letters from the dead

Group, Mar/Apr 2004

Have your Soloist(s) walk to the altar, sing the second verse of "It Is Well With My Soul," then sit down again.

Have Psalm Reader #3 enter and read aloud or recite the following paraphrase of Psalm 51.

PSALM READER #3:

I've never been this low, God. I'm not asking you just to forgive me. I need to be picked up and dunked in an ocean of forgiveness. I didn't just mess up my own life. I've messed up others' lives as well. Mostly I have wronged you. You have every right to punish me. I will accept your decision. Let me start over now. Let me say I'm sorry for everything I've done since I was born. Give me a clean slate. Wash me clean and hang me to dry like white sheets on a clothesline. Clean my mind. Clean my heart. Don't take your presence away. Take me back to when I was happy without all this baggage. Give me a chance to show others I'm sorry. I've been a beggar-let me show the others where to find food. Take this weight off of me, God. I'm sorry for what I've done. Let me make you proud of your servant. Amen.

Psalm Reader #3 should exit the stage through the tomb.

Have one of your kids enter, read aloud Luke 23:33-43, then exit through the tomb.

Have Letter Reader #3 (must be a female) walk onto the stage with an envelope. She should pull a letter out of the envelope, then read it aloud.

LEHER READER #3:

Dear Mom,

I'll save you the trouble of doing the math. It's been four years, seven months, and three days since I ran away. I didn't run away from home. I know you tell people that. It makes me sound like a little kid who ran off to join the circus and will be back someday. I'm not coming back.

I saw Mrs. Hallbern. I'm sure she told you by now. She and Mr. Hallbern were on their annual vacation and stopped into the coffee shop where I'm working. She didn't say anything to me and I didn't say anything to her, but we both looked at each other. Yes, I'm working in a coffee shop, but I'm going to school at night.

I'm guessing you are still with Jerry. If you weren't I'm sure Mrs. Hallbern would've jumped at the chance to spill that little piece of gossip. Everything I told you about what Jerry tried to do is true. Everything. I still don't know why you believed him over me. The more I think about it, that was the reason I left. Not because of Jerry and his big hands, but because when I told you what he did you accused me of trying to break up your living arrangement. Jerry is a jerk and a perv and I think you really know that you're just too scared to do anything about it.

I'm only writing so that when Mrs. Hallbern sees you at church after she gets back she doesn't tell you that we talked or that I looked terrible or that I was homeless and selling myself on the street. She makes stuff up. You know that.

I should also tell you that you were a grandmother for about five minutes. I hooked up with a loser just like you said I always would, and he got me pregnant and then left. The baby was born and died a few minutes later. I named her Rachel after grandma. There was a priest at the hospital who assured me that she went to heaven. So don't worry. Don't worry about me either.