Here’s a
readers’ theatre setting of Mark 10:2-16, the gospel reading for Proper 22 B
(Ordinary 27 B) – the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It is set for two voices.
Readers’ Theatre: Mark
10: 2-16
Some
Pharisees came and tried to trap Jesus with this
question:
“Should
a man be allowed to divorce his wife?”
But
Jesus answered with another question:
What did Moses say in the law about divorce?
“Well,
he permitted it,” they replied.
“He
said a man can give his wife a written notice of divorce
and
send her away.”
He wrote this commandment only as a concession to your hard
hearts.
But ‘God made them male and female’ from the beginning of creation.
This explains why a man leaves his father and mother
and is
joined to his wife,
and the two are united into one.
Since they are no longer two but one,
let no one split apart what God has joined together.
Later, when he was alone with his disciples in the house,
they brought up the subject again.
Jesus told them,
Whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else
commits adultery against her.
And if a woman divorces her husband and marries someone
else,
she commits adultery.
One day some parents brought their children to Jesus
so he could touch and bless them.
But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.
When Jesus saw what was happening,
he was angry with his disciples.
He said to them,
Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them!
For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these
children.
I tell you the truth,
anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child
will never enter it.
Then he took the children in his arms
and placed his hands on their heads
and blessed them.
