xmlns:og='http://ogp.me/ns#' The Mid-Week Message: Les Miserables and the Grace of God

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Les Miserables and the Grace of God

June 17, 2014

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

As many of you may have heard, the Cherokee Community Theater is preparing a blockbuster presentation of the acclaimed musical Les Miserables.  In many ways, it will be grander in scale and more epic in scope than anything many of us have seen out of our community theater.  The vocals, live orchestra, acting, set pieces, lighting, and costuming are all amazing, coming together for an opening night this Thursday after many long months of preparation.  If you haven’t purchased your tickets yet for one of eight performances over the next two weekends, do so by calling the box office at 225-4440 or online at cherokeect.org. 

I’m encouraging you to see it not just because I and the girls are part of this tremendous cast and crew, but also because, as your pastor, I believe the story is replete with theological reflections on the nature and richness of God’s grace.  The story of Jean Valjean, the protagonist of the story, covers the last eighteen of his sixty-five year old life, in which he goes from ex-convict, to wealthy business man, to town mayor, to soldier in the Paris uprising of 1832. 

But at a deeper level, the life of Jean Valjean (portrayed splendidly by my friend and Presbyterian minister Ethan Sayler) is a beautiful portrayal of the lifelong work of God’s grace, understood by Wesleyan Christians as “the stages of grace.” 


PREVENIENT GRACE:  “I have bought your soul for God.”

He is, first of all, a recipient of prevenient grace, evidenced by the remarkable mercy shown to him by Bishop Myriel (played by Dave Zelle), who pardons him for the theft of the church’s silver pieces and encourages him to use the silver to make a better man for himself.  Despite his sinful past, and the hatred that had begun to grip his cold heart, God never gave up on him, pursuing him through the unexpected mercies granted to him by the Bishop. 


JUSTIFYING GRACE:  “Who Am I?”

Still, Valjean continued to live a tortured, conflicted life, concealing the shame of his past behind the façade of a wealthy business owner and town mayor.  It was in this capacity that he unknowingly caused the firing and downward spiral of a poor mother named Fantine, as well as the arrest and potential conviction of a man wrongfully accused of being Valjean himself.  In one of the most powerful moments in the musical, Valjean searches deep within himself, asking “Who am I?” and determines that he must come clean before God and before others.  It is a remarkable moment of repentance, surrender, and confession, characterizing the work of God’s justifying grace.


SANCTIFYING GRACE:  “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

As Wesleyans, we believe that while we are not saved by good works, we are saved for good works.  And the remainder of the story essentially chronicles Valjean’s best efforts to demonstrate care and compassion to those around him.  He rescues Fantine’s daughter Cosette (played beautifully by Libby Peterson) from the treacherous hands of her sniveling guardians, the Thenardiers.  He vows to raise Cosette as his own child, keeping her safe from harm.  When Cosette falls in love with a young man named Marius (played with stirring emotion by Jaden Lux), Valjean risks his own life to save him from the lost battle at the barricade.  And finally, when given the opportunity to exact revenge by killing the town’s inspector Javert (played by Ryan Brown), who had been hunting him down for seventeen years, Valjean chooses to spare his life.  It is an extraordinary series of events for a man who completed his journey from bitterness to beneficence, from cold-hearted criminal to conduit of compassion.  In short, it is a powerful story of a life transformed by the ongoing grace of God which, as my friend Jim Harnish likes to say, “loves us enough to meet us where we are, but loves us too much to leave us there.” 

I would encourage you to see the production of Les Miserables yourself.  The girls and I have had a wonderful time being part of such an amazing production.  (Incidentally, the girls play town beggars, while I play a prisoner and gang member.  Plus, I get to dance again on stage near the end … always worth the price of admission for the sheer spectacle of it!)  Most of all, I hope you will watch it in order to be swept into such a great example of what the grace of God can do in even the most seemingly irredeemable life.

In other words, I hope you come to find yourself in the story.  For surely, you will.

Grace and Peace,

Magrey  




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