Exploited from Luke 1:57-80 (The Message)
CHARACTERS
Elizabeth, aged, largely pregnant and then holding a baby, wearing a covering
Zachariah, aged, with a tablet
Crowd member 1
Crowd member 2
Crowd member 3
SCENE
In and in front of Zachariah’s and Elizabeth’s house
ELIZABETH: You know, Zachariah, you’ve been such a good husband all these years.
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): I’ve tried.
ELIZABETH: But I’ve got to say, these months of being pregnant–so many, many months–have been the best ever.
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): GR8. Y?
ELIZABETH: It seems that you have been much more attentive to the things I say or need. We haven’t argued at all! You listen so well. You don’t interrupt me when I tell you–
ZACHARIAH (chuckling without sound, writing furiously on tablet): Knock knock.
ELIZABETH (sighing): Who’s there?
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): The interrupting cow.
ELIZABETH (sighing): The interrupting co–
ZACHARIAH (writing furiously on tablet): Moo!
ELIZABETH (sighing): It’s been better, anyway. You know you’re not perfect, Zachie. But I love you anyway.
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): (sigh)
ELIZABETH: Oh my! Zachie, I think I just felt a contraction.
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): Are you sure it wasn’t the extra pepper I put in this morning’s scrambled eggs?
ELIZABETH: I’m sure–those eggs didn’t taste any different than all the others you’ve cooked for me every day for the last month. Oh no–here comes another contraction. Count seconds for me, Zachie, like we learned in the class we took called “Getting Ready for That Baby That Never Seems to Come.”
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): One
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): Two
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): Three
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): Four
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): My hand’s getting tired.
ELIZABETH (exasperated): You’re hand’s getting tired? Your hand’s getting tired? Oh, here’s another contraction.
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet to audience): Excuse us, please.
(Crowd members gather outside Zachariah and Elizabeth’s front door.)
CROWD MEMBER 1: Wow! Elizabeth had her baby!
CROWD MEMBER 2: How exciting! Can you believe it’s already been eight days since that little johnny cake popped out?
CROWD MEMBER 3: It was about time! I thought it would never happen!
CROWD MEMBER 1: God finally had mercy on her!
CROWD MEMBER 2 (knocking on Z&E’s closed door and calling out): We’ve come to circumcise your baby.
CROWD MEMBER 1: Let us in! I’ve got champagne and a hankering to have a christening. How about “Zachariah”?
CROWD MEMBER 3: How original. Zachariah?
(Zachariah opens the door and motions them inside.)
ELIZABETH: We want to name him John.
CROWD MEMBER 1: John? But that isn’t the name of his father, and wasn’t the name of his grandfather or great grandfather or great-great….you get the idea.
CROWD MEMBER 2: I have an idea! Let’s ask Zachariah what he wants to name the baby.
CROWD MEMBER 3: Great idea!
CROWD MEMBER 1: But how are we going to ask him that? He’s dumb, remember?
CROWD MEMBER 2: Oh. I’d forgotten. Don’t any of us know sign language?
CROWD MEMBER 3: I only know the words to “The Rose.” (waving hands like a dove) “Some say love….”
CROWD MEMBER 1: Okay. You try signing to him. Ask him what the baby’s name is to be.
CROWD MEMBER 3: (elaborate hand motions)
ZACHARIAH (writing on tablet): You’re signing gibberish. Maybe you should move to South Africa and sign for the president. His name is JOHN.
CROWD MEMBER 1: Wow! He agrees with his wife!
ZACHARIAH: Of course I do! Hey! I can talk! I have a loose tongue! Look! La-ba-la-ba-loo-loo-la-ba-LA!
ELIZABETH (disappointed): You can talk.
CROWD MEMBER 2: I feel a deep, reverential fear settling over our neighborhood.
CROWD MEMBER 3: In all of our Judean hill country, nobody’s going to talk about anything else.
CROWD MEMBER 1: What will become of this child? This is downright a little bit strange.
CROWD MEMBER 2: I think God must have a hand in this.
CROWD MEMBER 3: Clearly he’s going to be healthy and spirited, and he will live out in the desert until the day he makes his prophetic debut in Israel.
CROWD MEMBER 1: How’d you know that?
ZACHARIAH: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he came and set his people free.
He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives,
and in the very house of David his servant,
Just as he promised long ago
through the preaching of his holy prophets:
Deliverance from our enemies
and every hateful hand;
Mercy to our fathers,
as he remembers to do what he said he’d do,
What he swore to our father Abraham—
a clean rescue from the enemy camp,
So we can worship him without a care in the world,
made holy before him as long as we live.
And you, my child, “Prophet of the Highest,”
will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways,
Present the offer of salvation to his people,
the forgiveness of their sins.
Through the heartfelt mercies of our God,
God’s Sunrise will break in upon us,
Shining on those in the darkness,
those sitting in the shadow of death,
Then showing us the way, one foot at a time,
down the path of peace.