acts as transitional text + monologues

So… My colleague (and friend) retired at the end of June. I’m not even sure what to say about that. I’m mostly filling in for now, though I expect we will call an interim at some point. I asked for some breathing time between the farewell and someone new coming in, but I do think having an interim is a good idea.

I considered preaching ideas. Would I ignore the idea of transition or tackle it or somewhere in between? I was trying to go to the lectionary, maybe doing a Lectionary Series, but I wasn’t feeling the Matthean parables and the idea of preaching Romans felt like I might be saying the same thing over and over. If I could have started genesis at the beginning, I might have gone there, but it was well started before I started preaching. I finally decided that a good transition text would be the book of Acts, the stories of the disciples as they transition into a world without Jesus right there (though I promise I am not equating my former pastor to Jesus.) Then I immediately questioned my choice because doing a series on a book felt so evangelical, like I was falling back into something, and it’s not something my colleague would have ever done. But I didn’t have a better idea, so I went with it.

(Edited to add, I used Willie James Jennings commentary on Acts + posts from various chapters of Acts at Working Preacher. I am grateful for the Working Preacher Bible Index that let’s me see if a passage is covered.)

My series seems to have been well-received.

• Week One I talked explicitly about transition using Acts 1 and 2, new beginnings and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
• Week Two was Peter and John carrying on Jesus’ work, healing and preaching though they were ordinary men.
• Week Three I walked about the creation of the deacons and discussed our presbyterian structure and the office and significance of deacons.
  • Week Four was Saul’s conversion, God surprises us with whom God chooses and a bit of an emphasis on Ananias who comes alongside Saul.
  • Week Five was Cornelius and A New Way, inclusivity for all including us 2000 years later.

I could have gone on a few more week, but 6 weeks seemed long enough for a series and I had one lay leader who asked me several times “when I would be finished with this thing with Acts.” We are not used to non-seasonal series. So I decided to wrap it all up in week six with a number of reflections on several moments I hadn’t covered. I was hoping to write monologues, but I wasn’t sure what would happen. As I worked through the end of Acts, I came up with four moments to highlight. I created an order of worship with 4 sets of Scripture/Reflection/Refrain. I invited 4 young people, siblings/cousins three of whom were here for the summer from Minnesota jobs and colleges to be the readers for the service. These are people I have worked with for a decade of youth Sundays as well as other readings and services. 3 of them were able to do so. I did manage to write monologues. I went back and forth about whether I should read them myself or ask my young people to read some of them. Sometimes when other people have read what I wrote, they haven’t totally gotten my intentions and nuances (my colleague could, but with other people I had to be satisfied with not quite). But I decided having multiple voices was better, and I was willing to take a risk on these particular people who are all brilliant and strong readers, so on Saturday I sent an email to my young people asking them to read 3 of them. They agreed. They were brilliant! So good. I read the final monologue, but I’m pretty sure they read my other monologues better than I read the last one. I have to admit, I kind of got chills listening to them even though I had written the things. They are also excellent lectors, adding in exactly the right unwritten bits and leading with grace and strength.

When I started working on this service, I look up “monologues from Acts.” I found very little. So I thought I would post here what I came up with. These are free to use. Credit would be ideal. They are specific to my context, but I think they could also work elsewhere. If I could have chosen the refrains after I wrote the monologues, I would have changed it somewhat. I thought the first two refrains worked excellently, but I would have saved “God Welcomes All” for the end and added in “Take O Take Me as I am” or something else after Priscilla and Aquila. I worked the last lines of the Luke dialogue to make “Within the Darkest Night” work, but it felt labored.

Here is what I did:

SCRIPTURE: Acts 9:36-38

Tabitha
I was dead and now I am alive.
I don’t have words. I remain confused, flummoxed, grateful.
I live to serve another day.
I am called Tabitha, or Dorcas for the Greeks.
My name means Gazelle.
I have often felt like a gazelle, running on the plains, part of a herd,
my eyes wide open to the need.I see so much need in the world.
The women without families, without provision
Who helps them?
I saw no one, so I did what I could
I made clothing to give to those whose clothes were threadbare and worn out
I made clothing to sell to provide food and shelter
I did what I could.
But I became ill. I could not sew any more.
I died?
They tell me the grief was palpable
Wails and laments
Especially from the widows.
But
They knew Peter was nearby
They sent for him
He sent everyone out of the room
The next thing I knew, I had come out from where I was
I was opening my eyes
Seeing Peter’s rough but kind face
Looking into his eyes as he prayed.
He held out his hand to me
And helped me up.
I was not weak, I was not ill. I was well.
We went out to the others
They believed; they called for Peter after all,
but they were still astonished when they saw me
Alive!
I don’t know why I am singled out
A woman alone
People die every day
Why did I get to live?
Why did I, a woman who lived and served among women, matter?
But somehow, to the community, to Peter, to God
I did.
I mattered. I matter.
And so do the needy widows I serve
Because I live to serve again.
We matter.
Women matter. The destitute matter. Those on the outside, matter.
And so I live
But my life will never be the same.

SUNG REFRAIN (GtG 544) Bless the Lord, My Soul Berthier
Bless the Lord, my soul,
and bless God’s holy name.
Bless the Lord, my soul,
who leads me into life. (Repeat)

SCRIPTURE Acts 13:4-5, 13; 15: 36-39

John, Called Mark
I am a failure, a deserter; I abandoned them.
I blew it.
I had the chance to work with Paul and Barnabas.
I was their assistant, taking care of the little things so they could minister.
They were amazing men, so learned, so spirit-filled
And here I was, John, not The John, but John also called Mark
Young, untried, irresponsible
And I blew it.
I left them.
I couldn’t hack it.
I went back to the relative safety of Jerusalem.
I didn’t have enough stamina, enough guts, enough trust.
But then I was sorry.
I was so sorry. I knew it was my fault. I knew I had messed up.
I tried to come back.
And I was the cause of one of the great breakups in history.
Barnabas.
The one who sold his land and gave the proceeds to the church
The one who came alongside Paul and trusted him and introduced him to the apostles
The one who travelled alongside Paul for his first journeys
The one they call Son of Encouragement
Barnabas took my side
He wanted to bring me with them on their next journey
He… trusted me… that I had learned and would not fail again
But Paul was having none of it
Once a deserter always a deserter
They disagreed so sharply they parted company
Paul went off with Silas
And Barnabas put his trust in me. We sailed to Cyprus together
He didn’t have to do that
He risked trusting me
And I will be forever grateful.
I think sometimes people say this was for the good
Two pairs of people could do more in spreading God’s word than one alone
Maybe God ordained it.
I just somehow don’t think so.
There are times to part,
But I don’t think people disagreeing sharply and parting ways in anger is God’s plan
It worked out, but it wasn’t Good.
I did change. I grew up and I grew in the Spirit.
Eventually even Paul asked me to come to him, to assist him once again.
But I never would have had that chance if it hadn’t been for Barnabas,
Son of Encouragement.

SUNG REFRAIN (GTG 204) Stay with Me Berthier
Stay with me; remain here with me;
watch and pray.
Watch and pray. (Repeat)

SCRIPTURE Acts 18:1-3, 24-27

Priscilla and Aquila
We are Priscilla and Aquila.
We are always mentioned together.
True partners in life, in work, in mission.
Priscilla or, formally, Prisca, the venerable, the revered one
Aquila, the eagle with far sight and gliding strength
We are God-fearing Jews who were exiled from Rome
We found a home in Corinth and together set up our tentmaking business
This is where and how we met Paul.
He was a tentmaker! Who knew?
He was a pharisee, a learned man
But he, too, worked with leather, sewed, made tents
And there is this about Paul
He travelled around and around for the churches he started
By he never asked for funds for his ministry
He asked for communities who needed help
But he supported himself.
So we worked together, and talked together, and learned together.
We also travelled together,
but we were called to remain in Ephesus while Paul travelled on.In Ephesus we encountered Apollos.
Apollos was great, so charismatic
Many people listened to him and followed him.
But his learning was incomplete,
He knew Jesus, and spoke eloquently and enthusiastically about him
He knew about the baptism of John
A baptism of repentance
But he did not know about the Baptism of the Spirit
The marvel that had been happening since that day of Pentecost in Jerusalem.
After we heard him speak in the synagogue
We took him aside
And, together, we instructed him
We told him the glad news of Jesus’ baptism, the baptism of the spirit.
It was not easy to correct someone who was so right in so many ways
But we could not hold back
We had to be able to teach the teacher
But sometimes we are incomplete
Our vision needs to expand
And he heard us.
He listened and expanded his message.
And then he took the message abroad
And became known for his ministry and mission.
We are glad he was able to discern the truth with us.We continue to work together
To forward God’s kingdom
Where all are one
Just as we two are one
In life, in work, in mission.

SUNG REFRAIN (399) God Welcomes All Bell
God welcomes all,
strangers and friends;
God’s love is strong
and it never ends. (Repeat)

SCRIPTURE Acts 27:33-40 

Luke
I was a witness.
I wrote about the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.
And then I wrote about the Acts of the Holy Spirit.
The transformation of an ordinary group of men and women
By the Holy Spirit
Into a whole movement
A new way
The way of Jesus Christ.
I am Luke, and near the end of Paul’s travels
I had the great privilege of traveling with him
I talk about the things “we” did.
He is in trouble for preaching the Gospel
And he claims his Roman citizenship
And asks to plead his case in Rome.
So we work to get to Rome
Maybe the way Jesus worked his way to Jerusalem
(I may have included some parallels in my books).
We have a ship, but it’s winter and Paul suggests we stay where we are
The pilot disagrees and the centurion in charge listens to the pilot and pushes on
To be fair, it was not a great port
They were hoping to get to a better place to winter.
So we go.
We hit a storm and our ship is battered and everyone is on edge.
Paul is the only one who stays calm.
He does say, “I told you so,”
But then he also reassures them that everyone will be safe
There will be no loss of life, only of the ship.
Then he does this thing
Everyone is exhausted and scared and hungry
Paul takes bread, gives thanks to God, and breaks it.
He eats and he encourages everyone else to eat.
Communion
And invitation to eat
A source of hope and divine love.
They may not have understood the symbolism of the bread
But they gathered around it
They were sustained
Bread for the journey, the body of Christ, the source of love.
Eventually we made it to land.
The sailors did try to kill the prisoners—
Better dead than escaped—
But the centurion wanted to save Paul, so he stopped that scheme.
We were welcomed by the natives who showed us “unusual kindness”
and were able to winter there.
While we were there, Paul did his usual thing of healing many people.
Three months later, we were able to set out again.
We finally arrived in Rome, and Paul was allowed to live under house arrest.
He found a house and welcomed all visitors
Including John-Mark, whom he asked for personally to come and help him
He continued to preach and teach and write about Jesus Christ as he awaited trial
He offered hospitality to all
He welcomed all
He spoke to all.
This was Paul and this was the way of Christ.
I hope that in my books, I have made it clear
Jesus came to transform the world
To bring a new kingdom
And the Holy Spirit continued that work after Jesus was gone
Through this group of people who were transformed by the power of God.
And so the Spirit is still at work, calling all
No matter how dark it gets
And a ship in a storm is pretty dark
House arrest awaiting a trial is pretty dark
But God is there
Jesus is with us
The fire of the Spirit will not die away.
May it ever be so.
Amen.

SUNG REFRAIN (GTG 294) Within Our Darkest Night Berthier
Within our darkest night,
you kindle the fire that never dies away,
never dies away.
Within our darkest night,
you kindle the fire that never dies away,
never dies away. (Repeat)