Skit

The following short skit, written by Andrew J. Evenson, a field education with Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania for the 2004-2005 academic year, describes the difference between charity/direct service and justice/advocacy through dialogue between a well-being layperson and a pastor.

Feel free to use the skit with attribution to Andrew and LAMPa.

SCENE 1

Narrator: Pastor Helpful and HAL (Handy Active Layperson) are talking on the phone about the needs of the community and their desire for their church to do something.

On separate ends of the stage, both hold telephones and talk to one another: ring-ring; ring-ring

Pastor Helpful: Hello, Spirit of Truth Lutheran Church, Pastor Helpful speaking.

HAL: Hi, Pastor Helpful. This is HAL calling. Say, I was in line at the grocery store the other day and I was behind a man who was checking out and saying to the clerk that because of federal and state cutbacks, he was losing his food stamps.

Pastor Helpful: Aw, that's really sad. Did you talk to him about it?

HAL: Yea, a little bit. He said he was spending the last of the food stamps that day and then he didn't know what he was going to do. He was disabled and couldn't work, and his disability check from social security isn't enough to buy food.

Pastor Helpful: I suspect you have a plan, HAL.

HAL: Well, yes. I was thinking this gentleman probably isn't the only one like himself. These people need help.

Pastor Helpful: And you'd like the church to do something to help?

HAL: Exactly! I was thinking we could start a food bank.

Pastor Helpful: Oh, maybe we should have a food bank committee. That way they could meet and take care of all that stuff. I'll request this new committee at the next church council meeting. Then, on Sundays, we could ask members and people in the community for donations!

HAL: Yea, and we could have one day each week where we would be available to give out food to those who need it!

Pastor Helpful: And I was thinking we could use the adult education room to store the food in, since we never use that anyway. Maybe one person from the committee could hand out the food on Wednesday mornings or something. Could you chair the committee and find members HAL?

HAL: Why, yes. This is so exciting. This congregation has all these resources. We have people who should be wealthy enough to donate some food each week, and we have a lot of people who don't work during the day who could donate their time to the food pantry.

Pastor Helpful: This really is going to be a good thing for our community. Since the government is taking away their food stamps, people like that man that you saw at the grocery store will be able to come here for help. Oh, it feels like we're doing such a good thing for our community!

HAL: I think so too. I hope we can begin this in a couple weeks.

***

SCENE 2

Narrator: HAL got his committee together. He found a lot of members who could donate food and time. Each Sunday the congregation brought a lot of food to be given away to those in need. More and more people kept coming to pick up food from the food bank each week. It really seemed like a great program, and it was. One year passed. Summer turned to fall, and fall turned to winter, and winter turned to spring, and spring turned back into summer.

Pastor Helpful is in her office at her desk, reading from Luther's Works about a Christian in Society, nodding her head and seeming surprised.

HAL knocks at the door, looking extremely sad and tired.

Pastor Helpful: Come on in. (HAL enters) What's the matter, HAL? You look sad and tired.

HAL: (HAL comes in) I can't do it anymore pastor. More and more people keep coming to our food bank, and we bring more and more food, but we always have to turn people away. There just isn't enough for everybody.

Pastor Helpful: Why don't we sit over here, HAL. (They move over to pastoral-care arranged chairs) I've noticed that when I've been down there helping the committee is looking really tired. And the government has cut more programs so the lines keep getting longer. The high unemployment rate doesn't help either. You know, maybe we're going about this the wrong way.

HAL: We're going about something the wrong way. I'm beat!

Pastor Helpful: I was just reading in Luther, and Luther was very concerned for the hungry people in his neighborhood. He even wrote to princes about it! He told them they need to take care of everybody under their authority!

HAL: Well, they sure aren’t doing that now. Dumb government. They don't know anything.

Pastor Helpful: Now, HAL, that's not the attitude to have. Government is here to help the people. Maybe they just need to hear more from us. I mean, I think the food bank needs to continue, because it really does help people, but we can only do so much with that.

HAL: Yea, I hear you. I really am tired. I can maybe do it for another year, but then somebody else will have to chair the committee.

Pastor Helpful: I also just got a letter from the Lutheran Public Policy office. I just realized we had one of those. The letter said the governor of Ownershipland wants to cut even more programs for the poor with the Pull-Yourself-Up-By-Your-Bootstraps Bill. They're asking people to oppose the bill by writing to and calling their legislators and the governor.

HAL: That sounds like a great idea. Maybe if the government would hear from all of us at our congregation, and the congregations down the road, they'd start to see that people really care about what happens to everybody, even if taxes have to go up a little bit for us.

Pastor Helpful: I'd definitely be willing to pay more taxes if it meant that we wouldn't have as many people who need to come to our food bank and the food banks at other churches. Maybe its time we start another committee.

HAL: Well, what would that committee be called?

Pastor Helpful: How about the Advocacy Committee. Yea, the advocacy committee. They could advocate on behalf of those who don't have a voice. They could organize ways for the congregation to have a voice about issues we all care about! Oooo, this is exciting!

HAL: I have a good person in mind for that committee. I'll keep doing the food bank, but I know that my friend Marge would love to chair that committee. Could I talk to her about it?

Pastor Helpful: Yes, please do. I'll talk to council about it too. I'm glad we're going to have a balance here. Let's work together and balance helping people now and tomorrow. Thanks HAL! Thank you everybody.