For lent and Easter 2022, I wrote six duologues between Samuel and other people in the Bible, all on the theme of living with conflict.
Having written to Samuel in the last of my series on the great ‘cloud of witnesses’, I wondered what I might write that could start with Samuel and continue for lent. There is so much we can draw from his life, after all.
However, as I flicked through my Bible it seemed that he dealt with conflict at every turn. Maybe that was the answer: to write a series on living with conflict. It was certainly timely.
These duologues are with: the young girl from Israel (2 Kings 5), Ezekiel, John the Baptist, Peter’s wife, Jonathan and, finally, Jesus.
They talk about conflict in a variety of different settings — but when you stand back and look at them as a whole, really they speak into feelings of failure. In 2023, I had the chance to edit them as a collective whole, so if you read the earlier versions, then know that these are tighter and give a better arc and payoff for Samuel as a character.
| Scene | Guest | Length | Themes | Strapline |
| 1 | The young girl from Israel (2 Kings 5) | 2,700 | Forgiving enemies, feelings of failure and insignificance. | Choose obedience over bitterness. |
| 2 | Ezekiel | 2,400 | Vocation, the nature of prophecy. | Mathematics is prophecy. |
| 3 | John the Baptist | 2,250 | The limits of perspectives, self-doubt. | This whole place is a parable. |
| 4 | Peter’s wife | 2,300 | The nature of worship, how fame corrupts, how God sees us. | It wasn’t fame that chose him, it was Jesus. |
| 5 | Jonathan | 1,700 | Family conflict, betrayal, imagination. | I was curious to reimagine my life. |
| 6 | Jesus | 1,800 | Death and burial, anger with God. | I am the first-born from the dead. |
The individual scripts are accessible from the individual posts below (along with notes about what inspired me to write each one), but if you want one PDF with all six scenes, you can download that here.
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Photo by Carrie Borden on Unsplash
- Living with conflict and 2 Kings 5: A duologue between Samuel and the ‘young girl from Israel’
Ronit shares what happened after Naaman was healed and how she wrestles with feelings of failure, but ultimately chooses obedience over bitterness. - Living with conflict: A duologue between Samuel and EzekielSamuel asks Ezekiel whether he’d rather be a prophet or a priest. Ezekiel answers that he’d be a mathematician.
- Living with conflict: A duologue between Samuel and John the BaptistSamuel discovers John has chosen to make his dwelling a flat expanse of desert. John wryly recounts the things people say to him when they interrupt his solitude.
- Living with conflict: A duologue between Samuel and Peter’s wifeSamuel goes to a heavenly copy of St Peter’s Basilica and meets his wife there. They discuss the hazards of fame and the role of art in helping people approach God.
- Living with conflict: A duologue between Samuel and JonathanSamuel meets Jonathan amongst a colonnade of marble pillars. Jonathan shares how Michelangelo’s David prompted him explore stories from other traditions and see echoes of his life in them.
- Living with conflict: A duologue between Samuel and JesusSamuel finds himself standing with Jesus outside the Philistine city of Beth-Shan, after Saul and his sons were defeated in battle. They talk about Saul’s life, the silence of death and the dead.
