Here’s a readers’ theatre version of Isaiah 64: 1-9, the suggested Old Testament reading for the first Sunday of Advent (Year B). It was put together by Carolyn Brown, using the New Revised Standard Version. She writes:
“Introduce this passage as a group prayer prayed by people living in a time when everything was going wrong. Four readers (actually pray–ers) stand together around one microphone, like a group huddled for prayer and so they can read without pause. Readers may be youth, adults, or a mix of ages (maybe one family with older children and youth). Plan a practice session at which you can explain the post-Exile situation to them and think together about why each prayer was prayed. This time will enable readers to convey a great deal of meaning with their voices.”
Isaiah 64: 1-9
1: O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
2: When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
3: From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
4: You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
1: But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.
2: We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
3: We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
4: There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
1: Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
2: Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
3: and do not remember iniquity forever.
All: Now consider, we are all your people.
— Carolyn Brown, on her excellent site, Worshiping with Children.
For more worship resources for the first Sunday of Advent (November 27, 2011), click on Advent I Year B in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page, or visit this index of Advent Worship Resources.
For other readers’ theatre settings of scripture, click on Readers’ theatre in the list of “Labels” at the right.
