Script

Guest Post from David Moore

Readings

Genesis 1 :24-31 & John 1 :1-5, 14 (text below)

Leader: Have you ever wondered what God was doing before the dawn of time? Here’s a flashback to a Trinity Planning session.

Father: Do you ever feel lonely?

Spirit: What do you mean? There’s the three of us, and it is perfect.

Son: I think I know what you mean. Yes, it is perfect, and we are in harmony, but I wish we could share it with someone.

Father: Yes, that’s it. Let’s create someone to share heaven with. But what would it be like?

Spirit: We could make a whole world of people

Son: And animals, and fish and birds

Spirit: And so many beautiful things that it will take the people thousands of years to discover them!

Father: And the people would be like us. I mean, not like, ‘God in heaven’, but with feelings, and the capacity to love, to create, to make relationships. To make choices, have responsibilities, to have fun, to laugh.

[pause, Father looks upset]

Spirit: What’s the matter?

Father: We want to love them, and we want them to love us too, so it will all be perfect.

Son: I feel a ‘but’ coming

Father: Yes, for their love to be real, and satisfying to us, they have to have the free will to choose it. I mean, we don’t want robots that are just programmed to love us, do we?

Spirit: No, I quite agree.

Father: And you remember the angel Lucifer? The Angel of Light, we called him. He showed such promise. He had free choice, and chose pride. Pity we had to throw him out of Heaven last week, but we had no choice. And now he seems to be Hell-bent on destroying everything we try to do.

Son: And you think that our beautiful people will get taken in by his lies?

Father: I don’t just think so, I know. It’s so sad.

Spirit: But we’re going to create them anyway?

Father: Yes, I think so. . . . Yes.

[pause, Son looks reflective]

Son: And if, when they sin and turn their own way, and reject the love and good things we will shower on them, that will spoil everything. I mean, we can’t just welcome them into heaven anyway, because that will bring sin into heaven, and will corrupt us as well.

Spirit: Quite.

Father: But we can’t abandon them, or stop loving them, no matter what they do.

Son: I have a plan. Once these people have sinned, we have no choice but to reject them. They will deserve punishment. But what if someone, who had no sin of their own to be punished for, took their guilt and paid the price?

Father: But there’s only us three in that position.

Son: [pause] I can do it.

Spirit: Are you sure? You would have to become like one of them, you know.

Son: Yes, for it to be real, I would have to live like them. Live on their planet, constrained by time and space. Be born as a pauper. Know their feelings. Be tempted just like them.

Father: And make friends amongst them. And and be rejected by them as well, I suppose.

Spirit: You know that we would be with you all the way. You would be able to chat with us every day about how you are getting on. The bond between us need never be broken.

Father: [with sadness] Except for one day.

Spirit: What do you mean?

Father: On that one Friday afternoon. When you actually carry their guilt, when their sin is in you, when you actually take their punishment, Spirit and I will have to treat you like a sinner, and turn our backs on you, and leave you on your own. I’m so sorry.

Son: That will be the hardest bit. I can just imagine it, the day before, sick with worry about being rejected by you. Asking you to reassure me that it is what you really want. Preparing myself to go through with it.

Father: We will really feel for you. These people, some of them will understand a bit about what it is like to be separated from someone they love, or to loose them altogether. And it will be so much harder than that for Spirit and myself. I think we will be crying our eyes out.

Spirit: It will also be such a risk. Lucifer will be all out to get you to put a foot wrong. And if you do, if you sin just once, then you won’t be the perfect sacrifice, once for all, but will take the just punishment for your own sin. And then we would be separated for ever. Lucifer would have won.

Son: I know. I feel the heavy responsibility. But I am sure I can do it.

Father: Of course, Lucifer doesn’t know our plans. When he sees you suffering and dying, as people do his bidding, he will think he has won.

Spirit: But he doesn’t know that death cannot hold God. He will get such a shock when Easter comes, when you burst out, back into life, and realise that he has lost.

Father: And then we will be able to welcome everyone who wants to join us to share Heaven with us.

Son: But we won’t, in fact we can’t, force them. If they choose to carry on regardless of our rescue plan, then they have to accept responsibility for their choice.

All: And that will be Hell.

Bible Text

Genesis 1 :24-31

God spoke: “Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind:
cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds.”
And there it was:
wild animals of every kind,
Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug.
God saw that it was good.

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image,
make them reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”

Then God said, “I’ve given you
every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food.
To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes,
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.”
And there it was.

God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Six.

John 1 :1-5, 14

In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him. The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.

The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son.