Abraham: cloak and head dress
Isaac: cloak
Two servants: cloaks and head-dress
Voice of God: Microphone with echo behind the reading desk.
Narrator: Using the pulpit mike.
Rope, toy light saber, bundle of twigs, BBQ lighter, for altar, use communion table, bushes with a soft toy caught in them.
[Abraham, Isaac and the two servants start off in the vestry. The Narrator narrates from the pulpit. The Voice of God hides behind the large service reader’s lecturn used for morning church with a microphone plugged into the amp with an echo.]
[Narrator]
Let me introduce Abraham
[Enter Abraham from vestry, wave to congregation.]
Abraham was a righteous man.
[Abraham nods and looks happy gives the thumbs up.]
He believed God’s word.
So God considered him righteous.
God had made wonderful promises to Abraham, like …
[Voice of God]
Abraham.
[Abraham looks up.]
Your descendants will be like the stars in the sky.
[Abraham motions to the sky.]
They will be as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the dust on the earth.
[Abraham motions to the ground and looks amazed.]
I will give your descendants this land.
[Abraham motions to the the ground again.]
I will bless you.
And every nation on earth will be blessed through you.’
[Narrator]
And God is trustworthy.
So after a long period of waiting, Abraham had a son, named Isaac.
[Enter Isaac]
And of course, Abraham loved Isaac.
[Abraham puts arm around Isaac's shoulder, then Isaac leaves stage again.]
But God wanted to test Abraham.
So God said to Abraham...
[Voice of God]
Abraham.
[Abraham's attention drawn, listening to God.]
Take your son, your only son, your only beloved son, Isaac.
[Abraham smiling.]
Go to the land of Moriah.
[Abraham still smiling.]
And offer Isaac as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will show you.
[Abraham looks shocked and stunned.]
[Narrator]
Abraham no doubt was shocked.
[Abraham scratches his head and with a heavy heart.]
Here is the Son who God had given him after such a long wait.
And now God says to kill him!
But Abraham made preparations anyway.
So Abraham got up early in the morning.
[Abraham stretching, yawning as if rising from sleep.]
He called two of his servants.
[Enter two servants, one carrying the sword and a bbq lighter, the other the bundle of twigs and a rope. ]
He prepared the wood for the burnt offering.
[Abraham fiddle with the bundle of twigs.]
And he got his son Isaac.
[Abraham goes and gets Isaac and brings him on stage.]
And together, they started the long journey to Moriah.
[Abraham and Isaac walk down the aisle to the end of the church building and then return, followed by the two servants, then they come back to the front of the church and stand at the foot of the stairs. ]
They walked for one day.
For two days.
And on the third day they reached Moriah.
And Abraham looked up and saw the place from a distance.
[Abraham looks up and sees the communion table.]
So he turned to his servants and said.
[Abraham turns around and faces the servants.]
"Stay here."
[Abraham repeats.]
"I and the boy will go up further."
[Abraham repeats.]
"We will worship God and then return to you.”
[Abraham repeats.]
So Abraham took the wood and laid it one his son Isaac.
[Abraham takes the wood and rope from the servants and places the wood on Isaac with the rope.]
And Abraham himself carried the fire and the knife.
[Abraham takes the light saber and the BBQ lighter.]
And Abraham and Isaac walked up the mountain together.
[Abraham and Isaac pretend to walk up the mountain to the communion rail.]
But then Isaac spoke to his father.
[Isaac stops and speaks to his father.]
“Father!"
[Isaac repeats. Abraham looks at Isaac and says ‘Yes Son’.]
"Look we have the fire and the wood."
[Isaac repeats.]
"But where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
[Isaac repeats.]
Now that’s a tricky questions!
And Abraham said to Isaac.
"God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son!"
[Abraham repeats.]
So they walked on.
And they came to the place God told Abraham about.
And Abraham built an altar there.
[Abraham pretends to build the altar, which is the communion table. ]
He arranged the wood on it.
[Abraham takes to bundle of twigs off Isaac and puts it on the communion table.]
He tied up his son Isaac.
[Abraham runs around Isaac with the rope, tying him up.]
And laid him on the wood on top of the altar.
[Abraham helps Isaac step up and sit on the edge of the communion table, in front of the bundle of twigs. ]
And then Abraham took out the knife to kill his son.
[Abraham takes the light saber and holds it out.]
But then God called out to Abraham.
[Voice of God]
"Abraham, Abraham, Stop!"
[Abraham stops and listens.]
"Do not harm the boy."
[Abraham drops his hands]
"Do nothing to him."
"For now I know that you fear God."
"Since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."
[Narrator]
And Abraham looked around, and saw a ram caught in a bush by the horns
[Abraham goes and gets the teddy bear caught in a branch.]
And he sacrificed the lamb in place of his Son.
[Abraham helps Isaac get down from the communion table. He undoes the rope. Then he puts the teddy bear on the wood, stabs it with the light sabre, and pretends to light the wood.]
And Abraham said.
‘I will call this place, “The Lord Will Provide”.
[Abraham repeat this line.]
And that’s where the saying came from.
“On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided”
And So Abraham went down the mountain with his Son Isaac, found his servants, and returned home.
[Abraham and Isaac go down from the communion table to the servants, and all of them return happily to the end of the church building.]
[Narrator only; everyone else freezes]
Abraham believed God.
But his faith worked.
His faith led to obedience.
And so it is with everyone who believes God.
Their faith works, and they obey God.
Genesis Index