SSAPSERTS
THE PLAYERS: Bruce, Jackson, Luke, Sarah, Paul, and Sandy; also, a bus driver and several people riding on the bus.
THE SITUATION: Many people are riding on a school bus, including Jackson, Paul, and Sandy. All the people except Jackson have round pieces of colored paper on their skin. These papers are called “sapserts”. There is an empty seat next to Jackson. Paul is sitting behind Jackson, and Sandy is sitting in front of Jackson.
THE” ACTION: People make motions and sounds as if a bus was driving. Then the bus stops, and Bruce gets on the bus. He is looking for a place to sit. He looks at Jackson for a long time, because he is not sure who he is. Finally he goes up to Jackson.
BRUCE: (with hesitation) Excuse me—Jackson, is that you?
JACKSON: Oh, hi, Bruce.
BRUCE: (with relief) Oh, good, it is you. I wasn’t sure at first.
JACKSON: Of course it’s me. Come on, sit down.
BRUCE: Thanks. (sits down, and looks at Jackson with curiosity) You know, there’s something different about you today.
JACKSON: Really? What do you mean?
BRUCE: I don’t know — you just don’t look normal.
(The bus stops and Luke gets on. Luke keeps bumping into people, and is always saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”.)
BRUCE: (covers his mouth with his hand) Oh, no. There’s that dumb kid from our class. I hope he doesn’t see us.
LUKE: (happily) Hi, Bruce Hi, Jackson.
JACKSON: (Jackson stands up, but Bruce groans and turns away). Hi, Luke. Good to see you.
LUKE: Don’t forget about tonight. Can you still come to my house?
JACKSON: Of course I can. See you at seven.
LUKE: Great. So long. (Luke sits down at back of bus.)
BRUCE: Poor old Luke. We always used to play tricks on him in grade school. He wasn’t even smart enough to catch on. Remember?
JACKSON: (sadly) Yes, I remember.
BRUCE: You’re not really going to go to his house, are you?
JACKSON: Yeah, I promised I would help him study for a math test.
BRUCE: You’re acting pretty strange today. Hey–I think I know why you look different: your skin looks funny. Something’s missing.
JACKSON: Oh, you must mean my sapserts. I used to have some on my face, and here on my arm. (he points to his arm.)
BRUCE: Sure, like everyone else. Are you sure you’re feeling
OK? –
JACKSON: I feel great!
BRUCE: But you look so wierd. (he looks around) Everyone else has sapserts.
JACKSON: Are you embarrassed to sit with me because I’m different?
BRUCE: Well…not exactly.
(Sarah gets on the bus carrying many books. There are no seats)
JACKSON: Look, there’s Sarah.
BRUCE: Remember the time she borrowed your bicycle? She didn’t lock it, and someone -stole it. Didn’t she promise to pay you back for it?
JACKSON: Yes, she promised.
BRUCE: Well, did she ever give you the money?
JACKSON: Ah… no.
(Sarah drops some books)
JACKSON: Hey, Sarah, let me help you (picks up books)
SARAH: Thanks a lot.
JACKSON: Here, you can sit in my seat.
SARAH: No, that’s OK. I’m only going a short way. Hi, Bruce.
(Bruce turns away. The bus stops)
JACKSON: Let me help you carry those books.
SARAH: Could you just help me take them off the bus? My brother is waiting there to take me home with his motorcycle.
(They walk to bus door, and then Jackson returns.)
BRUCE: Aren’t you angry about your bicycle? She’ll never pay you back, you know.
JACKSON: I know … but that’s OK. It doesn’t bother me.
BRUCE: You have really changed. Does this have something to do with losing your sapserts?
JACKSON: I think so. Ever since these sapserts went away, I feel happier. I just, seem to like people more, and I can overlook their short-comings. How about you? Have you ever thought about getting rid of your sapserts?
BRUCE: Well, not really. I want to be like everyone else. Everyone else has sapserts, see? (He points to the people around the bus.) I don’t want anyone to think I’m not normal.
JACKSON: Oh, so you want to be normal, is that it? Well, have you ever considered that maybe having sapserts is not normal? That maybe it is not the way we were meant to be?
BRUCE: Well, if I didn’t want them, I could just take them off anytime. Watch. (He tries to pull off a sapsert). OUCH. That really hurts.
(When he says “ouch”, everyone in the bus turns to look at them)
JACKSON: That’s not the way to get them off.
(Paul, who is behind them, stands up to talk to them. When he begins to talk, Bruce and Jackson stand up and face him)
PAUL: Are you two talking about sapserts? I know how to take care of them.
BRUCE: You do?
PAUL: Sure, it’s easy. You just drink a lot of wine, and…
BRUCE: And they go away?
PAUL: Well, no, but you don’t think about them any more.
BRUCE; No thanks. We’re talking about how to get rid of them, not just forget about them.
(Sandy turns in her seat in front of them, and when she talks, Bruce and Jackson turn toward her.) .
SANDY: Don’t listen to him. His way is no better than what one of my classmates tried to do.
PAUL: What did your classmate do?
SANDY: His sapserts were really starting to bother him, so he started taking drugs. You know what happened? They just got worse.
(Paul goes back to his seat).
BRUCE: These things are just not easy to get rid of, are they?
SANDY: Do you really want to know how to get rid of sapserts? I can tell you what I do.
JACKSON: What do you do?
SANDY: It’s simple. I noticed that every time I am selfish, or not honest, then my sapserts get bigger. So, every time I do
something bad, I just try to do something good to make up for it.
BRUCE: But you still have sapserts.
SANDY: It’s because I don’t try hard enough. But I think if I do the best I can, and try harder and harder, then some day they’ll be gone.
(Sandy goes back to her seat; Bruce and Jackson sit down.)
BRUCE: I’m afraid I can never be good enough. That method wouldn’t help me. I could never get rid of these sapserts.
JACKSON: Wait a minute. You never asked me what 1 did.
BRUCE: What did you do?
JACKSON: I realized that I should get in touch with the one who made me.
BRUCE: You mean your mother?
JACKSON: No. I mean the one who made everything (he points up),
BRUCE: Oh. That one. (he looks up) What did you find out?
JACKSON: When He first made us people, we didn’t have any sapserts.
BRUCE: OK, then how did we get them?
JACKSON: Since God made us, He decided to give us clear instructions on how to live. The problem is, nobody wanted to follow his instructions. That’s when these sapserts started breaking out everywhere.
BRUCE: I see what you mean: if we don’t follow the instructions, things are not going to work right.
JACKSON: The only way our Maker could fix things up, was to become a man, and come here to earth to help us.
BRUCE: I’ve heard about that. That’s what people celebrate at Christmas, isn’t it? They say God became a man.
JACKSON: Right. And that man took care of the sapsert problem: he took all the punishment that we were supposed to get for disobeying God’s instructions.
BRUCE: You mean, when he died on the cross, don’t you?
JACKSON: That’s it. Now he is ready to take the sapserts away from anybody who comes to him for help. How about you?
BRUCE: Well…
CURTAIN
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FOLLOW UP DISCUSSION:
Think About it: Have you figured out yet where the word ssapsert originated from? (try reading the word backward)
In the famous children’s story Pinocchio, every time the puppet-boy told a lie his nose grew longer. I remember, as a child, my grandmother told me that if someone had a pimple on the end of their tongue, it was a sign that they had told a lie. Think about what it would be like if every time a person did something wrong, there would be a physical effect that could be seen by others.
While the word ssapsert could not be substituted for the word sin in every place it is mentioned in the Bible, it could be substituted in places referring to the effects of unconfessed sin. In this Bible study we will explore the broader meaning of the term “sin”.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SIN
What is sin? Isaiah 53:6, 1 John 3:4, James l:14-15a, James 4:16-17
What are some specific sins? 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Galatians 5:19-21
How did sin begin? Romans 5:12 Psalm 51:5
Who is guilty of sin? Isaiah 64:6 Romans 3:23
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