Oscar: If my dead reckoning is right, we should be drifting into the shipping lanes by tomorrow. Within a day or two of that, someone should see us.

Sandra: You don’t sound too sure.

Oscar: I’m as sure as one can be in these circumstances. I learned to read location by my watch and the sun when I was in the Merchant Marine.

Sandra: I hope you’re right. Its almost a week since the ship went down, and we’re running low on water. And I’d kill for something to eat.

Oscar: Don’t look at me like that when you say that, Ma’m.

Sandra: What are you afraid of? You’re the one with the knife.

Oscar: Don’t worry; I’ve got an idea for food.

Sandra: One that doesn’t involve me, I hope.

Oscar: Yes, but only as my dinner companion, not the menu. Ya know, I’ ain’t been ’round more sophisticated, high society company at dinner time since I bussed tables at the Ritz.

Sandra: I eat there quite often, usually late at night, after the opera.

Oscar: What was your favorite meal?

Sandra: Trout Aumondine.

Oscar: Well tonight, Ma’m, if our luck comes through, we might dine just as elegantly.

Sandra: There are trout in the ocean?

Oscar: No. But we’re drifting toward seaweed and that flock of circling seagulls.

Sandra: Seaweed and seagulls? I’m not that hungry yet.

Oscar: Look where the seagulls are diving. See the splashes in the water? Somethin’s driving baitfish toward the surface. Probably bonita. I seen that all the time off Long Island. When we drift close enough, maybe we can catch us some.

Sandra: With what?

Oscar: The survival kit on our lifeboat come with some fishing line and hooks.

Sandra: Even if you catch some, how are we going to cook them?

Oscar: Ever had sushi?

Sandra: Sure.

Oscar: I’m pretty sure I know how to prepare it, bein’ as I watched the chef at the Ritz do it a few times. Think of it as the chef’s special tonight, provided we catch something.

Sandra: Oh! I just saw some splashes nearby. Quick, get the line in.

Oscar: Just one problem.

Sandra: What?

Oscar: Bare hooks won’t work.

Sandra: Where are we going to get bait?

Oscar: We don’t need live bait. Something shiny and reflective will fool them when they’re in a feeding frenzy.

Sandra: What are you looking at me like that for?

Oscar: Your earrings.

Sandra: Not these, they’re pure silver! And they’re a gift from my favorite uncle. But oh well, they won’t do me any good if I starve to death. Here, take them both.

Oscar: One will do. …Thanks…..Yes, the hook fits through the little hole here nicely. Now down we go.

(Pause)

Sandra: Anything happening yet?

Oscar: I think one hit, but I can’t tell for sure. Blast it! I missed the fish and lost the earring too.

Sandra: No wonder! How can you feel anything? Your hands are thick and calloused, like a brickmason’s.

Oscar: Yeah, well I done that too, back in the day. (Pause) Sorry about your earring, Ma’m.

Sandra: Oh, its just an earring. Let me try, with my other earring for bait. My hands are more sensitive. It goes on the hook like this?

Oscar: That’s right.

Sandra: Down she goes. How many feet?

Oscar: They’re not far down at all.

Sandra: Oh! Got him! He hit like a passing freight train. Now what do I do?

Oscar: Pull him up!

Sandra: How?

Oscar: Here, I’ll help you. We just swing him into the boat like this.

Sandra: He’s beautiful!

Oscar: Just like I thought, a bonita!

Sandra: How do they taste?

Oscar: Its not Trout Aumondine, if that’s what you’re craving. Its a kind of tuna, only small. But soon you’ll be eating fresher sushi than what they serve, even at the Ritz. Congratulations on your catch, Ma’m.

Sandra: Our catch, you mean.

Oscar: So quick, get him off the line and catch us another one, before we drift past the school.

Sandra: I’m trying! How do I stop him from thrashing around so much?

Oscar: Watch out for the teeth. Grab him by the middle, and I’ll get the hook out.

Sandra: I’ve never held a fish before, live or dead.

Oscar: You mean you never been fishin’ before?

Sandra: Where on the Upper East Side of Manhattan would anyone go fishing?

Oscar: Seems like we was both deprived in our childhoods, just in different ways.

Sandra: And like we’ve both been blessed with what the other one needed. Got another one!

Oscar: Way to go! Sushi for both of us tonight!

The End

9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.  17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20On the contrary:
   ”If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
      if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
   In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

But ponder the difficulties and the birthing pains of a new creation, the “one new humanity” made of Jewish and Gentile believers through Christ, and the common thread running through all these admonitions becomes clear: how Jewish and Gentile believers can worship, live and witness together when they have histories of enmity between them, and enmity coming from the world. Check out the drama at Download paul_and_phoebe.doc to see if I have followed this thread faithfully through Romans 12: 9-21.

I Samuel 25: 1-35

Abigail: Nabal, wake up!

Nabal: Oof. Good morning. I think.

Abigail: More like Good noon, almost.

Nabal: Wow! What a party that was last night. My head still hurts.

Abigail: Yes. You outdid last year’s sheep-shearing party by a mile.

Nabal: Except for the raisin cakes. We ran short on those. I thought we had more pressed figs on hand, too.

Abigail: That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.

Nabal: Don’t blame me if we ran short. The servants are stealing and eating them on the side, I’m sure. Just wait till I catch them! They’ll regret it.

Abigail: It wasn’t the servants who took them. I did.

Nabal: You! Surely you didn’t eat them all.

Abigail: No. I gave them away, hundreds of them, the day before. Along with some roasted grain, two flagons of wine–

Nabal: Why? And to whom? What do you think we are, rich or something?

Abigail: Actually, Nabal, we are. I gave them to David and his men. We could spare them. We couldn’t afford not to, actually.

Nabal: David? As in David, the son of Jesse?

Abigail: None other.

Nabal: That no-good, rebellious bandit who’s giving all our servants ideas about mocking authority and running away from their masters? The upstart who had the nerve to show up and demand a share of food in our annual party?

Abigail: I mean the anointed king of Israel who’s being unfairly pursued and persecuted by crazy King Saul.

Nabal: How dare you! That’s treasonous!

Abigail: If I’m a traitor for saying that, then so was the Prophet Samuel, who anointed David king.

Nabal: Not only are you talking treason, woman, you’re talking crazy!

Abigail: Crazy? What do you call insulting David and his band of armed men, and driving them away when they came to you for food?

Nabal: You mean while we were shearing sheep the other day? How did you know about that?

Abigail: The servants told me.

Nabal: They had no right to! I’ll punish them.

Abigail: Wait till you hear how they actually saved your hide.

Nabal: And what right did David and his band of merry men have to anything of mine?

Abigail: Have you forgotten the local code of hospitality for every time we throw a party? Or do you value the bottom line above our reputation and our community? And besides, all this year, David and his men have protected you and your flocks from raiders and bandits. That should count for something, too. Or have you no fear of God?

Nabal: Where did you hear such nonsense?

Abigail: From the servants, again.

Nabal: What do they know?

Abigail: They’re out in the fields all day, every day. That should count for something.

Nabal: So I dissed them a little. Its not like they live here or do business with me.

Abigail: “Dissed” is not the word. More like “humiliated”. And “infuriated”.

Nabal: How would you know?

Abigail: Again, the servants told me.

Nabal: Which ones?

Abigail: It doesn’t matter.

Nabal: Its bad enough that they’re talking behind my back. What’s worse is that you’re listening to them!

Abigail: They often have something to say that’s worth hearing.

Nabal: Like what?

Abigail: Like, David and his men were on their way to crash our party yesterday morning.

Nabal: Seriously? I’d like to have seen them try.

Abigail: With swords. And spears. And bows and arrows.

Nabal: My servants are armed. They know what to do with them.

Abigail: We have fifteen young men, who can wield a sword., at most If they’ll risk their skins to defend your hide, that is. But don’t count on it. The rest are women, children and their grandparents. David was coming with hundreds of men, all of them angry as hornets and spoiling for a fight, because of how you “dissed” them.

Nabal: Good heavens! How’d you know?

Abigail: I told you—

Nabal: The servants?

Abigail: The servants.

Nabal: I’m feeling sick. So what stopped them?

Abigail: Me. And one hundred raisin cakes, two hundred cakes of pressed figs, five dressed sheep, two flagons of wine…..

Nabal: You gave them that much? But how could we afford all that? Wouldn’t two sheep have sufficed? Or just one flagon of wine?

Abigail: Nabal, they were ready to kill us all! And you’re worrying about how many sheep they got?

Nabal: So, what did you tell them?

Abigail: I apologized in your stead. Like you should have done.

Nabal: You……you….APOLOGIZED? For me? You shamed me!

Abigail: Would you rather be dead?

Nabal: I don’t know what’s worse, the loss of all those goods, or the shame of an apology, by my wife, in my name. How could you? I’ll be the laughingstock of the whole valley!

Abigail: Nabal! Would you rather I had died? Or that we all had died? While you were gearing up for a party, we were that close to taking our last breaths!

Nabal: No! How close?

Abigail: I met David and his men coming down the hill just the other side of the well.

Nabal: They were that close? And I didn’t know?

Abigail: There’s a lot you don’t know, Nabal. Besides, would I kid you about something like that? ……well?……answer me ……….Nabal?…..open your eyes and look at me!… ….Nabal?…..Wake up!…..Oh, my heavens! Servants!. Someone get me the nurse!…Nabal’s collapsed! Nurse!

THE END