The coffeeshop in which I’m enjoying my two shots of espresso has a much higher than average number of high school students leeching the free internet and looking melancholy in the very cool way I could never pull off. Their presence on a weekday afternoon reminds me the holiday weekend is upon us. Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday: this is the rhythm for the consciously Christian this weekend. And for the rest, perhaps a day off, a good meal, and the pleasure that comes from knowing you’re not in church.

I’m not anti-church. In fact, I’m helping with my church’s contemplative Good Friday service this evening. It’s just that much of the significance of this weekend’s story seems lost on those who spend too much time within sacred walls and not enough among the profane. Sometimes I think the Easter story makes more sense to those whom more closely relate to Judas than to Jesus.

Last Saturday my wife and I joined some friends to see The Sparrow, an original production by Chicago’s House Theatre. The play opens with Sparrow returning to her small Illinois hometown for the final year of high school. Her return drags up memories of a tragedy that took place 10 years before which took the lives of Sparrow’s classmates. After selling out the House Theatre, the play moved to the Steppenwolf’s Garage Theatre where it has also sold out. Chris Jones at the Tribune first reviewed The Sparrow in January: You can smell and taste something new, something passionate, something original, something strong, something fresh, something true and, above all, something young. It’s those passionate, original, strong, fresh, and true elements that reminded me of Easter. In the end, Sparrow faces rejection by the town and she must leave her small town life for the wilds of Chicago. In her leaving however, she gives to the townspeople who have betrayed her a gift of redemption. You could say she empties herself so the townspeople can know final freedom from their 10-year grief. And this makes me think of Easter. And Jesus. And Judas. And redemption.

Happy Easter.