Who is outside God’s mercy and love? A Skit about Jonah
This is a skit based on the 3rd and 4th chapters of Jonah, with some notes for how to incorporate the 1st and 2nd chapters into a worship service as well. I have preached regularly on Jonah, but decided to do the whole book in one service, ending with a skit instead of a sermon as the whole service is designed to pull us into the story. I offer the skit (and the brief outline of the first two parts of worship) to any who might want to use it!
Jonah 1: I opened the service with an interactive time with the children recapping the first chapter of Jonah, the part of the story all of us know. You can use a children’s book, or puppets, or even write another skit. Or you can use something like this song modeled by Dr. Emily Aronoff.
Jonah 2: Next, I invited the congregation to pray their own version of the prayer in the second chapter of Jonah with me. Jonah 2 is an entire chapter mashing up other psalms. A remix, if you will, to make up a prayer from a newly contrite heart. I had people open their Bibles to the psalms and lift up a line from one of them that felt true to them that day. May this new amalgamation of the psalms do what it did for Jonah- help bring us out of the whale bellies we are stuck in.
Jonah 3 and 4: I ended with this skit- “Who is outside God’s mercy and love?” You’ll need someone to play GOD (preferably a child), someone to play JONAH (preferably someone in the community with some authority who is also very good at whining), and someone from within the congregation to play a NINEVITE.
GOD: Jonah!
JONAH: Here we go again. What?
GOD: Get up, go to Ninevah, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.
JONAH: *sigh* Fine. Oof. I still smell like fish. Oh well. (walks through congregation) Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! (repeat)
NINEVITE: (stands, speaks to congregation) Oh no! Did you hear that? Whatever shall we do?! (wrings hands…and tries to get congregation to offer suggestions) Do you think, maybe, we should change our ways? Treat one another with love and compassion, maybe? Stop hurting and harming one another? We could try. (grab Bible) In scripture, repentance often is shown with fasting. I mean, yes people get hangry, but it is hard to get into too much trouble if you are busy fasting. And sackcloth! (grab burlap and maybe do a twirl) I’m sure you all have your sackcloth right at the front of your wardrobe. Put that on all of you. Let us all cry mightily to God! Who knows? God may relent and change Their mind! Maybe God won’t be so fiercely angry with us!
JONAH: Good luck with that, you terrible people.
GOD: Ahem.
JONAH: I mean, repent, repent, repent. Ok, can I be done now?
GOD: Jonah- look!
JONAH: I don’t see anything.
GOD: You aren’t looking! They are actually not just wearing sackcloth and praying- they are actually changing! They are turning from their evil ways!
JONAH: Yeah, ok, too little too late. Sucks for them.
GOD: Um. I could have said that about you in the whale.
JONAH: Running away from you wasn’t half as bad as what they have done. You are a God of justice! Doesn’t that matter to you? They hurt people. They rejected you. But then they said sorry and did like one nice thing and that makes it all better? No, that isn’t you. That shouldn’t be you.
GOD: I mean, you aren’t wrong.
JONAH: I know.
GOD: But…
JONAH: (suspicious eyes)
GOD: (shrugs)
JONAH: No way.
GOD: (sighs) Look, Jonah, they listened. They didn’t just say they are sorry. They turned from their evil ways! I’m not gonna destroy them after all. I think they can try again.
JONAH: What?! What?! This…this is why I fled to Tarshish! It wasn’t because I didn’t want to come to Nineveh. It was because I had this sinking suspicion that you were going to let your compassion get the better of you. You are gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. And that sounds good on paper, until you look at people like the Ninevites. You need to punish the guilty. If someone does a terrible thing, then terrible things should happen to them. If someone does good things, then good things should happen to them. It is a simple equation. And you, by the way, talk a big talk about justice too, and how you want justice for the poor and abused. Where’s that justice now? You know what? I don’t want to live in this kind of world. I want to live in a more just world. So, just kill me God.
GOD: Oh Jonah. Is it right for you to be angry?
JONAH: Heck yes it is. Look, I don’t want to talk to you right now, ok? I’m just going to go over here where I have a good view of the city and let you think about what you are going to do. (goes and sits)
GOD: (pulls out palm branch, holds it over Jonah)
JONAH: Ok, don’t tell God this, but what a beautiful day, am I right? This bush is keeping the sun off of me, so I can just sit here and wait for God to come to Their senses.
GOD: (toss away branch)
JONAH: Oh man. Now it is hot. I don’t feel good. And I still smell a little fishy! I’m so tired of it all. It is better for me to die than live.
GOD: (comes over and sits next to Jonah) It is right for you to be angry about that bush?
JONAH: Yes. Angry enough to die.
GOD: (shaking head) You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor, and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also many animals?
JONAH: (crosses arms, looks grouchy)
GOD: (stands, looks at congregation) Who is outside of my mercy and love? The incarcerated? Immigrants, maybe? China, Russia, or North Korea? People who voted differently than you? People who talk loudly at the theater? Did I not make them all? Is there not still a possibility for them to turn their lives around?
Who is outside of my mercy and love? And do you get to make that decision?
Jonah’s story ends here. These questions aren’t answered by him or by me. We are left to take up these questions for ourselves.
