Last night we went to see a sequel to last year's uproarious musical comedy Church Basement Ladies. I remember side splitting laughter before, and actually hurting from laughing so hard. Somehow this production did not quite equal the hilarity of the previous version. But I suppose that it is often the case, that is is more difficult to produce a second version of the same quality.
Church Basement Ladies 2 was also a bit more serious than the first one, with a more poignant and reflective story line. The story is set in the church basement of a Lutheran church somewhere in Minnesota. The main characters are the pastor and a four woman kitchen crew. The ladies preside over the kitchen through various church functions, which can be heard in the background: visiting missionaries making a presentation, teenagers having a party, several power outages and snow storms.
One of the four ladies' husbands even died unexpectedly. In the funeral scene, the orchestra played the hymn Abide With Me. I am at a loss for words to describe the exact effect that hymn had on me. Long ago I realized that my spirit was shaped and formed through hymns, old familiar songs sung and played again and again.
Hearing that hymn stirred up in me a longing for home. And home simply means church. Since I have been serving in a denomination other than my own these past few months, I have sorely missed the old familiar hymns of my own tradition and of my childhood. Listening to that hymn felt like water to a thirsty soul, ointment to a wound. I was so moved by the sound of that song, which seemed so unexpected at a theater, that I almost cried.
Of course, music, more than anything else has the ability to touch one's emotions at the deepest level. And last night, it clearly did!
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