Here’s a
readers’ theatre setting of James 3:13 – 4:4, 7-8a, the epistle reading for
Proper 20 B (Ordinary 25 B) – the gospel reading for the seventeenth Sunday
after Pentecost. It is set for two
readers.
Readers’ Theatre:
James 3:13 – 4:3, 7-8a
One: If you are wise and understand God’s ways,
prove it by living an honorable
life,
doing good works with the humility
that comes from wisdom.
Two: But if you are bitterly jealous and there
is selfish ambition in your heart,
don’t cover up the truth with
boasting and lying.
For jealousy and selfishness are not
God’s kind of wisdom.
One: Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and
demonic.
For wherever there is jealousy and
selfish ambition,
there you will find disorder and
evil of every kind.
Two: But
the wisdom from above is first of all pure.
It
is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.
It
is full of mercy and good deeds.
It
shows no favoritism and is always sincere.
One: And
those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace
and
reap a harvest of righteousness.
Two: What is causing the quarrels and fights
among you?
Don’t they come from the evil
desires at war within you?
One; You want what you don’t have, so you scheme
and kill to get it.
Two: You are jealous of what others have, but
you can’t get it,
so you fight and wage war to take it
away from them.
One: Yet you don’t have what you want because
you don’t ask God for it.
Two: And even when you ask,
you don’t get it
because your motives are all wrong—
you want only what will give you
pleasure.
One: So humble yourselves before God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you.
Come close to God, and God will come
close to you.
