New Traditions

For many years {and I mean many years}, Marion has had a community Easter Pageant. It started back in the 30's and was a way for people from all denominations across the community to come together to tell the story of the Cross. I was in it for the first time when I was two, and it was a way of life for me until about 10 years ago, when they had to stop doing it because the building where it was held was condemned. All the sets and props had been built for that building, so they couldn't hold it anywhere else.

The YMCA bought the building and restored it - and this year was the first year the Pageant came back with full drama. For a few years, they've showed a video of it at Easter, but this year it was real again.

I was so excited to go - so excited to share with Ryan this play that had meant so much to me for so many years.

I should add that the Pageant is told entirely in song. No spoken words. The cast of actors tells the story with actions while a choir and orchestra tell the story with song.

Before we went, I'd heard a rumor that they'd made some changes this year. Some songs had been replaced by new ones, and others had been added. And I heard some of the drama had been changed.

It. Made. Me. So. Nervous.

I'm a purist and traditionalist about stuff like the Pageant. Don't mess with it. It's my history.

Ahhh....didn't I just blog about that kind of thing this week when I said I had to learn {back in the day} to let this house be mine in the present rather than a recreation of Grandma and Grandpa's in the past?

I'm a slow learner.

Tuesday night came, and I waited in the frigid outside for over an hour to get in...and I found a perch at the top of the bleachers and waited for it to begin.

The first strains of familiar music played and I knowingly tapped my foot and mouthed along with the words I knew so well. I pointed out things to Ryan that flooded back to me while we watched...

...and then the music changed.

I caught my breath, but I waited...and...I liked it. The songs they put in...fit. They told the story. And I cried. I cried because the new way was not only as good as the old way, but it was...gulp...better. It was a fresh perspective on what I knew. And I loved it.

The Marion Easter Pageant Facebook page had some great pictures from dress rehearsal, and I am borrowing them to show you some of my favorite parts and how God made His Sacrifice new to my heart this year:

I loved the way the Christus {the name used for Jesus in this play} interacted with the people. He wasn't stiff and distant...he hugged them and looked them right in the eye and smiled at them. I think Jesus really would have done all those things, and I loved the reminder of it.

They added the forgiving of the woman caught in adultery, and I loved that change. To see her thrown down in front of him...and the way he crouched down and looked her in the eye before writing in the dirt and sending her on her way with the admonition to leave her life of sin...was moving. {Tears.}

He lifted a lifeless body up and raised her back to life...never thought about what it would have been like to watch that miracle take place in real life. So moving.

This particular scene wasn't new or done much differently from what I remember, but the music was so moving. I loved it.

In all the years I was in it, the crucifixion scene was done using a backdrop of crosses. To see an actual PERSON shaking on a cross made this new and deeply touching. And all the while this was taking place, a choir of angels stood to the side and sang a new song called "Oh God, He's Dying..." and when the darkness took over and the thunder blared, they huddled with their faces hidden. Heaven grieving...a powerful thing.

And then to see his body taken down...I can't even imagine what it would have been like to be there and see that take place.

This is the way the Pageant used to end...the women at the tomb and the angel...and the words of Christ the Lord is Risen Today....

This time, the Christus came back...and the angel choir gathered around and sang. I loved the ending focus on a RISEN Lord!

So thankful God kept my heart open to receive a new tradition...and so thankful for the reminder of what He did for me!