NO 21 ~ A TALE OF FOUR KINGS
This Service requires more preparation than any of the other Nativity Services which follow. Its “bite” comes from the two telephone dramas “No Room in the Ward” and “The Fourth King”.
The Service is exactly as produced in my own Church, and so each of the dramas may need a little adaptation.
ORDER OF SERVICE
Hymn 181
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” (everyone)
(There will be an Offertory during this opening hymn)
Vicar asks all to sit
The Coming of John the Baptist
Narrator from the pulpit
a) To begin at the beginning; Our story starts a long, long time ago. Let us go back beyond the latest Christmas pop-song, way back before Bing Crosby was dreaming of a White Christmas, beyond Christmas cards, Christmas stockings, Christmas presents, Christmas carols. In fact, way back beyond Christmas itself…. To an old, old priest called Zechariah, who worked in the temple in Jerusalem. He was soon due to retire from temple duties, and because of this he was about to perform the most important job of his life; he was going to enter the innermost sanctuary of the temple, and whilst he was there, he was going to be allowed to burn some incense. I will let St Luke continue the story … (and as the story is read from the lectern, Zechariah enters from the vestry door and lights and burns incense on the high altar).
The next section of St Luke’s gospel is read from the lectern.
The Angel Gabriel appears from the transcept and says …
“Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard; your wife Elizabeth is going to give birth to a Boy, and you will give him the name ‘John.’ Your heart will be full of joy, and many people across the whole world will be glad that he was born; for he will be a great person in the eyes of the Lord, and it will be seen that he was born in order to proclaim the birth of the Saviour of the world.
St Luke says … Zechariah said to the angel
Zechariah says
How can this be true?
I am an old man, and my wife is also well on in years, and past the age of having a child.
And the Angel replies
I am Gabriel the Archangel; I stand at God’s right hand, and he has sent me to you to bring you this good news. But now listen to me. From this very moment, you will lose your powers of speech and will be dumb – you will remain totally silent – until the day when these things happen. This is happening as a punishment because you have not believed me, though when the time comes, you are going to discover that my words are to be proved true.
Narrator (as Gabriel goes to Lady Chapel and Zechariah, because he is now deaf and dumb, and cannot speak, writes ‘something’ on a board nearby in the nave)
And so it happened exactly as the angel had told him. The old man was struck dumb until his baby John was born. When the child was born, Elizabeth, his wife, was going to call the babe “Zechariah” after his father, but the old man, still unable to speak, wrote “His name is John, we must call him John “and after this, God gave Zechariah his voice back, and the first thing that he did was to give thanks to God.
Zechariah says – Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.
3. The Annunciation
The Narrator again reads
But meanwhile, the Angel Gabriel was working overtime. He visited another person; not an old man, but a beautiful young girl called Mary.
Let’s ask St Luke to continue the story:
St Luke reads …
In the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, with a message for a girl betrothed to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The girl’s name was Mary. The angel went in and said to her –
Angel says …
“Greetings, most favoured one: The Lord is with you.”
St Luke reads –
But she was deeply troubled by what he said and wondered what this greeting might mean.
Then the Angel said to her
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for God has been gracious to you. You shall conceive, and bear a son, and you shall