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Sample Dialogue: "Wilderness Options"

About Wilderness Options

It is possible that, when studying familiar parables and passages, we become locked into one way of thinking or one way of hearing the familiar words. Sometimes a fresh understanding does not grow with the readerand a bible study of the familiar might be like having a map to the mall. We know it so well we stop looking. WILDERNESS OPTIONS is a series of vignettes based on some familiar passages of the Gospel of Matthew, presented by some rather odd characters. These characters may entice a thespian. But they also may open a new, unexplored pathway to the familiar words.

These dramatic vignettes are intended to be played by adult actors as discussion starters for an adult class Lenten discussion group or a bible study. You may find that they are a suitable format for use as a weekly discussion group (or a bible study group) during Lent. This was the original intention. The dramatic pieces with the bizaare characters may be used independently (not necessarily in the series) since one does not build on the other.

Each of these 6 segments includes a biblical reference, a dramatic vignette, some discussion questions, and a last-ditch brief commentary -- not intended as a sermon -- but rather to fill in the gaps if discussion is not forthcoming. These six are contained in the Guidebook.

Each of these 6 vignettes is between one and three pages long, and involves a GUIDE -- or Leader for the group, who is a character in the vignette, along with one or two other characters. The GUIDE then becomes the leader for the discussion. The GUIDE may be the same person each week, or this part may be passed around. Other than the GUIDE, the characters need to be developed and brought to life.

The six vignettes are:

Matthew 4:1-10 The Stranger

Matthew 2:1-22 The Two Wise Men

Matthew 5:3-12 Santa & Grace

Matthew 8:28-33 The Pig Pen Dialogue

Matthew 7:7 The Duchess of Winning

Matthew 9:1-8 Thank God I am Healed!

The cost for the Wilderness Options package is $39.50, with individual scripts available for $7.95 each.

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Sample Dialogue for Wilderness Options

The following dialogue is taken from vignette number five, "The Duchess of Winning".

(Production Note: This DUCHESS OF WINNING character is elaborately adorned as a fairy tale DUCHESS OF WINNING. Spare no extravagance -- a huge skirt, a lame' cape, a red wig, a crown, whatever has glitz and flounce. The costume is one thing. But the person in the costume is no stereotypical DUCHESS OF WINNING.)

DUCHESS OF WINNING: (enters) Please, just keep your seats. No need to rise or curtsey. I am no more royalty than anyone else. I am the fairy-god thing, mother -- child whatever.

GUIDE: We are trying to set our sights on biblical images, right at this moment. We are not really thinking of fairy tales and myths.

DUCHESS OF WINNING: (Planting herself solidly in a conspicuous seat.) You mean, I don't really fit in here?

GUIDE: You could say that. Why did you come?

DUCHESS OF WINNING: I came to tell you about "happily ever after." I think you are heading there, and I think you should know about it. I've been there, and I know what it is all about.

GUIDE: "Happily ever after?" By "ever after" do you mean, you are an angel from heaven?

DUCHESS OF WINNING: Oh, no, no, no. ... Not that happily, and not that ever after either. No. I am just a simple fairy - god thing that appears after the interesting part of the story ends. Happily ever after could be retirement, or middle aged, it could be anything you plan for and then get. For me, it was winning at BINGO. I always said, if I just could win at BINGO I could live happily ever after.

Did you ever wish for something? Then did you ever get what you wished for? That is when you are living happily ever after.

I wished for a win at BINGO, and I got it. It was a huge win, the win I had always wished for. And now, here I am, living happily ever after, just like the fairy tale duchess who gets what she wanted.

I came home that night with a grocery bag full of cash. My husband took a wad of cash and bought a new car, and he drove away. I paid off the debts and paid ahead on the oil bill, I thought it would be a cold winter. But it wasn't. Then I bought this royal wardrobe so people would know I am not "old money."

I started worrying what people would think, and then I realized, I was wishing again, and my wishes were getting more and more complicated. I was wishing for people to want to be with me. I was wishing for long life and good health, a new husband, lots of friends, nothing was simple any more. There was no BINGO parlor big enough for all my wishes. It was like that school kid's story of the guy who wanted porridge and when he got his wish it flooded the whole town.

Happily ever after, when you get what you wished for, is all made of more wishes. They are complicated wishes that change everything.

You need to know that right now. You are coming right up on the part of the bible where Jesus says, "Ask and it shall be given to you. Knock and you shall find."

GUIDE: Maybe we should not think of that literally. Maybe that means that God will give us just what we need.

DUCHESS OF WINNING: It says that too, doesn't it? No, the bible clearly means what it says. I sat down that night in the BINGO parlor, and I said, "Dear God, did you really mean what you said about �Ask and it shall be given,' or was that just mumbo jumbo to keep me comin' to church?."

GUIDE: And God answered you?

DUCHESS OF WINNING: A voice from heaven said, "B-2" and I answered back, "Bingo." And I knew that God meant it. "Ask and it will be given to you. Knock and it shall be opened."

Now I ask you, what is it that you would ask for if you had the courage just to walk right up to God and say, "Gimmee...?." If you ask for lots of money, you get lots of money, but you get stuck in a world where lots of money is all there is. What can you buy but more money stuff? If you ask for lots of porridge, you get lots of porridge, but you might be needing hip boots, and you forgot to ask for hip boots. If you ask for healing, or love or friends, or relief for the poor and hungry, God just might make you the fairy god thing that answers the prayers. You might end up right there in the middle of the healing process, right there loving, right there being a friend. You want to feed the hungry? You might end up actually unloading the truck full of food. Did you ever think about that? Just be very careful when you ask God for things.

How do you think Jesus ended up like that on the cross? Maybe he didn't ask God for good health and a long life. Maybe he asked God to do whatever God needed to show that God loves the world and cares for all the people. If that was his wish he got what he asked for, big time.

I just want to warn you while there is time. Be careful what you ask for, and remember if your wishes are for fishes, you might not be able to haul in your nets.

GUIDE: If your wishes are for fishes, you might not be able to haul in your nets.

DUCHESS OF WINNING: That's right. And here is another tip.(whispering) B-2. (Exits)

Suggestions for Discussion from "The Duchess of Winning"

Begin by reading Matthew 6:7-12, then discuss some or all of the following:

Tell about an experience like the Duchess of Winning was described where you asked for something in prayer, and was given to you

In your experience how was your real prayer answered?

How was the interpretation presented by the Duchess of Winning of "ask and it will be given" either the same or different from your ideas about this?

Read Matthew 6:9-11, where Jesus compares God with a loving parent. How does your experience with God's gifts compare with gifts given to you by a parent? Tell about a time when God's gifts to you seemed weighty and life changing.

Do you feel there are some things for which you should never ask God? Why (or why not)? (In the example the Duchess of Winning talked about Jesus crucifixion. -- The prayer where Jesus talks with God about this is Matthew 26:39)

How big a part in filling the prayer request do you expect to be done by the person asking? For example, the Duchess talks about an implied personal responsibility in solving issues like world hunger.

How would you define "happily ever after?" Is it worth the asking?

Comments

(Just in case it is one of those days when no one really wants to share personal answers for the sake of discussion, the following comments are offered.) A motivational speaker encourages her audience to define goals and then go after them. Common sense tells us that is the stuff of "success." In fact, "success" is, by definition, the accomplishment of goals. It is all so simple and obvious. So why is every person not immediately successful? Nearly every book or lecture on success spends most of the content discussing some sort of obstacles to success. These obstacles so often take the form of "You did not ask." "You did not knock."

So why not? Some of the reasons people avoid asking and knocking are fear of the unknown, even if it is success, fear of change, even if it is change for the better. There is fear of the possibility of having a personal committment to the success. And there is the fear that was the very thing Jesus faced. The requirement may difficult. The steps to accomplishing the success may involve a cross. If we say to God, "Give me this... or make me into that..., but God, do it your way," ("Thy will be done"), we could be in real trouble by asking or knocking. If this strange newly rich royalty -- the Duchess of Winning -- has a message for us at all, it is that we may have to live into the "happily ever after" part of our request.