Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Hurricane and the Rock


Saturday night and Sunday morning The Weather Channel displayed scenes of houses with their windows boarded up and ocean waves that seemed ready to snatch Stefanie Abrams off the boardwalk and toss her out to sea.

Then in church, our pianist chose weather related opening hymns. So as worship assistant, I found myself leading the congregation first to Higher Ground and then to The Solid Rock. Having gone that far, it seemed natural to share Jesus’ short parable at the end of what most Christians call The Sermon on the Mount. 

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24 – 27, NIV)

There are 103 words in those 4 verses. Not one of them is IF. Or JUST IN CASE. No, the hurricanes will come. Are we ready? And what happens after?

Several years ago I wrote a sketch about this passage for my JesusQuest class at Watsontown Christian Academy, but I never quite figured out how to use it. We tried live student actors, and produced an amusing disaster. The substantial student portraying the house on the sand relished crashing onto the floor, shaking the entire classroom.

This past year I took a puppetry class with some of my students, and A Tale of Two Houses became an international hit—in Pennsylvania and Jamaica. I embellished two shirt boxes to create the two houses, Miss Roxie and Miss Sandy. Insert a white-gloved hand with peepers, and you’ve got a talking house. A female puppet portrayed the reporter, and my construction worker puppet performed the role for which he was purchased, with the best Brooklyn accent I could muster.

For your amusement, and hopefully edification, here’s scene two:

[REPORTER enters with microphone]
REPORTER
That’s it, get a wide shot of all the damage and then bring the camera in for a close-up of this house.…
Good morning, this is All Weather, All the Time TV, coming to you live from the aftermath of a terrible storm.
Last night Hurricane Lucifer pounded this small coastal town with 90 mile-per-hour winds.
Ten inches of rain fell in two hours, causing heavy flooding.
You can see in the devastation around me there appears to be only one survivor.
[REPORTER walks to ROXIE]
REPORTER
Miss, excuse me, may I ask you a few questions?
ROXIE
[ROXIE looks around, up and down, and seems confused.]
Huh? Are you talking to me?
REPORTER
Yes, I’m from All Weather, All the Time TV. I understand there was a terrible storm here last night, Miss, uh…
ROXIE
Roxie. My name is Roxie.
REPORTER
Miss Roxie, can you tell our viewers your impression of the storm?
ROXIE
[ROXIE looks around.]
Am I on TV?
REPORTER
Yes, Miss Roxie. You are on TV. Now, would you describe last night’s storm for our viewers?
ROXIE
It was horrible!
REPORTER
Go on.
ROXIE
Just horrible. The wind never stopped. It seemed to come from all directions at once.
I thought it would knock me over! I think it blew my shingles off.
[ROXIE feels her head]
REPORTER
And the rain?
ROXIE
The rain never stopped. I’m soaked inside and out.
REPORTER
And what about the flooding?
ROXIE
Don’t talk to me about the flooding. I have water up to my sofa!
REPORTER
But you are still standing.
ROXIE
[ROXIE pats herself all over.)
I am still standing! I owe it all to the rock.
REPORTER
Excuse me?
ROXIE
The rock. I owe it all to the rock. See? My foundation is solid rock.
[JOEY enters]
JOEY
Okay, guys, start unloading. Stack the lumber over dere, the siding dere…and, uh, bring the shingles over here. We’d better start on the roof first.
[REPORTER approaches JOEY]
REPORTER
Excuse me, mister, uh…
JOEY
Joey Manzoni, Petra Construction.
REPORTER
Mr. Manzoni, we are trying to film an interview here. Do you mind?
JOEY
Yeah, I do mind. Da Boss wants dis house fixed up pronto.
REPORTER
This house? It’s a wreck! Why doesn’t he just tear it down?
JOEY
Are you kiddin’? Dis old beauty? Da foundation is solid rock.
Da Boss loves this house. Now, if you don’t mind…
[JOEY gently guides REPORTER out of the way)
JOEY
Okay, guys, let’s go! Shingles over here! Marv, grab the ladder…

The sketch ends with the puppets lip synching to a wildly energetic song, “Build Your House Upon the Rock.”

I had one purpose in writing this sketch. I wanted to reveal one sentence of truth. All the other lines, the puppets, and the music showed up to make that possible. So don’t miss it. Here it is:

Da Boss loves this house.

Not to belabor the point, like the characters in the La Quinta ads, but just in case you don’t get it, I’ll gladly explain.

3 comments:

  1. I had to play a piano piece in church yesterday during the collection--it was a medley of "The Wise Man Built his House upon the Rock," "A Shelter in the Time of Storm," and "Hiding in Thee."

    I love your application--I hadn't thought of it from that angle. Thanks!--Terry

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  2. Thanks for reading and commenting. We often sang "The Wise Man Built His House upon the Rock" with kids in Sunday School and CEF Five Day Clubs, of course with the motions. I had written a song to go with the skit, but never did the hard work of transferring the melody to staff paper. Then my puppetry instructor, Donna Bridge of Kingdom Kidz, pulled this fantastic song out of her collection. It has the message of the familiar song, but is so much more fun to use. I'll have to see if I can find a link to it and post it.

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