Readers’ Theatre
(amplified version, using additional passages from The Message)
One: I ask then,
has God rejected His own people?
Two: Is He so fed up with Israel
that He wants nothing more to do with them?
One: Of course not!
I myself am an Israelite—
a descendant of Abraham,
a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
Two: You can’t get much more Israelite than that.
One: No, God has not rejected His own people.
He chose them from the very beginning
and has too much invested to simply wash His hands of them.
Two: For God’s gifts and God’s call can never be taken away—
they can never be cancelled or rescinded.
They are irrevocable.
One: Once, you Gentiles were rebels against God.
But when the people of Israel turned their back on God,
God was merciful to you instead.
Now they are the rebels,
and God’s mercy has come to you instead.
But with the door held wide open for you,
they now have a way back in—
another opportunity to share in God’s mercy.
Two: For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience
so that He can have mercy on everyone.
For a more straight-forward setting of this particular scripture passage, see Readers’ Theatre: Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32.
For more resources based on this passage, or other lectionary texts for August 14, 2011, click on Proper 15A in the list of “Labels” below. For more readers’ theatre suggestions, click on readers’ theatre in the list of “Labels.”
