SermonStudio

Worship Aid

A Chancel Drama suggestion for the sermon, "What Are You Holding On To?" is titled "Crossing The Desert (Of Life) And Findin' Nuttin' But Sand, Sun, And Superficiality." It is an original drama by Arley K. Fadness.

Synopsis: A traveler crossing the desert (of life) seeks a cool drink that will really satisfy. A bartender offers drinks that are only temporary. The traveler meets other travelers who are thirsty as well. All conclude they are thirsty for something more lasting than what the bartender has to offer.

This chancel drama is a setup for preaching to the theme of "The Need To Believe That Life Has Meaning And Purpose."

* * *

Crossing The Desert (Of Life) And Findin' Nuttin' But Sand, Sun, And Superficiality

Text: Luke 18:18-30

Theme: The Need To Believe That Life Has Meaning And Purpose

Characters:
Travis (a travelin' man)
Bartender Joe
Olympic Athlete Chad
Sad Selma, college dropout
Clancy Clown, dressed as a clown

Tone: Mix of humorous and serious

Setting/Props: The Last Chance Bar

Approximate time: 5-6 minutes

__________

(Music: Sons of the Pioneers' "Cool, Cool Water" or some current "water" song)

Travis: (Appears on stage, crawling on the floor) Water, water, bottled, Artesian, mineral, anything wet!

Bartender: How about this Handy Wipe? Heh, heh. Just kiddin', podner. What'll you have?

Travis: (Groans) I'm dying.

Bartender: Mortuary's across the street.

Travis: (Starts rising, leans on bar) Hey -- I've been crossing this here desert fer three days now. Canteen went dry yesterday. 108 in the shade.

Bartender: (Leaning on bar) Yeah, it's hot out there.

Travis: (Feels bartender's face) Sure you're not one of them mirages?

Bartender: (Laughs) Well, I might be and I might not be. What'll you have?

Travis: Whatiyah got?

Bartender: Depends on your taste. Yah really thirsty?

Travis: Could drink the Mississippi dry today.

Bartender: You crossed the Mahara Desert you say?

Travis: Yep.

Bartender: By foot?

Travis: Naw.

Bartender: Mule? Horseback?

Travis: (Mysteriously) Neither.

Bartender: You gotta Jeep out there? (Points outside)

Travis: Yep.

Bartender: Really!

Travis: It's mine.

Bartender: Came in that? And you're thirsty?

Travis: Yep. Now whatchya got to drink?

Bartender: (Still talking about the Jeep) Air conditioned?

Travis: Yep. What's in that jug? (Points)

Bartender: (Puzzled) Don't see any sand on it. None on yer clothes.

Travis: Jeep's airtight. Four-wheel drive. Cell phone. Passenger TV. Got it all.

Bartender: Whoa -- you got all that and still you're thirsty??? You got to be kiddin'.

Travis: (Angrily) Hey, dude. Is this the Last Chance Bar or what? Ya got drinks, ain't yah?

Bartender: (Regains composure) Well, yes -- and your trip across the Mahara Desert hasn't taken you three days, has it? (Pause) How old are you, friend?

Travis: Thirty. (Irritated) What's that got to do with gourds in Greece?

Bartender: Your desert travels have really taken you thirty years! Not three days.

Travis: Well -- yeah. If you put it that way. I'm bummed!

Bartender: Okay. I see.

Travis: See what?

Bartender: Here's (show bottle) what might help. Tranquility for the Trail. Improves your self-worth. Only temporary though.

Travis: Naw. What else yah got?

Bartender: Well, here's a blend of Hopps and Barley. Called Ego Booster.

Travis: I'm really thirsty -- could use a shot of that.

Bartender: (Shows another jug) Gin and Grin. Great upper.



Travis: (Pushes sample drinks aside) Naw, I need a real drink! Something, something --

Bartender: Yes?

Travis: Something that satisfies not just here but here. (Points to stomach and then heart) Something deep.

Bartender: You mean spiritual? I'm not a priest -- (brightly) but I do priestly things.

Travis: Like?

Bartender: Like listen to confessions, give advice, counsel...

Travis: Oh, yeah? Give me something that really lasts, will yah? What's with him? (Points to athletic-type person who is very morose and has been sitting at the bar.)

Bartender: He just came in before you. Said he's thirsty, too.

Travis: Hey, how ya doin'?

Chad: Who, me?

Travis: Yeah. Been in the desert?

Chad: Yep. Just came back from the Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Travis: How'd you do?

Chad: Won a medal. 200 meter dash. Worked for ten years for that goal. (Brightens up) Wow! Was that something great! (Gets excited; jumps up) I ran. I ran with everything I got... ooo...

Bartender: I saw you on TV. Great run. Let's see your medal. Quite a thrill, eh?

Chad: (Glumly) You know it was then. It was great... but...

Travis: But what?

Chad: Now what? For years I dieted, trained, disciplined, worked out, ran hard, achieved my goal... but now what?

Bartender: (To Travis) I think he's actually depressed.

Travis: You're right -- Father -- (laughs) ... What about her? (Points to a sad Selma)

Bartender: Dunno. Comes in every day from the desert. Orders a Gin and Grin. Says she's a college dropout. No major. Not even a minor. She says she's not sure where she's going. Kinda confused. Generation X, you know.

Travis: What about him? (Spotlight on clown who has been in the shadows till now)

Bartender: Ask him.

Travis: Hey, I'm Travis. Just came off the desert. How are you doing, man?

Clown: Clancy Clown's my name.

Travis: What do you do?

Clown: Make people laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh. (Fakes laugh; goes into a routine) You know why cannibals don't eat clowns, don't cha? (Pause) Cause they taste funny. Ha Ha. (After a few antics goes and sits sadly at the bar.)

Bartender: And what makes you laugh?

Clown: Nobody. (Long pause) Just give me one of them... (points to a jug)

Travis: (To bartender) You've got a good business here, Joe.

Bartender: Unfortunately, yes.

Travis: Unfortunately?

Bartender: Yes, unfortunately. I'd rather do something else. Sure I'm kinda priestly for some, but I'd rather you folks got a drink that lasted, that filled you deep and quenched your true thirst. Something that kept you healthy and fulfilled and focused...

Travis: Yeah -- I know what you mean!

(Music)

The End

__________

What Are You Holding On To?

Luke 18:18-30

"A certain ruler asked him (Jesus), 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus said..."

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I am pleased to announce a Preaching Series based on a recent poll on the spiritual needs of Americans. According to George Gallup Jr., six spiritual needs surfaced in that nationwide poll. They are:

1) The need to believe life is meaningful and has a purpose.

2) The need for a sense of community and deeper relationships.

3) The need to be appreciated and respected.

4) The need to be listened to and to be heard.

5) The need to feel that one is growing in faith.

6) The need for practical help in developing a mature faith.1

This morning we consider the number one need of believing life is meaningful and has a purpose. Seventy percent of those polled cited this need. Let me begin with a marvelous story Michael Foss tells. It's about an executive in a high-rise office building in New York City.

The executive had a seven-foot fluorescent light that had burned out. But in the office building only the janitors could replace light bulbs, and the cost was twenty dollars. In his mind this was exorbitant. So he decided he would replace it himself. He went to a lighting outlet near his home and bought the proper light bulb and got up early the next day, drove his car into town, caught the subway into the city, carrying the seven-foot fluorescent bulb all the way, and sneaked in through the foyer before anyone else was there except the security guard. Then he replaced the bulb. He took the old tube and placed it up against the wall behind his desk chair so no one would see it. And for the rest of the day he pondered how he would get the burned-out bulb past the janitors. Finally he had an idea. He had seen a construction site near where he had boarded the subway, so he would stay late, sneak out of the building carrying the burned-out tube and toting it on the subway, and get off at his stop. But instead of going to his car, he would take the tube to that construction site and put it in their dumpster.

So he called his wife and told her he would be working late. He waited until well after six o'clock and successfully sneaked through the lobby, and, holding the fluorescent tube vertically, sat down on the subway.

And that's when events overtook him. An amazing thing began to happen. As the subway began to fill up, more and more people came and held on to that fluorescent light as if it were a stanchion. Finally, when he reached his destination there were six people hanging on to his light tube and he had a better idea. When his stop arrived, he simply got up and walked out... leaving those six people holding onto his fluorescent light as if it were a stanchion.2

Beloved People of God, the number one question this morning is: What Are You Holding On To? What gives your life meaning and purpose?

A certain young man, a rich young ruler, came to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Another way to ask it is: "How do I find meaning and purpose in life and in the life to come?"

This rich young ruler, no doubt, was a good person. But there gnawed at him a restlessness and a feeling that something was lacking within his heart and soul.

He was searching for something to fill the void. He needed something to hang on to.

Dr. Victor Frankl, a concentration camp survivor and a psychotherapist, wrote a wonderful book titled Man's Search For Meaning. The book is now in its seventy-third printing. It has been published in twenty languages, and the English editions alone have sold over 2.5 million copies.

When asked about the success of his book, Frankl replied, "I do not at all see in the best-seller status of my book so much an achievement and accomplishment on my part, as an expression of the misery of our time; if hundreds of thousands of people reach out for a book whose very title promises to deal with the question of meaning in life, it must burn under their fingernails."3

Come back to the New York executive. I wonder what happened at the end of the line? I picture a man or woman suddenly discovering that he or she is left holding a burned-out fluorescent light tube and not a subway stanchion after all, and I wonder what he or she did with it.

Or, a more unpleasant scenario might be that the subway car came to a sudden stop and those who were holding the burned-out tube dramatically discovered that what they thought was a source of security and stability was neither. What a mess!

What are you holding on to? You want your life to be filled with meaning and purpose. Can we find it by trying to obey the Law?

The young ruler did not murder. He did not commit adultery. He honored his father and mother. He obeyed the commandments, at least this is what he told Jesus. But the Law never brings happiness. It brings either pride or despair.

What are you holding on to? Your wealth? The young ruler was rich. But he couldn't give it up. "His countenance fell," says the Bible. He went away sad and discouraged.

Is there meaning in what you buy and sell and create and invent? You've seen the sign, "I Shop Till I Drop." Or that bumper sticker, "This Car Stops At All Garage Sales." What are you holding on to?

Will success do it? It didn't for Buzz Aldrin. Remember Buzz Aldrin? Over two decades ago we listened intently to the radio as first Neil Armstrong and then Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon. These two men quickly became household names. Their accomplishment was legend.

Even though two decades have passed since their moonwalks, you still might recall Aldrin and Armstrong's years of hard work, dedication, and discipline that prepared them to walk on the moon. What you might not recall, however, was Aldrin's later emotional breakdown and his slow, painful recovery.

Buzz Aldrin said it resulted from the terrible disillusionment he felt after working so hard, achieving every goal set before him, and then finding it all empty when it was over. His dreams, fantastic though they were, were not lasting enough. He walked on the moon, but after that -- no purpose, no meaning.

Nowadays there's a great search for meaning in self. I read somewhere that just before Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as president, someone made an attempt to assassinate him. After the would-be assassin was captured, the authorities grilled him. "Are you a member of the Ku Klux Klan?" "No." "Are you a member of a radical union?" "No." Finally they asked him, "Do you belong to a church?" He responded by saying, "No, I belong only to myself... and I suffer."

Where then does meaning come from? Take a look at Psalm 8 and David. David, the greatest king that ever lived in Israel's history and life, found himself searching. Some believe David wrote Psalm 8 after a great victory in his life. Chuck Swindoll suggests that this song was composed by David after he killed the giant Goliath.

If so, picture David, like Buzz Aldrin. He is a great hero in his country. He has earned the praise of people everywhere, but something is not right. As he prepares to go to bed that night he can't sleep. He feels empty. He wanders outside. He looks up into the Milky Way and he asks the questions you and I ask in moments of quiet and reflection: "Who am I? What is humankind? Why am I here? What is my purpose in life?" In David's words,

When I look at your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that
you have established;
what are human beings that you
are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

David doesn't stay depressed as long as did Buzz Aldrin. Immediately he answers his own question:

Yet you have made them a little
lower than God,
and crowned them with glory
and honor.
You have given them dominion
over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet.
-- Psalm 8

And as David pondered the answer, especially his place in the eternal scheme of things, life took on meaning and purpose for him."4

What are you holding on to?

I'm holding on to Christ. And as I hold on to Christ I realize God has held on to me long before through God's amazing grace and wondrous mercy.

Let go of anything that offers nothing but empty promises and broken words. With Christ I live -- and my life has meaning and purpose. Amen.

____________

1. George Gallup Jr., National & Religion Report, Volume V, Number 11 (May 20, 1991), p. 1.

2. Michael Foss, Easter Sermon, 1993, Prince of Peace Lutheran, Burnsville, Minnesota.

3. Faith at Work, Volume 106, No. 1, Jan/Feb 1993, p. 3., Faith at Work Inc., 150 South Washington Street, Suite 204, Falls Church, Virginia 22046.

4. Ibid., FAW, p. 3.