THE
SEVEN DEADLY SINS GO WEST
What’s Yours Is Mine
By Bob Allen
“But if ye have
bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not,
and lie not
against the truth.” James 3:14
“For where envying
and strife is, there
is contention and
every evil work.” James 3:16
Deadly Sin: Envy
CHARACTERS
Rocky Rhodes –A western cowboy.
Lonely Rhodes - Rocky’s long-lost
brother.
Sidewinder Sam - Lonely’s sidekick.
SCENE
THE
ENTRANCE TO A GOLD MINE. ROUGH-CUT
TIMBERS FORM A DOOR INTO THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. ROCKY KNEELS OUTSIDE THE DOOR SEPARATING ORE FROM THE MINE INTO
TWO PILES. LONELY AND SAM SNEAK UP
BEHIND HIM, GUNS ALREADY DRAWN.
SAM: Hands
up, varmint!
ROCKY: (SEES
THE GUNS AND SLOWLY RAISES BOTH HANDS.) Do
I…
LONELY: Quiet! We’ll tell you when you can talk.
SAM: (WALKING
BEHIND ROCKY AND TURNING HIS FACE SO HE HAS TO LOOK AT LONELY) Do you know who this is? Look
real close now. Just like looking in a
mirror, huh? Bet you thought
you’d never see your brother again after all these years. Yes
sirree. This is what I call a family
reunion.
LONELY: Shut
up, Sam.
SAM: Sure,
sure. Just lettin’ him know whose mine
this is going to be. But you
go ahead and tell him. What’s yours is
mine. Get it? It’s mine. The mine is mine. Hah, hah, hah. Funny, huh?
LONELY: Shut
up, Sam. I don’t want the mine.
SAM: (STEPS
INTO THE DOOR OF THE MINE AND WAVES HIS GUN AT LONELY) But you said!
I heard you with my one good ear. We are going down to my brother’s place to
take his most valuable
possessions. What could be more valuable
than this gold mine?
LONELY: Tell
him, Rocky.
ROCKY: Tell
him, what?
LONELY: Your
most valuable possessions. What you
value the most.
ROCKY: Well,
that would have to be my love for Samantha, and my faith in God, and the joy I get out of just
living out here on the range.
LONELY: (GRABS
SAM BY THE FRONT OF THE SHIRT AND LIFTS HIM OFF THE GROUND.) See!
That’s why I hate him. He’s happy.
SAM: So! We take his gold and make him unhappy.
LONELY: Won’t
work. Tell him, Rocky.
ROCKY: You
can have the gold.
SAM: We
can? We’re rich. The mine is mine.
LONELY: (DROPS
SAM ON THE GROUND.) But he’s still
happy.
SAM: So
am I. Never been happier. Reno! Nevada
City! Las
Vegas! Here I come.
LONELY: Shut
up, Sam. We’re not here to make you
happy. We’re here to make him unhappy.
SAM: (GETS
IN LONELY’S FACE) Let me get this
straight. You don’t want the mine. You
don’t want to be rich. You don’t want me
to be
happy. You just want to make your
brother unhappy.
LONELY: You’ve
got it. I hate him being happy. He’s always been happy. That’s why I left home. And that’s why I’ve come back.
ROCKY: But
Lonely. You can have what makes me
happy. Samantha has a sister who has always thought you were a good catch.
LONELY: I
don’t WANT anyone to love me. I just
want to see you unloved like
I’ve been all my life. I want YOU to
feel MY pain.
ROCKY: And
you know you can share my faith. Mom and
Dad still pray for
you every day. God has promised to
forgive.
LONELY: I
have no use for faith. What would I do
with faith. I just don’t want you to have any faith. Cause faith makes you happy.
SAM: How
about his home on the range? We could
take that away from him. Not just the mine, but the whole ranch. You could become a cowboy. Have you always wanted to be a cowboy? I always thought
it would be fun to wear cowboy boots with those pointy toes so you can kill
spiders in the corners.
LONELY: Shut
up, Sam. I hate the ranch. Why do you think I left? But Rocky here always liked it. He gets joy from riding all day in the hot sun
just to patch a couple holes in the barbed wire. He gets joy from
pulling a steer out of a snowdrift when the temperatures forty below. I hate it when he’s happy. I hate it.
I hate it.
SAM: Whew! This is a side of you I have never seen. You’re turning so green,
if I didn’t know better I’d think you were the Incredible Hulk. Green with envy? Incredible Hulk? Get it?
LONELY: Shut
up, Sam.
ROCKY: I’m
glad you’re home, Lonely. Mom and Dad
still have a place for
you in their bunkhouse.
LONELY: You’re
glad? My coming back has made you happy?
ROCKY: You
had better believe it. We’ve been hoping
you would come back ever since you left without
opening your Christmas gifts.
LONELY: So,
if I left again you would be unhappy?
ROCKY: Please
don’t leave. Mom and Dad want to see
you.
LONELY: And
it will make you sad to have to tell them that I came back and refused to stay?
ROCKY: Of
course. We love you, Lonely. You’re family.
LONELY: Come
on, Sam. Let’s get out of here.
SAM: Are
you crazy? I’m rich. This here’s a gold mine. A gold mine.
The
mine in mine!
LONELY: Shut
up, Sam. If I can take away his
happiness by leaving I’ll be the
happiest man in the west. It’s the only
thing I’ve ever wanted in
all the world—the chance to make my brother unhappy. This is the
greatest day of my life. (GRABS SAM BY
THE BACK OF THE
SHIRT AND STARTS TO DRAG HIM AWAY.)
SAM: This
was the greatest day of my life, too. I
was a rich man for five minutes. If you didn’t hate your brother so much, I
could have been
rich the rest of my life. This could
have been the first day of the
rest of my life. Mine. The mine could have been mine.
LONELY: Shut
up, Sam. I’m happy!
THE END
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Why is envy considered a deadly sin?
- Why does envy desire the unhappiness of someone else?
- How does envy rob a person of the very emotion which they think will make them happy?
- Does envy have any real ability to rob others of happiness?
- Why does James 3:14 connect envy with strife?
- How does a person who falls prey to envy lie against the truth?
- Why does James 3:16 say that envy leads to other forms of evil?
- What spirit did Rocky demonstrate by his willingness to give up the gold mine?
- Why couldn’t Lonely be satisfied with seeing Rocky lose material wealth?
- How does envy cause a person to be more concerned with someone else’s unhappiness than with his own happiness?
- How can a person consumed by envy begin to overcome that particular sin in his or her life?
No comments:
Post a Comment