Easter Sunday memories

I'm going to begin my Easter "essay" by plugging Carol deGiere's book, The Godspell Experience. There are many books out there. I'm in all of them, but, all of them, with the exception of Carol's excellent book have so many factual inaccuracies it makes me crazy. But, I was reminded today of why John Michael Tebelak felt compelled to create this piece of work. He was a very spiritual 20-year-old kid who went to an Easter Sunday service. Along with the empty, droning, uninspired service, JMT was deemed inappropriately attired by this congregation. So, he was frisked by a parishioner who said he was an off-duty cop. John Michael left that miserable experience angry and heart broken with several burning questions he needed answered. Where was the "love thy neighbor as thyself," love? And, wasn't Jesus poor? Wasn't he always addressing the needs of the poor? Didn't he hang out exclusively with the poor? So, JMT wanted to strip away all forms of Church dogma, ritual, etc. and take Jesus out for a walk into a child's fenced playground populated by children who knew -- nothing! We were wiped clean of all knowledge after the opening prologue by our baptism! When we re-entered, it was as children's iconic characters: clowns and a super-hero-styled clown in the person of Jesus who was about to teach us everything he knew about loving him, his love for us, and loving each other -- period! That's what John Michael wanted to do: create a show, an experience that would counter his horrible Easter Sunday service -- an experience of all-inclusive love and joy. He succeeded, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the original ten who co-created this jewel with him. So, on this Easter Sunday I'm feeling grateful to those crappie people in that Church in Pittsburgh who treated JMT so badly. It helped him turn lemons into never-ending lemonade!