Tolerance? a clown skit for 2 speaking clowns, courtesy of Clowns for Christ
This was written as a children’s sermon to match an adult sermon by the same title.
(Clown One enters and walks up to where children are.)
Clown One (addressing kids): I am going to talk to you about Christian Love.
(Clown Two enters licking a giant lollipop)
Clown One: Hey, you can’t eat that in here!
Clown Two: Oh yeah? Well, I saw you guys eating those crackers and drinking that juice over there last week.
Clown One: That was Holy Communion. That’s different.
Clown Two: No it’s not! If they can eat in here, so can I.
Clown One: Oh all right, just be quiet. I am trying to tell the kids about Christian Love.
Clown Two: OK. (She hands sucker to someone and pulls out a rubber ball and begins bouncing it gently)
Clown One: Now what are you doing?
Clown Two: I just brought this along in case your talk was boring. See? I’m bouncing it really quietly. I am not hurting anyone. If I can have candy in here, why not one little ball?
Clown One: (sighs) OK, just be quiet. Now children, have you guys ever heard of a verse that says to love your neighbor as yourselves?
(Clown Two has begun to through the ball up in the air and catching it. After doing this a few times, she pulls out two more balls and begins juggling.)
Clown One: Stop that! What do you think you are doing? You cannot juggle balls during church.
Clown Two: I can’t?
Clown One: No, you can’t.
Clown Two: But you let me play with one ball. How come I can’t play with three?
Clown One: Well three is different. You could break something.
Clown Two: But I won’t. I know what I’m doing, and besides, who do you think you are trying to tell me what I can and can’t do?
Clown One: (to herself, shaking head) Fine. Maybe if I ignore her, she’ll stop. (To kids) All right guys where were we?
(As kids answer, Clown Two has put away the balls and pulls out pins and begins to juggle them instead).
Clown One: All right, enough is enough. Stop that. (Gets up and walks over to clown one, a pin hits or almost hits her in the head) See that? You hit (almost hit) me with that thing. This is just not something you should be doing in church.
Clown Two: Oh yeah, well maybe I don’t want to go to your church then. You have too many rules. You talk about Christian Love, but then you don’t want me to juggle in church. You let me juggle the balls, so how come I can’t juggle the pins?
Clown One: (to kids) Well, I don’t want her to quit coming to church. (To Clown Two) Oh, all right. Just be careful with those things.
Clown Two: (juggles pins a little more, dropping them a lot) I keep dropping these, I need to find something else to juggle. (She pulls out some sharp knives) I think I will try to juggle these. (Before she starts, she examines the knives to see how sharp they are) OWWWWWW!!!! (puts finger in mouth)
Clown One: What happened?
Clown Two: I cut myself on my juggling knife.
Clown One: Juggling knife? You can’t juggle knives! You kept dropping the pins. Do you even know how to juggle knives?
Clown Two: No, but what do you care? I will only hurt myself. I am not hurting you, so you should just let me do what I want. Besides, it didn’t bother you when I was juggling pins, so why should this bother you? But first, I have to go find a Band-Aid. (She leaves)
Clown One: (To kids) Oh no, what should we do? When she comes back she is going to try to juggle those things and she will get hurt. How can we show her Christian Love? (Let kids talk) Should I have let her juggle the pins? How about the balls? When should I have stopped her? Why?
(Clown Two comes back with gauze wrapped around hand)
Clown One: How’s your hand?
Clown Two: Fine, I am ready to juggle my knives now.
Clown One: NO! We have decided that we can’t let you do that.
Clown Two: But what about your Christian Love. Doesn’t that mean you should let me do what I want?
Clown One: No. because we love you, we don’t want to see you hurt. Most rules that our parents and God give us are to keep us safe. If I let you break the church’s rules, or your parent’s rules or God’s rules, then you might get hurt. I love you, and I don’t want to see you get hurt.
Clown Two: Don’t you want me to be happy?
Clown One: Of course, but were you happy when you cut yourself?
Clown Two: No, but I pretended I was.
Clown One: I know, why don’t you come and pray with us?
Clown Two: You mean you’re not mad at me for juggling in church?
Clown One: No, I shouldn’t have let you do that to begin with. I should not have been afraid to tell you that juggling was dangerous. I was afraid that I would chase you away from the church. But now I see that by letting you do it, I let you get hurt, and you could have hurt someone else with those knives. I am very sorry.
Clown Two: I’m sorry too, I will try to behave now. Let’s pray….