Here’s a simple two-voice setting of
Luke 13: 10-17, the suggested gospel reading for Proper 16, Year C.
Readers’ Theatre
(Luke 13: 10-17)
One: One Sabbath day as
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue,
he saw a woman who had been
crippled by an evil spirit.
She had been bent double for
eighteen years
and was unable to stand up
straight.
When Jesus saw her, he called her
over.
Two: Dear woman, you are
healed of your sickness!
One: Then he touched her,
and instantly she could stand
straight.
How she praised God!
But the leader in charge of the
synagogue
was indignant that Jesus had
healed her on the Sabbath day.
“There are six days of the week
for working,” he said to the crowd.
“Come on those days to be healed,
not on the Sabbath.”
But Jesus replied:
Two: You hypocrites!
Each of you works on the Sabbath
day!
Don’t you untie your ox or your
donkey from its stall on the Sabbath
and lead it out for water?
This dear woman, a daughter of
Abraham,
has been held in bondage by Satan
for eighteen years.
Isn’t it right that she be
released, even on the Sabbath?”
One: This shamed his
enemies,
but all the people rejoiced at
the wonderful things he did.
