Skateboards in the Angel Choir
(Easter or Palm Sunday, praising God with our songs)
by Deb Brammer
[Uses two angel puppets and one boy puppet. For angel puppets add wings, halos, and a white gown to people puppets.]
(Bo enters and “skateboards” recklessly back and forth across the puppet stage. After a few passes he “crashes” and lies at one end of the stage. Angela, the first angel, enters by flying onto the stage.)
Angela: Not another skateboard crash! Hey, Bo, could you slow down a little? You’re wearing me out.
Bo: Who are you?
Angela: I’m the reason you’re still alive. I’m your guardian angel.
Bo: But I thought people couldn’t see angels.
Angela: They usually can’t. You must have whacked your head pretty hard if you can see me now.
Bo: (standing up) I’ve heard of angels before, but what’s a guardian angel?
Angela: Well, God asks some of his angels to look after His children to keep them safe. I’m the angel in charge of you and I must say, you keep me pretty busy. But that’s my job. It’s my way of serving Jesus.
Bo: So if you’re my guardian angel, does that mean you make sure I don’t get hurt?
Angela: Something like that.
Bo: Then where were you when I skinned my knee this morning?
Angela: If I hadn’t been there you would have broken your leg. I try to keep you safe, but you have to cooperate, you know. That’s your part of the job.
(Melody, the second angel, flies onto the stage.)
Melody: Hey, Angela, I hear you got assigned to that wild kid who has all the accidents. Looks like things aren’t going too well.
Angela: It could have been worse. If I hadn’t been here, someone would be calling 9-1-1 by now.
Bo: Who are you?
Angela: This is Melody. Her job is singing in the angel choir.
Bo: It must be cool to sing in the angel choir.
Melody: I love my job. It’s more exciting than anything you’ll ever do on earth.
Bo: More exciting than a double back flip on a skateboard?
Melody: Even more exciting than that. It’s glorious!
Bo: So what kind of songs do you sing? Classical? Contemporary? Rock and roll?
Melody: “Rock and roll?” Is that like that double back flip you were talking about?
Angela: Actually, Bo hits lots of rocks, and when he does he rolls, flips, or crashes. But I think he wants to know what style of music you sing.
Melody: We just sing praises to Jesus. Here’s the song we sang the first Christmas. (sings) “Gloria in excelsis deo.” (from “Angels We Have Heard on High”)
Bo: What’s that about egg shells? It sounds more like an Easter song to me.
Melody: I didn’t say “egg shells,” silly. I said, “excelsis.” That means “in the highest.” “Gloria in excelsis deo” means “glory to God in the highest.”
Angela: (reverently) I remember that first Christmas night. All of us angels could hardly believe that God the Son would leave heaven and become a little human baby. The sky filled with angels. The harmony was great. The basses hit notes so low a piano couldn’t play them. And the sopranos could have shattered crystal.
Bo: If that’s your Christmas song, what do you sing at Easter?
Melody: (sings) “Christ the Lord is risen today. Alleluia.” (from “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”)
Bo: First it’s “Gloria.” Now it’s “Alleluia.” Don’t you guys ever sing in English?
Melody: “Alleluia” just means “praise the Lord.”
Bo: I wish I could be an angel. Singing songs like that must be great–even better than doing a double back flip.
Angela: And a lot less dangerous.
Bo: (skates back and forth) I’m pretty good on a skateboard, but that doesn’t help me serve Jesus. (falls again and remains lying down) Whoops! Guess I’ll have to work on that trick some more. I wish I had an important job like you angels. I wish I could sing in the angel choir.
Melody: You have to be an angel to sing in the angel choir.
Angela: Believe me. He’s not even close. I there’s no room for skateboards in the angel choir.
Melody: Maybe not. But Zach, you can still sing praises to Jesus. He’ll still like it.
Angela: (comes close to Melody to do a stage whisper) Hey, Melody, are you sure about that? You haven’t heard him sing.
Melody: I’m sure. When Jesus was on the earth, one day the children began singing and chanting praises to Jesus. The religious leaders told them to hush up. But Jesus liked their song. He told the leaders that “Out of the mouths of babes…comes perfect praise.” Something like that, anyway. Jesus said their praise was perfect! So even if little kids sing off-key, if they are praising Jesus, He likes it. You may not have the voice of an angel, but if you sing praises to Jesus from the heart, it’s just what Jesus wants to hear.
Angela: Well, I think it’s about time for us to take off. Bo hit his head pretty hard, but he’s starting to come to now. We can’t have him seeing us when he’s awake.
(Angels exit by flying away. Bo shakes himself and stands up.)
Bo: Well, maybe I can still sing after all. I wonder if I could do a double back flip while singing “Gloria in excelsis deo.”
(Bo “skates” off stage while starting to sing “Gloria.”)