Sunday, April 16, 2006
Sunrise - Norah Jones
Sunrise over UoE - 16/2/2006
Scene #4 Act#1: Sunday Morning*
Someone knocks at the door...
Cleopas
Susanna? Phil? It’s me, Cleo.
The men wake themselves and open the door to let Cleo in.
Phillip
Hi, Cleo. What’s up?
Cleopas
Susanna asked me to meet her here. We’re going up to Emmaus.
Matthew
Emmaus? That’s seven miles away.
Cleopas
Yes. That’s why I’m here early. Where’s Susanna?
The rest turn to look for her but find both Susanna and Mary missing.
James
Where did these women go to? And so early in the morning?
Andrew
Let’s not get excited. Perhaps they went to the tomb of... .
Everyone falls silent as the grim reminder of the loss of Jesus comes over them again.
Cleopas
I hear they put Jesus in a tomb belonging to a council member.
John
Joseph.
Simon
Of Arimathea?
John
Yes. That Joseph.
Suddenly they hear the cries of the ladies from afar.
Mary
Johnnie! Phil!
Susanna
Jim! Matt!
James
What has gotten into them?
The ladies rush in.
Mary
O, Johnnie! Pete!
Susanna
It’s... o, hi, Cleo. When did you come?
Cleopas
Just. Not too long ago. What is happening?
Mary
It’s Jesus. Jesus is alive, he’s alive! Really, he is...
Peter
Now, woman. Calm down. What are you jabbering about?
Susanna
It’s true Pete. We were at the tomb this morning but when we reached there, the stone was rolled away...!
Matthew
What? Rolled away? The Roman guards?
Susanna
We don’t know what happened to them.
Mary
We were a little scared at first.
Susanna
O yes we were. But slowly, we plucked up enough courage to go into the tomb.
Simon
And what did you find?
Mary
Nothing!(triumphantly)
Andrew
Nothing? So?
Susanna
No, Andy. We didn’t even find our Lord in there!
James
But that could mean they took his body away!
Mary
Yes, but after that...
John
There’s more?
Susanna
Listen! After that, we saw two men, in shinning clothes.
Cleopas
Shinning?
Susanna
Angels, Cleo, Angels!
Mary
Yes, yes, Angels who told us that “He”, Jesus, “is not here!”
Susanna
That he is risen...
All together
...just as he said!
They break up in excited murmuring and chattering among themselves. Pete takes his coat and John follows suit and they both run off. The rest surround the ladies asking them for more details.
And thanks to those 2 ladies (actually 3, but we din have enuf actresses back then), we now have this tradition of conducting sunrise services every Easter morning. Being here in the UK where the sun rises earlier during spring, our service was held at 6 am (unlike the 7 am services back home).
So there we were, standing by the lake, facing east, standing on mud and duck droppings, shivering in the cold - but hearts all warmed as we sang out heartily "Christ is risen from the dead"! At one point, even the ducks in the lake seemed to wanna join in our choruses!
The cynical part of me always questioned the practicality and the sensibleness of having a sunrise service. But yet, each time i attend it, i was glad that i did - there's sumthing special about rising up when it's still dark, gathering together and placing ourselves in the shoes (or sandals) of the ladies who ran excitedly and declared to the rest that the Lord is risen! He is risen indeed, hallelujah!
* taken from "The Upper Room" - used with permission!
# posted by imissw : 8:16:00 pm
