Endings and Beginnings

A reading for two voices

A: Once upon an ending, just as the water receded, and the ark bumped into Mount Ararat, a rainbow appeared. And all the animals went ‘Ooooo’ and all Noah’s family went “ahhhh’, and the door swung open and off they all went, two by two, into the sunset, under the rainbow ark, God waving to them saying, ‘Promise, I’ll never to that again’ and they all lived happily ever after…

B: Or so they thought. Once upon an ending was a beginning. Now the world had been cleaned up, God found Abraham and said, ‘Look I’ve tried to get the whole world to trust me and look where that got us. I’m going begin with you. Just one person.

A: But Abraham thought this idea would be short lived and come to a sudden ending. “I’m 75’ he said to God. ‘I’m nearly old enough to be your grandfather. How am I going to be the beginning of anything. I’m at the ending of my life.’ And Abraham counted his sheep and goats and servants. Decided he had plenty to live on and retired to live happily ever after.

B: Except he didn’t because God said. “Abraham, you need to move house. Don’t know where yet, but if you come outside I’ve got a map.” So Abraham went outside and looked for a map. Couldn’t find one until God said, “Look up!”. Abraham looked up and there was the milky way, a star map of the sky and God said, “What’s the biggest number you can think of? Bet there is at least one more star more than that number. That’s how many children you’ll have.”

A: Abraham laughed, but sure enough, when he was 100, he had the first child. He couldn’t work out how may there were still to go but he decided now he could live happily ever after.

B: Or so he thought, but his ending story was just the beginning story for Isaac one of his two sons, who himself had a couple of sons, Jacob and Esau. So many times the story nearly came to a not so happy ending: over dinner menus, the fashion for beards, and a particular wrestling match. And they all lived not so happily ever after.

A: Or so they thought, but in fact it was just the beginning of the next part and the story that went on like that, generation after generation: everything seems to come to an end, in a pit for a gent with a multicoloured coat, in Egypt for a growing nation, at the red sea for escapees. The end had come

B: Except it didn’t. Each ending a prequel to a beginning, ultimately one with a cross, a tomb and a man who had given everything, until he could give no more, and those who didn’t like what he said, took away his last breath. It was the most dramatic, wild, crazy, awful ending to any story.

A: Or so they though. Just when everyone thought this was the end, the stone rolled, the tomb emptied and Jesus was back. Every ending story seems to become a beginning story. There are no ‘happy ever after’ but a hundred ‘once upon an endings’…