006. Jonah’s Journey

Jonah’s Journey
About 5 minutes, from the Book of Jonah

Participants (No need to memorize lines; the aim is to relive sacred events,
not to perform)
Â Â Jonah
Â Â Ninevite
Â Â Prompter Â Â Â Â Â Shout a brief line, and Echoes repeat it.
Â Â EchoesÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Children and all adults who want to take part. Echoes need no script.

Jonah	(Walk, limping and groaning, toward Ninevite) Hello, friend. Tell me, please, which way is Nineveh?
Ninevite	Nineveh! Hey, man, you don’t want to go there! They’re really wicked! I know, because I’m also a Ninevite. What’s your name?
Jonah	I’m Jonah. You’re right; I don’t want to go to Nineveh, but the alternative is a bit worse.
Ninevite	Well, if you must go, there are the Ninevites! (Point)
Jonah	Yeah, they do look really bad! I see why the Almighty sent me to scold them.
Ninevite	Just hear them clamor!
Prompter & Echoes	More whiskey!
Ninevite	Oooo! What an odor! You are reeking of fish, Jonah! Ugh! You stink! Where have you been?
Jonah	If I told you, you’d not believe me.
Ninevite	Well, of course I would believe you; it’s obvious that you’ve been somewhere weird! You smell as if you swallowed a live fish!
Jonah	Well, it was sort of the other way around. I… No, you’d never believe me!
Ninevite	Of course I will believe you, Jonah.
Jonah	Okay. I was sailing to Tarshish, fleeing from where God had told me to go, to avoid declaring God’s punishment to Nineveh. Halfway across the sea, the Almighty sent a storm.
Prompter & Echoes	A violent storm!
Jonah	The boat was about to sink and I told the crew that it was my fault. They threw me overboard!
Prompter & Echoes	He’ll drown!
Ninevite	So how did you survive?
Jonah	God prepared a very big fish. It swallowed me, and God kept me alive. On the third day it puked me up on a beach.
Ninevite	Go on! Get out of here! (Raise your fist.)
Jonah	Goodbye, sir. Well, here is the city of Nineveh. Hear me, all you Ninevites! In forty days Almighty God will destroy you and your wicked city!
Prompter & Echoes	God’s judgment is fearful!
Jonah	Now I am sitting on a hill, waiting to watch the fire fall from heaven.
Ninevite	`But us Ninevites repent! We turn from sin to God, and cry out to him.
Prompter & Echoes	Mercy!
Jonah	There is more to my story, but that’s enough.
Prompter & Echoes	He’s ashamed to finish it!
Ninevite	I’ll tell the rest of your story, Jonah. You sit on a hill overlooking Nineveh, waiting to see the fire fall on us. But we repent; even our King puts on sackcloth. God does not destroy us as you had predicted, so you pout!
Jonah	And why not? I ask God to take my life.
Ninevite	However, God has a plant grow and shield you from the hot sun.
Jonah	Yes, but a worm attacks it, and I lose my shade.
Prompter & Echoes	Now Jonah’s really sore!
Ninevite	What’s wrong with you, Jonah? You cared more for a plant than for the lives of thousands of people!
Jonah	That was true. God asked me, â€œShould I not have compassion on Nineveh, with its more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand?â€
Prompter & Echoes	Thank you, God, for mercy!