are prepared say the lines with the right empha-sis and know how to move the puppets with expressive body language. This is not the kind of puppet play that can be pre-recorded, since it depends on audience participation.

• Using the cards with the lines

° For skillful puppeteers operating puppets with hands:

• The Leader can hand cards to the puppets to “read” if the puppeteers are skillful enough for their puppets to manipulate objects.

• The Canaanite person puppet would need to “read” from a single card (three would be too many to manipulate unless the puppeteer were very skillful).

° For less experienced puppeteers and/or puppets without hands:

• The Leader can keep the cards and hold them up as needed for the puppets to “read” from each time a puppet needs to say a line.

• You can either use a stage with puppeteers hidden inside, or have your puppe-teers operate the puppets out in the open (like traditional Japanese puppetry). There are advantages and disadvantages to each method.


• Using a stage makes your puppets more visible and helps the audience focus on what they are saying. Your puppeteers won’t be able to see the cards with the lines on them, so they will need to either memorize their lines or have them posted backstage. They will also need sound equipment to be heard, and of course, a puppet stage.

• Using puppets out in the open greatly simplifies the equipment and technology you’ll need to perform. Also, the puppeteers wouldn’t need to memorize their lines because they could read the cards over their puppets’ shoulders. Your audience, however, might have trouble seeing the puppets against a backdrop of people, and might be distracted by the puppeteers. Although after the first few minutes the audience usually just looks at the puppets and not their puppeteers, this skit might not be long enough for the au-dience to get and stay focused on the puppets. One way to counteract that is to have the puppeteers dress all in black, as traditional Japanese puppeteers do, and use puppets that are large and distinctive.


Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”


And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.”





Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

And her daughter was healed instantly.M AT T H E W 1 5 : 2 1- 2 8 ( N R S V )


Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”


And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.”





Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

And her daughter was healed instantly.M AT T H E W 1 5 : 2 1- 2 8 ( N R S V )

Visit

E P I S C O PA L M I G R AT I O N M I N I S T R I E S

for more information about how you can help.

H T T P : // W W W. E P I S C O PA L C H U R C H . O R G / E M M

Visit

E P I S C O PA L M I G R AT I O N M I N I S T R I E S

for more information about how you can help.

H T T P : // W W W. E P I S C O PA L C H U R C H . O R G / E M M

D I S C I P L E # 1

“Get lost, dog.”

D I S C I P L E # 4

“We’re closed for business today.”

D I S C I P L E # 2

“This is our country. Go back to Canaan.”

D I S C I P L E # 5

“We don’t serve your kind here.”

D I S C I P L E # 3

“Ewww, it’s a Canaanite. They’re unclean!

Just like dogs!”

D I S C I P L E # 6

“Jesus only does miracles for people like us.”

CANAANITE PERS ON LINE #1

“Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David;

my daughter is tormented by a demon.”


“Lord, help me.”


“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from

their masters’ table.”

Documents

JESUS at the BORDER LANDS: A SKIT with AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION · A SKIT with AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION BY THE REV. JULIE BLAKE FISHER, AUGUST 22, 2014. ... • Give people an opportunity