For Use in Worship
Great Joy for All was intentionally crafted to fit into regular Sunday worship. The script can run 15 minutes to take the place of a traditional Gospel reading and sermon or can be extended with additional congregational singing for more time. The intent was to create a piece that worked for many congregations, from cast sizes of 10 to 50, for communities with diverse cultural backgrounds, and most of all, capturing how wide and deep the beauty and meaning of the Incarnation can be. Worship leaders and children’s ministry directors are encouraged to adapt these resources to suit their own voices, communities, and contexts.
Background: In 2020, church leaders from Twin Cities congregations (Holy Trinity, Grace University, St. Michael’s, Edina Community, University Lutheran Church of Hope, and Augsburg University) commissioned a new expansive language liturgy. The result, Sighs Too Deep for Words, was rich in production and reception, transforming not only their original congregations’ worship practices but many others who implemented it. In 2024, the group commissioned local pastor and author Rev. Emmy Kegler, who is currently on leave from congregational ministry to care for her two young children. The result, Great Joy for All, reflects a number of commitments from the Expansive Language team as well as lessons from Rev. Kegler’s years of congregational ministry and curriculum writing:
Expandable: Great Joy for All is written with 11 core characters and 5 doubled roles (which can be played by members of the 11 core character cast), along with six extended cast roles. Thus, the pageant can be done with a cast as small as 11 or as large as 22 (plus as many silent angels and sheep as a congregation can costume).
Age inclusive: Great Joy for All includes multiple roles — ANGEL 5, ANGEL 6, BALTHAZAR, and SHEPHERD 3 —with short sentences and simple vocabulary, allowing for the participation of younger children or cast members who do not have the opportunity for a lot of memorization or rehearsal.
Flexible: Roles are gender-neutral, allowing kids of any gender to play any part.
Musical: Each scene opens and closes with two suggested hymns from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, with the opportunity for each congregation’s music leaders to determine what best fits their capacities.
Traditional: Close readers of the Christmas stories in the gospels of Matthew and Luke will know that the magi and shepherds likely never crossed paths — but in almost every Christmas program, they do. This paradigm is maintained in Great Joy for All.
Historical: Mary and Joseph are usually relegated to a stable with animals because they cannot find a guest room — but the gospel of Luke, along with our best understandings of hospitality culture of the time and place, would have them housed within a humble home where animals are brought inside for the night. Thus, Luma / Lumo joins the traditional cast, with a name (accompanied by Kata / Kato) influenced by the Greek word for “guest room,” kataluma.
Expansive: As the final script of Great Joy for All took shape, it began to reflect the many ways to understand “God-with-us.” God revealed in Jesus is not limited to a single interpretation. Thus, each set of characters embodies one of the many possibilities of the meaning of the Incarnation:
- The magi begin in solitude and loneliness and are drawn into community.
- Herod’s assistant Graham has pursued power and privilege in service in the palace, but in the message the magi brings they choose instead to protect the vulnerable and accept forgiveness for their past mistakes.
- Luma / Lumo expresses deep sadness at an inability to “feel” God’s presence in traditional worship settings; they then find peace in opening their home to those in need.
- The shepherds are hungry, only able to fill themselves on the past stories of God’s feeding work — and at a humble home in Bethlehem find their hearts and their stomachs filled, foreshadowing the adult Jesus’ miraculous loaves of bread.
These meanings are intentionally not set in competition with each other, but instead presented as harmonious and wide-reaching experiences that help many enter the miracle of Immanuel.
Just as the first Christmas was a very full house, may our churches and hearts be full of all the incarnation brings.