Here’s a
readers’ theatre setting of Mark 8:27-38, the suggested gospel reading for Proper
19 B (Ordinary 24 B) – the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. It is set for three readers.
Readers’ Theatre: Mark
8: 27-38 (NLT)
One: Jesus and his disciples left Galilee
and went up to the villages near
Caesarea Philippi.
As they were walking along, he asked
them,
Two: Who do people say I am?
Three: Well, some say John the Baptist, some say
Elijah,
and others say you are one of the
other prophets.
Two: But what about you? Who do you say I am?
One: Peter replied,
Three: You are the Messiah.
One: But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone
about him.
Then Jesus began to tell them
that the Son of Man must suffer many
terrible things
and be rejected by the elders, the
leading priests,
and the teachers of religious law.
That He would be killed,
but three days later he would rise
from the dead.
As he talked about this openly with
his disciples,
Peter took him aside and began to
reprimand him for saying such things.
Jesus turned around and looked at
his disciples, then reprimanded Peter.
Two: Get away from me, Satan!
You are seeing things merely from a
human point of view,
not from God’s.
One: Then, calling the crowd to join his
disciples, he said,
Two: If any of you wants to be my follower,
you must turn from your selfish
ways,
take up your cross, and follow me.
If you try to hang on to your life,
you will lose it.
But if you give up your life for my
sake
and for the sake of the Good News,
you will save it.
And what do you benefit if you gain
the whole world
but lose your own soul?
Is anything worth more than your
soul?
If anyone is ashamed of me and my
message
in these adulterous and sinful days,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of
that person
when he returns in the glory of his
Father with the holy angels.”
