Nativity Pageant - 2014
[HYMN #118 - “O Come, All Ye Faithful”]
[One lone angel, Uriel, comes to the lectern to read. She will be the
narrator for the play.]
Hi, I’m Uriel, and I’m the littlest angel of all. In fact, I don’t even get to
sing in the heavenly chorus. They say that my voice squeaks. And
neither do I get to do the big, important jobs. No, I get to hand out the
sheet music for the new choristers (you know, the ones who don’t
already know the praises off by heart like the older angels.) And I
have the oh-so-picky chore of picking up bits of angel feathers when
they molt. Oh, you didn’t know that angels molt--just like birds?
But, let me get on with my story. It was way, way back in time. I
think it was something like 5 or 6 BC--something like that. Augustus
Caesar, he was on the throne for Rome--yes, he was a bad one, and
Quirinius was in charge in Palestine. It was a cold night, but not so
cold that the sheep had finally been taken indoors to their winter
quarters. And, I was given what turned out to be a decent job (or so I
later realized), for a change.
[HYMN #119 - “Silent Night”]
Yahweh (that’s God), my boss, had given me the task of scouting out
the location for a grand announcement that He was planning.
Actually, when I got there, it didn’t seem so grand a location, no, not
in the least. There were a bunch of grouchy, smelly shepherds (they
hadn’t had a bath or a shave in days) and a small bunch of unwashed
sheep of differing sorts and sizes. You mean, you thought that sheep
were always wooly white? Not these ones; they had bits of twig and
dirt and poop stuck to their grimy gray fleeces. Sure, it was
Bethlehem, just like the Boss had said, but it seemed to me to be
pretty unassuming and ordinary. Anyway, my job was not to weigh in
on how adequate it was, but simply to get it ready for the rest.
[HYMN #138 - “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”]
[The angelic host processes to the front and stands behind the
crèche.]
Well, before I could get things half way done (no sheet music this
time), this really, really important angel, Gabriel, arrived. He was
really a ‘big one’: in fact, I’d only seen him at a distance up in heaven
because he was always on the go, flitting back and forth with some
very important mission. Anyway, all of a sudden he shows up and
scares those poor shepherds half to death. Why, I would have put on
some sort of ‘mood music’ or something, but oh no, Gabriel just blurts
out with the news.
[HYMN #136 - “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks”]
[The Holy Family processes in. Mary sits behind the manger, with
Joseph behind her and to one side.]
And no sooner than he’d finished his spiel, than a heavenly chorus
materializes out of nowhere. (I guess they’d been there all the time-just invisible--us angels are like that, you know.) Anyway, all of a
sudden, they broke into this incredibly sweet, incredibly brilliant
chorus. I mean, it was truly breath taking, even if I say so myself.
And that’s quite a bit, coming from an angel!
And, no sooner than the angels having departed again into heaven,
but those nondescript shepherds stirred themselves and decided to
boot it big time into town, into Bethlehem, to see this thing which the
angel had told them about.
They left one poor guy (he was rather out of it, anyway, having had a
bit too much leftover Tim Horton’s hot chocolate--I think that it had
gone sour or fermented or something) to tend the fire and look over
the sleeping sheep, and headed into town.
[HYMN: #120 - “O Little Town of Bethlehem”]
[The shepherds, plus any ‘honorary’ sheep, process to the front and
stand around the Holy Family.]
Boy, was I embarrassed. I had wanted to arrange some really nice
kind of place for the holy family, but even an angel like me has to
make do at times. I tried pulling strings, but the best I could do was a
stable, a lowly cattle stall. Yes, that’s where the baby was born, and
that’s where the shepherds found that wonderful child and his adoring
parents. Anyway, the shepherds didn’t care and came and paid their
homage to the newborn babe. And once they’d done so, they made
off, and told everyone in town what they had seen and heard. Poor
Bethlehem hadn’t had such crazy gossip for many a year. Everyone
thought that the shepherds had really lost it this time.
[HYMN #123 - “Once in Royal David’s City”]
But my job wasn’t quite finished. The second stage of my
assignment came quite a while later, because God wanted some
other people to come to see the child. Boy, this was a hard one. I
had to use all my angelic skills to pull it off. Firstly, there was a star
that had to be trained and coached--you see, God wanted it to move
in the sky (or, at least, appear to). That’s a pretty tall order. Comets,
asteroids, they move on their own, but stars, that’s another thing
altogether. But actually, that was a piece of cake. The more difficult
part was organizing and leading a small party of grown men. Boy,
were these guys stubborn. They may have been wise men, magi, but
they sure didn’t take direction or advice very readily. All three wanted
his own way, and refused to listen to each other or ask direction from
anyone. But in the end, I got them there to see the child as well.
Yes, them and their rather far-out gifts. Their wives had scolded
them on this, asking them what they were thinking--I mean, what
baby would ever have use for such things as gold, frankincense and
myrrh? But, they persisted, saying that this was precisely what God
wanted.
[HYMN #160 - “As with Gladness Men of Old”]
[The wise men or magi process up bearing their gifts and kneel or
stand around the Christ Child.]
So that was my assignment way back then on that first Christmas
night. I’d thought that it was a pretty lousy assignment, but it turned
out to be the very best, for I helped orchestrate and welcome God
Himself, Jesus Christ, to be born and come in our world.
[HYMN #154 - “Joy to the World”]