A most unusual way to present Lent, the time leading up to Easter.
For the weeks of Lent at the 11 AM Sunday service at First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake two years ago, members followed “Hannah” as she seeks Jesus.
I liked it so much that I re-running the articles. There are a lot of new readers who have not had the chance to see it. Some of us hope that other churches will soon have an opportunity to use the same scripts.
Two weeks ago, Hannah was in the wilderness, having fasted all of one and one-half days. She was searching for the meaning of life and was really hungry. She meets Jesus, who had been in the wilderness for 40 days. Jesus doesn’t identify himself, however.
First she sees him on top of mountain talking loudly, but only we in the audience know to whom. Jesus is being tempted by the Devil.
Hannah thinks He is going to jump and urges Him not to.
When he comes down, she asks questions and he replies with what I am sure are direct quotes from elsewhere in the Bible.
Of course, she doesn’t understand what Jesus is saying and, while contemplating what He has said, He leaves the scene.
Hannah throughout the series is portrayed by Logan Fraser, then, a first-year teacher at Cary-Grove High School. Jesus is Tim Pontius. I didn’t have my camera at church for the first colloquy, but last week when Hannah goes looking for Jesus in his hometown, Nazareth, I did.
Can you imagine the Fugue for Tinhorns from “Guys and Dolls?”
Hannah meets five characters. Each has a refrain to sing after delivering a message about Jesus.
First is the mother in the village who has watched Jesus grow up.
“Shoulda of stayed home,” Wendy Miller sings, carrying her basket.
Next comes Jesus’ half-sister, played by Lori Morrow. She relates how Jesus was “no fun” as a kid. He was ‘a goody two shoes,’” the barefoot lass explains.
(You can tell I enjoyed the anachronisms.)
After the other kids replaced the synagogue’s wine jugs with water, she says, Jesus changed it into wine.
“No fun!”
A man who had engaged Joseph and his sons to build him a table and four chairs is the next person Hannah runs into to.
Portrayed by Brian Morrow, he has a contract that he says has not been fulfilled because Jesus left town.
His refrain is, “Paid cash.”
And, he’s an angry, unsatisfied customer.
Perhaps the funniest part of the tableau is his unrolling his scroll, which reaches the floor and then some.
Next, Hannah is off to the synagogue, where she meets two priests. One is played by her father, David Hill (the taller of the two), and the other by Terry Santos.
As the conversation develops, the taller of the two priests, Logan’s real life father is quite critical of Jesus.
Want to bet he turns out to be a Pharisee?
The shorter of the two, Santos, thinks Jesus is worth listening to.
It was quite something to hear.
The play ends with Hannah setting off the Jerusalem.
In the next episode, “Have You Seen Him at Lazarus’ House?” Hanna is trying to find Jesus at Lazarus’ house after he has been raised from the dead.
The Methodist Church, located at the intersection of West Crystal Lake and Dole Avenues, both of which cross Route 14, has four services—5 PM on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday morning at 8, 9:30 and 11.
The next episode of Hannah’s journey will be presented only at the 11 o’clock service.
Contemporary Worship Director Jayson Hemphill wrote the first two vignettes.
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There is no Part 1. It took me by surprise and I didn’t have my camera with me at church.