Here is a readers’ theatre setting of Exodus 17:1-7, one of the suggested texts for September 25, 2011 (Proper 21A).
Water in the Wilderness
(Exodus 17:1-7)
Narr: At the Lord’s command,
the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin
and moved from place to place.
Eventually they camped at Rephidim,
but there was no water there for the people to drink.
2 So once more the people complained against Moses.
“Give us water to drink!” they demanded.
Moses: Quiet! Why are you complaining against me?
And why are you testing the Lord?
Narr: But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses.
“Why did you bring us out of Egypt?
Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”
Then Moses cried out to the Lord:
Moses: What should I do with these people?
They are ready to stone me!
Narr: The Lord said to Moses,
God: Walk out in front of the people.
Take your staff,
the one you used when you struck the water of the Nile,
and call some of the elders of Israel to join you.
I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai.
Strike the rock, and water will come gushing out.
Then the people will be able to drink.
Narr: So Moses struck the rock as he was told,
and water gushed out as the elders looked on.
Moses named the place Massah (which means “test”)
and Meribah (which means “arguing”)
because the people of Israel argued with Moses
and tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord here with us or not?”
For more worship resources related to this text, or other texts for September 25, 2011 (the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost), click on Proper 21A 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.
