Short Dramas and Plays
Who Holds the Key!
CURTAINS
SCENE: Heaven’s Gates: Heaven‘s Gates are stage left with the two Angel guards in front; to their right is the Gate Keeper on stool behind a podium. To his right a long line of the dead. Channel 12 Reporter center stage.
REPORTER:
Each day a certain number of people pass through the door of life into death and end up here to see if they are worthy to enter in the gates of Heaven. In a never ending attempt to bring you all the news when it happens, where it happens, we at channel 12, your eyes in the sky are here now, at the gates of Heaven to reveal the inter-workings of this process. [Walking to the Gate Keeper] Let us get a word first with the Gate Keeper.
GATE KEEPER: [Bothered]
NEXT!
REPORTER:
Pardon my interruption, but Gate Keeper the viewers would like to know just how this process works.
GATE KEEPER:
The process for entering Heaven hasn’t changed for over two thousand year. I simply ask one question, that is do you have the key to enter, if they answer correctly or they show me the key, then they can come in.
REPORTER
But if they don’t have this key to enter?
GATE KEEPER:
Then we ask them to step below. Now isn‘t that simple.
REPORTER:
There it is in a nut shell, the process from beginning to end; first a question, then the answer. Let’s see it in action.
GATE KEEPER: [To the Reporter]
Please step to the side,. . .NEXT!
MS. O’GLORY: [Banging her tambourine]
Yes, oh glory! I am Miss O’Glory from the Little House of Prayer, 18th Street and Mission, Ball Play, Mississippi, oh glory!
GATE KEEPER:
Madam, do you hold the key to enter?
REPORTER: [To Ms. O’Glory]
There it is. the question has been asked how will you respond?
MS. O’GLORY: [Quivering each time she says Oh Glory]
Oh glory! I don’t know how I will respond, oh glory! Seeing, I only have tambourine, oh glory!
GATE KEEPER:
Then let me ask you a few questions? Did you attend church regularly?
MS. O’GLORY:
Yes. Me and my tambourine was at every revival and camp meeting. Every other Sunday, I would show up in church, oh glory!
GATE KEEPER:
Did you listen to your pastor? Visit with the sick and shut-in, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, or confess Jesus Christ?
MS. O’GLORY:
Now, I did that every Thursday night at the camp grounds down by the fire station, oh glory!
REPORTER:
But the question before today is, do you have the key to enter?
GATE KEEPER:
What? Are you doing my job now?
REPORTER:
Sorry.
MS. O’GLORY:
Oh glory! No, oh glory! But I do have the tambourine.
GATE KEEPER: [Thumbing through the book]
Well, I don’t see you name in the book, so I think you spent too much of your time, oh glory! shouting when you should have been listening. For it is written, I will praise the Lord according to His righteous: and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. Guard escort Ms. Oh Glory! down please.
ANGEL: [Takes Ms. Oh Glory by the arm and escorts her off]
REPORTER:
The question asked, but the respondent failed to give the correct answer, so the result is.
SOUND: Whips, chains, moans, and screams are heard.
REPORTER:
Another one is lost to the dark.
GATE KEEPER:
NEXT!
MR. GOODWORKS: [Stepping Up]
That would be me.
REPORTER:
Another steps up. Lets listen in.
GATE KEEPER:
Well, sir I have one question for you.
MRS. GOODWORKS: [Stepping out of the crowd, interrupting]
I do all the talking for my family.
MR. GOODWORKS:
That’s right that right, she does all the talking.
GATE KEEPER:
You are?
MRS. GOODWORKS:
My name is Mrs. Goodworks, and this is my husband, Mr. Goodworks.
REPORTER: [To the Gate Keeper]
I thought, that each person stands to answer the question them self?
MRS. GOODWORKS: [Interrupting]
This is MY husband and no one knows more about him than me!
MR. GOODWORKS:
That’s right, she knows more than me.
GATE KEEPER:
Well, can you answer the question for you and your husband? Do you have the key to enter?
MR. GOODWORKS:
Key?
MRS. GOODWORKS:
Be quiet honey, while I find about this key.
REPORTER:
There it is again, the question. Now, we wait for the answer.
MRS. GOODWORKS:
Ah, Mr. Gate Keeper sir, didn’t you read about me I mean both of us already? You are asking about a key, you should be looking at the record.
GATE KEEPER: [Thumbing through a book]
Well, lets see. I see here that you did well in the church you served. You, I mean you and your husband did mighty good works for the poor, for the hungry, for the needy, yet I see that all these entries are written in black.
REPORTER: [To Mrs. Goodworks]
Can you explain why?
MRS. GOODWORKS: [Offended]
I don’t know what you mean? We tithe and I make sure the whole church knew it! Ah, we gave to the poor and needy of the church, and we make sure the everyone knew it!. Each year we provided the paper plates for the church picnic, and you can ask anyone.
MR. GOODWORKS:
That’s right that’s right.
MRS. GOODWORKS:
Why, we are all about doing good works to the church, community, and city as a whole and I’ll let you know that everyone knew about it. I’m surprised you don’t.
GATE KEEPER:
I understand why these things were written in black. It’s not what you did, but why and in whose name you did it.
MRS. GOODWORKS: [Smug]
Whose name do you think? If I had done this things in the pastor’s name, he would have gotten the credit. If we had done these things in Betty’s name, or Connie’s name, they would have gotten all the credit. Whose name do you think, my own! I mean our own.
GATE KEEPER:
Well, your good works, done in your name, didn’t get you., I mean, the both of you written in the book of life, for it is written, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven; therefore Angel, escort them both two steps below.
ANGEL: [Takes Mr. and Mrs. Goodworks by the arm and escorts them off]
REPORTER:
We see again, where the wrong answer was given. Good works won’t get you through these gates and so another, in this case two, takes that giant step below.
SOUND: Whips, chains, moans, and screams are heard.
GATE KEEPER:
NEXT!
REV. MONEY BAGGS: [Confident]
Amen, Amen! Rev. Money Baggs is in the house. That’s Rev. B. I. G. Money Baggs, pastor of the higher and lower order of the Helping Hand Holiness Church out of Trenton, New Jersey. But I bet you knew that.
REPORTER:
Now we will see how this good pastor fairs as he is asked the question.
GATE KEEPER: [To the Reporter]
Do you have to do that?
REPORTER:
Sorry, I‘m just reporting.
GATE KEEPER: [Pointing to his left]
Well, do it just a little further over there.
REPORTER: [Easing to the left]
Sorry.
GATE KEEPER:
Now good reverend, I have a question I must ask you.
REV. MONEY BAGGS:
Go ahead, you know me. Me and you should be just like that [holding crossed fingers] but I must warn you I’m no Bishop Jakes, Dr. Kennedy, or Pastor Hagee, I spent most of my time collecting monies for the poor and needy, amen! Giving shelter where shelter was needed, amen! Clothing the naked, amen! Finding the lost, and visiting the sick, all of which demanded money, amen!
GATE KEEPER:
I just have one question. Do you hold the key to enter?”
REV. MONEY BAGGS: [Thumbing through a hand full of money]
I may not know much about this key you are talking about, but let us see if I can’t just buy you one, okay?
GATE KEEPER:
No, no good reverend; I don’t need your money. Heaven nor God has any need of your money. But let us look over your record.
REV. MONEY BAGGS:
Wait a minute, its written Will man rob God? Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me. That means God needs as well as requires money.
GATE KEEPER:
Look around. The gates are 100% gold, the streets are paved with gold, lined with diamonds and precious gems. All the earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord, so how do you think God needs your money?
REV. MONEY BAGGS:
All I know is that I was doing God’s work Lets look over my record.
GATE KEEPER: [Thumbing through the book]
It says here, you did collect monies for the poor.
REV. MONEY BAGGS:
AMEN!
GATE KEEPER:
You did collect monies in the name of the sick and shut-in.
REV. MONEY BAGGS:
AMEN!
GATE KEEPER:
That you provided shelter for a homely girl.
REV. MONEY BAGGS:
AMEN!,[Surprised]. . .No! that’s homeless!”
GATE KEEPER:
But all these things you did for yourself!
REV. MONEY BAGGS:
NO!!
GATE KEEPER:
Yes, it has you all written down here. You embezzled from the church. You took from your family. You took in the name of the Lord. Your mind was on money and nothing else. Have you not heard; have you not read; the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
REV. MONEY BAGGS:
I think I read that somewhere, but what does that have to do with a key? If I don’t have it, and you won’t let me buy it, then what do we do now?
GATE KEEPER:
We don’t do anything, but this Angel will show you where you money may be of some value. Angel!
REV. MONEY BAGGS:
All right!
ANGEL: [Takes Rev. Money Baggs by the arm and escorts him off]
SOUND: Whips, chains, moans, and screams are heard.
GATE KEEPER: [To the Report]
You don’t have anything to say?
REPORTER: [Shaking his head]
No.
GATE KEEPER:
Okay, NEXT!
MS. RIGHTEOUS: [Walks up with her hands clasp in prayer]
REPORTER: [Sneaking forward]
Ah, now we see a holy child coming forward. Let see how this plays out.
GATE KEEPER:
And you are?
MS. RIGHTEOUS:
My name is Ms. Righteous, and in heart and bosom I hold only my righteousness.
GATE KEEPER: [Bothered]
What was that name again?
MS. RIGHTEOUS:
My name is Ms. Righteous, and in heart and bosom I hold.
GATE KEEPER: [Interrupting]
I heard you. I heard you. Yes, here it is. Ms. A. Righteous. The A. is for always.
MS. RIGHTEOUS:
I always have maintained my righteous.
GATE KEEPER:
It says here you never married?
MS. RIGHTEOUS:
Yes, for my righteousness.
GATE KEEPER:
You never told a lie?
MS. RIGHTEOUS:
For my righteousness.
GATE KEEPER:
You stayed way from all illegal, immoral, prohibited activity?
MS. RIGHTEOUS:
In the name of my righteousness.
GATE KEEPER:
Then what good did your righteousness do God?
MS. RIGHTEOUS:
Do? It shows others how the righteous are suppose to act.
GATE KEEPER:
Have you never read, we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
MS. RIGHTEOUS:
Yet, I have stored and kept my righteousness all these years.
GATE KEEPER:
You don’t get do you?
MS. RIGHTEOUS:
Does it concern my righteousness?
GATE KEEPER:
And I bet you never did. Angel, show Ms. Righteous where she can take her righteousness.
REPORTER: [Easing forward]
Aren’t you forgetting something? The question?
GATE KEEPER:
Oh, all right. Ms. Righteous, do you hold the key to enter?
MS. RIGHTEOUS:
As I said before, I hold only my righteousness. I’m sure I don’t have your key.
GATE KEEPER:
Angel, do your duty.
ANGEL: [Takes Ms. Righteous by the arm and escorts her off]
SOUND: Whips, chains, moans, and screams are heard.
GATE KEEPER: [To the reporter]
Your turn.
REPORTER: [Stepping forward boldly]
There it was again. The question and the response, and the failure. Righteousness is of the Lord. Is there no one worthy to enter Heaven this day? That is the greater question.
GATE KEEPER:
Next!!
CHURCH DEACON: [Apprehensively pulling a large oversize set of keys from his pocket]
Now if you need keys, I’ve got your keys.
GATE KEEPER:
Well, sir, first what is your name.
CHURCH DEACON:
I’ve got at key for that,. . .its diaconos which in Greek means deacon. And that’s what I am; the Church Deacon from the Mountain Top Missionary Baptist Church out of East Memphis, Tennessee.
GATE KEEPER:
Deacon now check and see if you have a key that will fit these gates that I might let you in today.
CHURCH DEACON: [Fumbling with the keys]
Now, I’ve got keys. I’ve got keys for anything and everything. Just give me a moment.
REPORTER:
Finally, ladies and gentleman, we just might see the end to our story here at the Heavenly gates. We are about to see the key produced.
CHURCH DEACON:
I’ve got the keys to the church. Keys to the parsonage. Keys to the church van. Keys to my 57 Chevy; now, how did that get in there. Keys, keys, keys, and more keys. Why, I’ve even the keys to the girls’ bathroom.
GATE KEEPER:
While you are fumbling with your keys, let’s look over your record. It says here that you were the church deacon for over thirty two years. Leading prayer, teaching classes, visiting the sick and shut-in periodically; conducting services in the absence of the pastor, participating in baptismal services, and uplifting others in church, yet.
REPORTER: [Interrupting]
There it is a real servant of the church. We await the question.
GATE KEEPER: [Annoyed]
Yet, you lack several elements of a good servant.
CHURCH DEACON:
Just give me one second, I’ll find that key. I know I have it here somewhere.
REPORTER:
What could be holding our good deacon back?
CHURCH DEACON: [Afraid]
How about if I just step back into the line. That will give me time to check all my pockets. I know I have it.
GATE KEEPER:
Deacon, I don’t see your name in the Book of Life.
CHURCH DEACON: [Stunned]
Are you serious? Look again?! I know I’m somewhere in the book.
GATE KEEPER:
Angel.
CHURCH DEACON: [Terrified]
Look, Gate Keeper, you know I don’t deserve to go down there. I have worked hard for the church, to do those things that might up lift the name of the Lord. Yet I can’t find the key just now, but please give me another chance?!
GATE KEEPER:
Surely you have heard the word, they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts they remain far from me. In this case, this is true about you.
CHURCH DEACON: [Pleading]
But I did everything I was suppose to!
GATE KEEPER:
Did you posses a forgiving heart?
CHURCH DEACON:
No, but!
GATE KEEPER:
Did you love your neighbor?
CHURCH DEACON:
No, but!
GATE KEEPER:
Were you born again?
CHURCH DEACON:
I was born again in the flesh. I was baptized! I prayed.
GATE KEEPER:
Have you not hear, have you not read, this people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
CHURCH DEACON:
Yes, but that couldn’t be me?
GATE KEEPER:
Then where is your heart in this matter?
CHURCH DEACON:
Please! you don’t understand,. . .I know where those others have gone!, don’t send me there!. [Checking his pockets again] I know I have the key somewhere on me. Please! I was a servant of the church!
GATE KEEPER:
Then let me remind you servant of the day and of the hour you failed, for the Lord has said many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
CHURCH DEACON:
NO!
GATE KEEPER:
Angel.
ANGEL: [Takes the Church Deacon by the arm and escorts him off]
SOUND: Whips, chains, moans, and screams are heard.
GATE KEEPER:
And in that day there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. NEXT!
REPORTER:
Again, the key has been requested, and it has yet to be found. In this case, it never fails to amaze me that someone so close to the light remains blind to it. We have seen several church goers but no church members today, but let us keep our hopes up that someone will prove to possess the key.
GATE KEEPER:
Next.
MR. GOODMAN: [Steps up slowly]
Yes, here I am.
GATE KEEPER:
And who are you?
MR. GOODMAN:
Mr. Good man.
GATE KEEPER: [Thumbing through the Book]
Ah, here you are. Do you have the key to enter?
MR. GOODMAN:
No sir, and I can’t imagine what that key might be.
GATE KEEPER:
Just think on it, but while you’re at it tell me a little about yourself.
MR. GOODMAN:
There’s really nothing to tell. I lived my life to be a good man. A good husband to my wife. A good father to my children. A good man to my family, my church, my job and community.
GATE KEEPER:
Yes, I see the good works.
REPORTER:
Finally, we have someone with real good works, but good works are never enough.
GATE KEEPER: [With a smile]
Well, tell me about your church service.
MR. GOODMAN:
What is there to say. I wasn’t called to be a preacher, a deacon, or anything else, so I just participated in the functions of the church as often as I could. Sunday School, prayer services, Bible study as well as Sunday services, and I did what I could to support them all.
REPORTER:
Well now, is that enough?
GATE KEEPER:
Well, what about outside of church?
MR. GOODMAN:
What do you mean my job and stuff? I simply tried to be a good man there. Honest, hard working, trustworthy but always faithful to the love in my heart.
GATE KEEPER:
Broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.
REPORTER:
What was that? Have we also lost another?
GATE KEEPER:
I found your name, so I ask you once again, do you have the key to enter?
MR. GOODMAN:
I’m sorry, I don’t have it. But my Jesus, my elder brother, my redeemer, my salvation and my rock on whom I stand, who came into my life and made me all that you see, and who’s face I have yet to see assures me that one day I will join him, some where gathered around the thrown to shout hallelujah and praise the father that sent him. So, no I don’t have the key that you seek other than faith in Jesus Christ.
GATE KEEPER:
Please, open your hand.
MR. GOODMAN: [Opens his hand and reveals the key]
GATE KEEPER:
With this key the doors of heaven are opened unto you. Come child of the most faithful, enter into heaven where you will receive you white robe and starry crown.
MR. GOODMAN: [Unlocks the gates and enters]
SOUND: Cheers, cries of glory, glory, glory, hallelujah, and praise God.
REPORTER: [Moving back to center stage]
There you have it. The question asked, do have the key to enter, the response and in turn the gates of heaven swing wide to welcome home a good and faithful servant. But there were many here today for one reason or other, they fall short of the key and now they will spend eternity regretting their decisions. Yet the greater question is how many more days will come and go, each one taking their number, before those on earth realize their opportunity is at hand. Now is the time to make the right decision, now is the season to confess Christ and look forward to everlasting life. No man knows that answer except those who stand at the door and hear the Lord knocking and will not answer. Standing at the gates of Heaven, this is your reporter returning you to your regularly scheduled programming. God bless you and good day.
CURTAINS
THE END
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