A play by the Footstool Players in ECF
1. The Wedding
Come wedding day, the bride arrives late and unprepared. She says “I do” hastily before the marriage vows are read. However, when she understands the full implications of a marriage covenant, the commitment and submission it involves…that if she truly loved the bridegroom, she would obey ALL His commandments…the words “I do” bring a whole new meaning, and she is unable to utter it…
Do I say “I love You” too soon? If I truly loved Him, I would obey ALL His commands…which I don’t.
2. Mc Church
The church is likened to a fast food outlet, where people come and go, activities and programmes are “packaged” and the consumers can pick and choose what to take and what to leave out. Something low on commitment but high in returns…Also that the church has no place for those who are really seeking God, the lost and weary, that the church is too engrossed in meeting the wants rather than the needs of people..
Have I placed more importance in the programmes, activities and temporal goals rather than help people find God?
3. Pharisee Boot Camp
The new recruit is orientated by a commander who stresses on justice, insensible rules and a parading of actions, who on the other hand classifies grace and love as “for sissies”.
Have I prided myself in all the things I do for God and judged those who do less? Has my life been a parade of how much I have given for God compared others? Set such a high standard of living that I have looked down upon those who don’t live up to them? I think so.
4. The Untouchables
A divorcee who is a drunkard, a lady who has had premarital sex and an abortion and a man with AIDS. Is there place in our church for one like these? The social outcasts and the rejected…..Will we love and accept them regardless of their background, or shun them as the world does? We are reminded that Jesus Himself identified with their pain and loneliness, that He too was rejected…Is there place in our church for even Jesus? Or will we reject Him by rejecting those He love?
I have rejected many…I have shunned people when I knew that He died for each and every one of them, I have closed my eyes and refused to care…I have made a joke of the cross…
5. Mercy General
A new young doctor in Sinai Hospital creates a fuss by practicing a different brand of medicine, contrary to the policy of the hospital that only admits healthy “patients” and shuts out the sick to avoid them from contaminating the state of the art hospital, the healthy “patients” and staff. This doctor even makes house calls to the boulevards and is rarely found in the hospital. The entire hospital staff goes searching for him and finds in in the centre of a mob of “filthy” sick people. Unable to convert him, the majority of the staff returns to the hospital. However, some stayed after seeing the pain and suffering of the sick, and they together with the doctor and the sick established another hospital, Mercy General, opened to all…Jesus came for the sick, not the healthy..
Am I just staying in my comfort zone, refusing to go out to meet the needs of those who really have need of God? Have I been ignorant to the pain and suffering of the sick and kept my distance instead of caring and ministering as I should?
6. Salt and Light
Have we forgotten to be salty or to shine? We are His feet, eyes and hands…What is salt if it isn’t salty or light if it doesn’t shine?
Have I forgotten?
7. Love Story
Modification of the book of Hosea. A preacher falls in love with a prostitute and convinces her to marry him. The prostitute at first refuses because of who she is, but says yes when she saw the hope and love in his eyes. After five years and three children, she gradually comes to accept herself as how the preacher’s family and friends saw her-worthless. Not being able to bear living with the husband who loves her unconditionally, she runs away and pleads that he does not come searching for her. But he did. For a long time he searched, and found her in the most degraded bar, being auctioned off for a mere 35 cents. He bids 545 dollars at first, then digging into his pockets for the leftover 18 cents even after he had won the bid. It was all he had. The wife refuses to come back, but looking into his eyes, she saw the reflection of a bride in white, not the woman with a dirty face and torn rags….and relents at last.
Who we are isn’t determined by what we have done or how society sees us, but it is found in our worth to God-priceless.
Repentance….of what? CF has been emphasizing on repentance, but I never could get it…not in the theme exposition, not in the camp. Turn back to God? My life revolves around God. Be not of the world? God IS my world, there is never a moment in my life which God isn’t apart of. I trust, I depend…I put serving Him before everything else…repent of WHAT??
And tonight, I saw myself in every one of the sketches…as the bride who says “I love You” too soon, the cashier who is accustomed to just “selling” packaged activities, the self-righteous commander, the church who shuns the outcasts of society, the doctor who shuts out the sick, the salt that isn’t salty enough and the light that does not shine it’s brightest…repentance now has meaning…What have I made Christianity into? A religion?
But once again, God’s love covers all…knowing that in His eyes, I am a bride in white, spotless, because He came all the way and bought me with a heavy price…
God’s love is described as EXTRAVAGANT, and rightly so…
Come wedding day, the bride arrives late and unprepared. She says “I do” hastily before the marriage vows are read. However, when she understands the full implications of a marriage covenant, the commitment and submission it involves…that if she truly loved the bridegroom, she would obey ALL His commandments…the words “I do” bring a whole new meaning, and she is unable to utter it…
Do I say “I love You” too soon? If I truly loved Him, I would obey ALL His commands…which I don’t.
2. Mc Church
The church is likened to a fast food outlet, where people come and go, activities and programmes are “packaged” and the consumers can pick and choose what to take and what to leave out. Something low on commitment but high in returns…Also that the church has no place for those who are really seeking God, the lost and weary, that the church is too engrossed in meeting the wants rather than the needs of people..
Have I placed more importance in the programmes, activities and temporal goals rather than help people find God?
3. Pharisee Boot Camp
The new recruit is orientated by a commander who stresses on justice, insensible rules and a parading of actions, who on the other hand classifies grace and love as “for sissies”.
Have I prided myself in all the things I do for God and judged those who do less? Has my life been a parade of how much I have given for God compared others? Set such a high standard of living that I have looked down upon those who don’t live up to them? I think so.
4. The Untouchables
A divorcee who is a drunkard, a lady who has had premarital sex and an abortion and a man with AIDS. Is there place in our church for one like these? The social outcasts and the rejected…..Will we love and accept them regardless of their background, or shun them as the world does? We are reminded that Jesus Himself identified with their pain and loneliness, that He too was rejected…Is there place in our church for even Jesus? Or will we reject Him by rejecting those He love?
I have rejected many…I have shunned people when I knew that He died for each and every one of them, I have closed my eyes and refused to care…I have made a joke of the cross…
5. Mercy General
A new young doctor in Sinai Hospital creates a fuss by practicing a different brand of medicine, contrary to the policy of the hospital that only admits healthy “patients” and shuts out the sick to avoid them from contaminating the state of the art hospital, the healthy “patients” and staff. This doctor even makes house calls to the boulevards and is rarely found in the hospital. The entire hospital staff goes searching for him and finds in in the centre of a mob of “filthy” sick people. Unable to convert him, the majority of the staff returns to the hospital. However, some stayed after seeing the pain and suffering of the sick, and they together with the doctor and the sick established another hospital, Mercy General, opened to all…Jesus came for the sick, not the healthy..
Am I just staying in my comfort zone, refusing to go out to meet the needs of those who really have need of God? Have I been ignorant to the pain and suffering of the sick and kept my distance instead of caring and ministering as I should?
6. Salt and Light
Have we forgotten to be salty or to shine? We are His feet, eyes and hands…What is salt if it isn’t salty or light if it doesn’t shine?
Have I forgotten?
7. Love Story
Modification of the book of Hosea. A preacher falls in love with a prostitute and convinces her to marry him. The prostitute at first refuses because of who she is, but says yes when she saw the hope and love in his eyes. After five years and three children, she gradually comes to accept herself as how the preacher’s family and friends saw her-worthless. Not being able to bear living with the husband who loves her unconditionally, she runs away and pleads that he does not come searching for her. But he did. For a long time he searched, and found her in the most degraded bar, being auctioned off for a mere 35 cents. He bids 545 dollars at first, then digging into his pockets for the leftover 18 cents even after he had won the bid. It was all he had. The wife refuses to come back, but looking into his eyes, she saw the reflection of a bride in white, not the woman with a dirty face and torn rags….and relents at last.
Who we are isn’t determined by what we have done or how society sees us, but it is found in our worth to God-priceless.
Repentance….of what? CF has been emphasizing on repentance, but I never could get it…not in the theme exposition, not in the camp. Turn back to God? My life revolves around God. Be not of the world? God IS my world, there is never a moment in my life which God isn’t apart of. I trust, I depend…I put serving Him before everything else…repent of WHAT??
And tonight, I saw myself in every one of the sketches…as the bride who says “I love You” too soon, the cashier who is accustomed to just “selling” packaged activities, the self-righteous commander, the church who shuns the outcasts of society, the doctor who shuts out the sick, the salt that isn’t salty enough and the light that does not shine it’s brightest…repentance now has meaning…What have I made Christianity into? A religion?
But once again, God’s love covers all…knowing that in His eyes, I am a bride in white, spotless, because He came all the way and bought me with a heavy price…
God’s love is described as EXTRAVAGANT, and rightly so…
If we are the body
Why aren’t His arms reaching?
Why aren’t His hands healing?
Why aren’t His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren’t His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way
Jesus is the way
(If we are the body, written by Mark Hall, performed by casting crowns)
Why aren’t His arms reaching?
Why aren’t His hands healing?
Why aren’t His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren’t His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way
Jesus is the way
(If we are the body, written by Mark Hall, performed by casting crowns)
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