Resources for Advent 2006
By Barb Ballenger
Note for Religious Educators, Catholic Teachers, and Youth Ministers: This brief Advent/Christmas drama and follow up questions can be used during your youth group meeting or religious education class to introduce some of the global concerns that underlie the Catholic Campaign Against Global Poverty and to get your young people thinking about how they can be a part of the effort. For more information on the campaign, visit (www.usccb.org/globalpoverty) or (www.catholicrelief.org/globalpoverty).
Invite some adult facilitators or theatrical youth volunteers to prepare this skit ahead of time. It can be done with scripts in hand if necessary, but would flow better if the participants have run through it a few times.
Roles:
A reader
Mary
Joseph
Shepherd
Teen
Props:
A large empty box to be used as a manger.
A feather duster.
Scene: As reader proclaims the passage from Isaiah 11, characters dressed as Mary, Joseph and a Shepherd arrange themselves in the classic manger scene posing around a large empty box. Mary kneels to one side of the box with hands crossed over heart. Joseph stands behind the box, inclined toward it. Shepherd is on the other side, down on one knee. All peer adoringly into the empty box.
Reader: But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.
Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide. But he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land's afflicted. …
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.
Teen walks in with a feather duster. Stops to the side of the manger scene and looks it up and down.
Teen: I can’t believe my parents built such a huge manger scene this year! You can see it from down the street! They did do a great job repainting these old figures, though – they look totally real. But I can’t believe my mom is making me dust the snow off of them – she has so got to be kidding. I’m mean, they’re outside; they’re supposed to get snowy.
Teen reaches in and dusts the shepherd who squirms.
Shepherd – Hey don’t do that!? I’m ticklish.
Teen-- Oh-m-gosh! Stumbles away from Shepherd. You are totally real! MOM!!!
Mary – She can’t hear you dear. She just pulled out of the driveway.
Joseph – Yea. And someone should look under the hood, too. Her car’s burning oil. The fumes are killing us out here.
Teen– This is too weird. I must be watching too much TV… Wait I get it. This is one of those reality TV shows!! Where are the cameras? Do you guys, like, have to see who can live in our manger scene the longest? I can’t believe my front yard is going to be on TV! Will this be on cable?
Shepherd – Sorry kid. This isn’t reality TV. Just plain old reality.
Teen– Dude, you can’t be serious? You mean I’m talking to Jesus, Mary and Joseph? Awesome!
Mary – Well almost. Jesus isn’t here.
Teen– What do you mean he’s not here? Notices the empty box. Hey! Where’s the Baby Jesus? My mom spent hours repainting him. She’s gonna freak.
Joseph – We’re rather upset ourselves. We’ve looked all over the crčche. The little scamp has toddled off again.
Shepherd – I told you, he’s been planning something ever since we heard those news reports on the radio.
Teen – You’ve got a radio in the manger?
Mary – Well your father borrowed your clock radio so he could pipe in Christmas music. I know he should have asked you, but he meant well.
Joseph -- We’ve been tuning in National Public Radio when no one was around.
Shepherd – And the news has not been good. I think the little tyke finally had enough.
Teen– What news? What’s been going on that would upset the Baby Jesus so much?
Joseph –Meaning no disrespect my child, but WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
Mary –Now Joseph, don’t scold. Well let’s see, there was Hurricane Katrina that hit the gulf coast in September. Jesus was so upset when he heard that the poor were left behind again. That’s just the opposite of how he wants things to happen.
Joseph – Then Hurricane Stan hit Latin America. Two-thousand dead and more than half a million affected. They say it’s worse than Hurricane Mitch, but maybe you’re too young to remember that one.
Shepherd – And then there was the earthquake that hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Forty-thousand people were lost in Pakistan alone.
Joseph – We didn’t even mention the famine in West Africa
Shepherd – Or the 32 wars we had just last year.
Mary – Or the AIDS pandemic.
Teen– But hurricanes and earthquakes are natural disasters, what do you call it … acts of God. Why would Jesus be so upset by something that God did?
Joseph – Oooh. Don’t say that around the Christ Child. He hates it when people try to pin these things on the Creator.
Mary – It’s not the acts of God that get him, dear. It’s the actions of people. Or really, the inactions of people.
Teen– I’m, like, so confused.
Joseph – You see, you have to understand how Jesus looks at things. He always judges situations like these by how the poor and weak are treated.
Shepherd – He means people like us shepherds -- living hand to mouth. Do you know how many people in the world today don’t have things like food, shelter, clean water, education? Three billion people -- just about half.
Joseph – And when disasters strike, they are the ones who can’t get out of harm’s way. And then they don’t have the money it takes to rebuild, or pay for medical treatment, or grow new crops or send their kids to school, let alone feed them.
Mary -- Jesus gets so upset, because we all know that there’s more than enough resources in the world to help them.
Teen– So Baby Jesus had enough and took off? He just left the scene?
Shepherd – No, I’ve been trying to tell you. We were all checking out the stars tonight, when I heard him say he was going to get help. Then when we looked, he was gone!
Mary – Oh that little angel!
Teen– Get help? In my town? Was he going to the police?
Joseph – Oh no, I don’t think so.
Mary – In fact, I’d say that help has arrived.
Teen– What do you mean? There’s no one here but you and me.
Shepherd – Well the Christ Child said he was going to get help and then you appeared.
Teen– Hold the phone! I’m just a kid. I don’t have any power or money. All I have on me is a, a … feather duster.
Joseph – Ah, “say not I am too young” to quote the book of Jeremiah. You are the type that usually gets called upon in these situations.
Teen: Like that will really change the world.
Mary – Oh it does, it does, every day. You’re not the only one, mind you. You’re just the one who happened to show up today. And you have friends. I’m sure that if you talk to them, they’ll help you.
Teen– Help me do what, exactly?
Shepherd – Bring glad tidings to the poor – not just new shoes but Good News! Stir things up a little! Demand some changes. Start reading the paper, listen to the radio reports. And try to look at things the way the Christ Child does.
Teen– You mean judge things by how the poor are treated?
Mary – The poor, the unwanted, the left out – you know … “those people.” When they feel like your own brothers and sisters, you’ll know you’re getting somewhere.
Teen– Do you really think that’s what the Baby Jesus has in mind?
Joseph – You are welcome to ask him anytime. But now, you’d better get inside. It’s getting nippy.
Teen– Are you going to be alright out here? My dad said the temperature’s going to drop below zero.
Mary – We’re not the only family out in the cold tonight. When you think of us, think of them. Then have a talk with my Son. He’ll tell you what to do.
Teen– Ok then… Good night. Starts to leave then stops and turns back. Um … Merry Christmas.
All – Merry Christmas.
Teen walks off.
Joseph – calling after the teen -- And a Happy New Year.
Shepherd – What I wouldn’t give for one of those.
All nod once and return to their manger scene pose.
Follow Up Questions:
- How many were aware of some of the news that Mary, Joseph and the Shepherd were referring to? Have any of you been involved in responding in some way?
- What did you think of Joseph’s statement that young people are often the ones that God calls to bring about great changes in the world?
- Can you think of any examples from Scripture where young people were called by God? (examples would be David, Samuel, Jeremiah, Mary, Jesus?)
- Are you aware of young people today who are responding not just to the immediate need but to the issues that lie underneath? (A great example of this is Craig and Mark Kielburger. Read about their work in child rights issues at http://www.freethechildren.com/pressroom/source/news/2005/
The_Toronto_Star_sep24_05_The_Kielburger_crusade.pdf)
- What are some things that you can do in the New Year to make 2007 a better year for the poor in your community and in the world? Go to www.usccb.org/globalpoverty or www.catholicrelief.org/globalpoverty and learn about public policy issues you might work on to address global poverty. Choose one to write a letter about before the next group meeting.