Here is a simple readers’ theatre setting of Exodus 16:2-15, one of the suggested scripture texts for September 18, 2011 (Proper 20A).
Readers’ Theatre
(based on Exodus 16: 2-15)
Narr: The people of Israel left Elim
and journeyed farther into the desert between Elim and Mount Sinai,
arriving there one month after their escape from Egypt.
But before long, the people began to complain again.
“If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned.
There we sat around pots filled with meat
and ate all the bread we wanted.
But now you have brought us into this wilderness
to starve us all to death.”
Then the Lord said to Moses,
God: I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you.
Each day the people can go out
and pick up as much food as they need for that day.
I will test them in this to see whether or not
they will follow my instructions.
On the sixth day they will gather food,
and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.
Narr: So Moses and Aaron called a meeting of all the people,
and Aaron told the people what God had said:
Aaron: By evening you will realize that it was the Lord
who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
In the morning you will see the glorious presence of the Lord
because he has heard your complaints,
which are against him, not against us.
What have we done that you should complain about us?
The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening
and bread to satisfy you in the morning,
for he has heard all your complaints.
Narr: Then Moses said to Aaron,
Moses: Announce this to the entire community of Israel:
“Present yourselves before the Lord.
Come into his presence,
and hear for yourselves his response to your complaints.
Narr: And as Aaron spoke to the whole community of Israel,
they looked out toward the wilderness.
There they could see the awesome glory of the Lord in the cloud.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
God: I have heard the Israelites’ complaints.
Now tell them,
‘In the evening you will have meat to eat,
and in the morning you will have all the bread you want.
Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”
Narr: That evening vast numbers of quail flew in and covered the camp.
And the next morning the area around the camp was wet with dew.
When the dew evaporated,
a flaky substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground.
The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it.
“What is it?” they asked each other.
Moses told them:
Moses: It is the food the Lord has given you to eat.
For more worship resources related to this text, or other texts for September 18, 2011 (the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost), click on Proper 20A in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page.
For other readers’ theatre settings of scripture, click on Readers’ theatre in the list of “Labels” at the right.
