Pastor Darren: Well, Palm Sunday has become kind of an interesting adventure for the church leader these days.
Pastor Darren: You know, obviously we're looking to create the capacity for a meaningful experience on Easter morning, something where new life, some transformation, might be yours, and for us as pastors, such an important part of that is that you walk that story with Jesus through that week, through the trials, through the tribulations, understanding the depth of his commitment to this love for us and to communicate God's love for us.
Pastor Darren: But what we realize is people are so darn busy and I'm talking about y'all we don't all walk the whole Holy Week journey right.
Pastor Darren: And so part of it, you think, Palm Sunday.
Pastor Darren: Well, this is the day where we celebrate the type of leader Jesus is going to be, and then through the week we talk about the passion, the depth of love Jesus has for us.
Pastor Darren: But if everybody's so busy they can't do it all.
Pastor Darren: We're trying to do both here in one Sunday.
Pastor Darren: Do you feel it all bouncing around in on you?
Pastor Darren: It's a wild day.
Pastor Darren: And then we had our great journey with Les Miserables, and so we're trying to culminate with Les Miserables too.
Pastor Darren: So this is a perfect storm of a Sunday.
Pastor Darren: I hope you're feeling the excitement of that and hoping that we don't drown in our ship.
Pastor Darren: Amen, yeah, nobody want to drown, nobody want to drown.
Pastor Darren: And so we finish our material with Pastor Matt.
Pastor Darren: This chapter, the Blessed Garden.
Pastor Darren: This is the final chapter of the book we've been working through and you'll notice that the garden, the garden in the story, is quite significant.
Pastor Darren: You might remember that the garden is where the priest, the bishop, is often found living out his Sabbath in his work week.
Pastor Darren: You might also remember that Valjean escapes with Cosette to the garden right, he's about to be found out by Javert and he's able to escape again, this time taking Fantine's orphaned daughter, Cosette.
Pastor Darren: And they go on.
Pastor Darren: They happen on this monastery and they go on.
Pastor Darren: They happen on this monastery and he looks out that the person that they greet there is the man that Valjean saved lifting the cart off of him.
Pastor Darren: The monastery take them in in exchange for Valjean's work in the garden.
Pastor Darren: And for me, when I hear that, I think that garden must have just been absolutely healing for Valjean, when I think about his story, at least the part of the story that's in the book.
Pastor Darren: He spends 19 years in prison for a crime that he should have maybe served, I don't know.
Pastor Darren: Unfair punishment.
Pastor Darren: Then the second part of the journey he somehow, in a different identity, being not himself, is able to find a certain amount of success.
Pastor Darren: But there's always that secrecy, that hiding, that is always part of what he's doing.
Pastor Darren: So finally he gets to this garden, this place where he can choose to be there and choose the work that he's doing and be amongst kind of the natural world, the way the world God created.
Pastor Darren: I gotta believe that for him that was a very, very healing experience, so much so that maybe he doesn't reach that transformation that he reaches by the end of the, that maybe he doesn't reach that transformation that he reaches by the end of the book if he hadn't done that time working that garden.
Pastor Darren: You might also remember that it's in that garden that Marius and Cosette meet and their romance begins.
Pastor Darren: So you can see, the garden is a really significant place.
Pastor Darren: In fact, this specific garden is a very significant place in the story and hopefully you're hearing too how meaningful that space is in that love is discovered there, Love in all its forms godly love, romantic love, the love of God that comes from a Sabbath, that is, in healing and in growing.
Pastor Darren: It definitely is a place where God lives.
Pastor Darren: So our scriptures feature gardens as well.
Pastor Darren: Pastor Matt in the book would have us notice, have us remember that these are often places where God is experienced in deep, deep ways.
Pastor Darren: The beginning, the very beginning of the story of our people of faith.
Pastor Darren: Right In Eden, in the garden.
Pastor Darren: Adam and Eve, this perfect garden, god's first attempt at creating life for human beings and creating good life for human beings right, that's in that garden.
Pastor Darren: You probably also remember that we kind of blew it right With the whole sinning thing.
Pastor Darren: We kind of blew it right with the whole sinning thing, right.
Pastor Darren: You know, we had to eat the fruit tree of knowledge.
Pastor Darren: We have to leave that garden.
Pastor Darren: Another significant garden is the Garden of Gethsemane, right the garden where Jesus goes after the Last Supper.
Pastor Darren: He goes with his disciples to pray.
Pastor Darren: Where Jesus goes after the Last Supper, he goes with his disciples to pray.
Pastor Darren: He knows what his next couple of days are going to look like, his next 24 hours.
Pastor Darren: He knows the weight that he's going to have to bear, the pain that he's going to have to suffer A heavy, heavy night, and it's a night in which he really is in deep conversation with God.
Pastor Darren: Yet again, you're hearing the intimacy that we can have with God in the garden, in gardens.
Pastor Darren: These are obviously places where there is that real intimacy, where we get to know God deeply.
Pastor Darren: There's also a garden in the final book of our Bible, in Revelation.
Pastor Darren: How many of you are too scared to read Revelation?
Pastor Darren: All right, a couple of you are a little bit nervous.
Pastor Darren: How many people have no idea why anybody would be scared to read a book of the Bible Anyone.
Pastor Darren: We'll just go for it.
Pastor Darren: Brenda Rogers, I said your name wrong.
Pastor Darren: I apologize, but she's one of those that's like why would we be scared to read the Bible?
Pastor Darren: I don't understand that.
Pastor Darren: Well, yes, there is this garden, and in Revelation it is a prophecy, it is a vision for a future with God, a future in which there's a lot of ideals that come to pass, and there is a garden in this vision, in this future.
Pastor Darren: Right, and if you're like me, as you are hearing that scripture, as you are reading it, you hear some of the reflections of what was in that Garden of Eden, that original garden.
Pastor Darren: I'm talking about the river of the water of life, the tree of life, full of fruit, maybe even most important for us, given the story with Adam and Eve, and nothing cursed will be there anymore.
Pastor Darren: You can hear that final book of the Bible kind of casting a vision that we might get back to that Eden or something just like that Eden, maybe not starting completely over, but definitely back with God, definitely back in the garden, back in that intimacy.
Pastor Darren: I hope you can feel that.
Pastor Darren: I hope you can feel that desire and maybe even have some of that same longing for this new future with God, which kind of brings us back to Les Miserables, which kind of brings us back to Les Miserables, the story we've been working through for six weeks.
Pastor Darren: Today we're going to hear the song.
Pastor Darren: Do you Hear the People Sing?
Pastor Darren: Now, what's interesting about this song?
Pastor Darren: It was originally or earlier in the book.
Pastor Darren: It is a call to arms against the.
Pastor Darren: Well, it's a call to arms in their rebellion against the monarchy.
Pastor Darren: Right, the republic wants to move towards more representative government, more democracy, and so they're fighting with the monarchical forces, not only the kings but also the people who support kings, and so they're working this rebellion, trying to undermine this monarchy, and you can hear the rebellion in the lyrics.
Pastor Darren: Do you hear the people sing, singing a song of angry men?
Pastor Darren: It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again.
Pastor Darren: Pretty clearly, rebellion right A song.
Pastor Darren: Potentially our own American revolutionaries might have sang in their own fight against a monarchy and you can hear the emotion, you can hear the feelings about monarchy that they held.
Pastor Darren: You can hear their call for the freedom that they feel like is going to come from that republic, come from that democracy, as soon as they're not run by a king, not run by a king.
Pastor Darren: Here's what's interesting about that song in this particular show is that they return to that song at the end of the play, at the end of the film.
Pastor Darren: They are singing that song again, again.
Pastor Darren: What's interesting to me about it is, politically, in the story, nothing has really changed yet, at least that's my understanding.
Pastor Darren: They are still fighting that fight.
Pastor Darren: Now.
Pastor Darren: The book, the play, the movie these were all written afterwards.
Pastor Darren: It would have been easy to have drawn out the end of the story to a point at which democracy was being adopted into France.
Pastor Darren: They knew enough to be able to do that and yet they didn't.
Pastor Darren: They didn't, which leaves the question.
Pastor Darren: All the more reason to ask ourselves why did they return to this song, this call to arms, when you could argue at least within the context of the story.
Pastor Darren: They kind of failed in their rebellion.
Pastor Darren: So why do you hear the people sing?
Pastor Darren: Well, it didn't quite work.
Pastor Darren: Does it make you wonder why they would return to that?
Pastor Darren: For me, it led me to ask myself okay, so what has changed by the end of the story and I went to kind of the key change we can argue that the main characters that are there at the end of the story and I went to kind of the key change we can argue that the main characters that are there at the end of the story have changed.
Pastor Darren: Marius, Cosette.
Pastor Darren: They have this living example of selfless love from Jean Valjean him saving Marius so that Marius could be with Cosette and letting them enjoy the godly gift of romantic love, the godly gift of being together.
Pastor Darren: And remember, valjean had to overcome a certain selfish desire in the midst of that too.
Pastor Darren: He had to learn to love and to love in this world, and his love was for that adopted daughter, cassette.
Pastor Darren: So to give that away was a selfless act of saying no, I'm going to put you together with Marius, I'm going to make sure that he lives, but he learns.
Pastor Darren: Valjean does what many of us are trying to learn as Christians.
Pastor Darren: We're trying to learn how to perfect this selfless, gracious life of love.
Pastor Darren: We're trying to master that in a world that doesn't always honor that.
Pastor Darren: And he passes that on to Marius and Cosette, at least this really strong, living example of selfless love that he passes on to Marius and Cosette.
Pastor Darren: I think this is why Valjean appears.
Pastor Darren: He comes back in that final song when they are singing.
Pastor Darren: Do you hear the people sing?
Pastor Darren: He's in the middle of it, along with Fantine and, I think, eponine Am I right?
Pastor Darren: Eponine and Fantine all characters who are kind of models for a selflessness, what we might call Christian love.
Pastor Darren: They model that in this story.
Pastor Darren: I think that's why they come back and are part of singing this song and it becomes kind of a song of victory, despite the absence of that political victory.
Pastor Darren: So we might ask ourselves what is the victory?
Pastor Darren: Could it be the victory of gracious love?
Pastor Darren: Could that be what they are celebrating, Marius and Cosette?
Pastor Darren: They're like this metaphor for the power of grace with people, the power grace can have over us, transforming us, transforming our hearts, transforming our behavior.
Pastor Darren: Maybe this is the victory that's getting celebrated with this final song.
Pastor Darren: The other people, the other people who are changed by the end of this song by the end of this story are us.
Pastor Darren: We're changed.
Pastor Darren: As much as Marius and Cosette get this living example of selfless love, so do we.
Pastor Darren: We've been witnesses to what this new kingdom can look like, this new way of living, this way of living that's grounded in grace, that's grounded in forgiveness, that's grounded in forgiveness, that's grounded in love, in selflessness, you might argue.
Pastor Darren: You know, does it feel like kind of a hollow victory for Marius, cassette, valjean?
Pastor Darren: A little bit hollow.
Pastor Darren: The National Guard, the monarchy still in the context of the story still wins.
Pastor Darren: No.
Pastor Darren: And yet a similar conflict was experienced some 2,000 years ago with Jesus.
Pastor Darren: We had a national power.
Pastor Darren: With Rome we had local power, at least.
Pastor Darren: That Jesus had to deal with with Pharisees, sadducees and others, church leaders.
Pastor Darren: And Jesus stood in front of all of them and talked about a new way of living, a different kind of kingdom, a new way to live, a way of living that was based in faith in God, faith in God's love for us, and it involved forgiveness, it involved grace, it involved selflessness.
Pastor Darren: And even then, 2,000 years ago, it appeared that he lost this battle, did it not?
Pastor Darren: I mean, he was crucified, after all.
Pastor Darren: You might think he lost that battle.
Pastor Darren: And yet, when I compare the Christian movement of today up against the Roman presence of today, I might think the Christian movement, the godly movement, the gracious movement, the love movement, has done all right, has maybe even had its victory.
Pastor Darren: Maybe that's why those people were so excited to support Jesus even in those days, looking for that new thing, that new thing that made them feel respected, that made them feel their full personhood, that made them feel loved, and they were anxious for that new kingdom, that kingdom built on godly principles.
Pastor Darren: Maybe that movement has done okay.
Pastor Darren: We are still here as a Christian movement, doing our best to live out what Jesus gave his life for, and maybe that's why we can sing a song like do you hear the people sing with some triumphant confidence, confidence that our movement still gets its victories, that our movement is still here, that our movement is still grabbing hearts and bringing them to God.
Pastor Darren: So we're going to hear.
Pastor Darren: Do you hear the people sing?
Pastor Darren: And I invite you to welcome into your heart the confidence that can come from the reality that love is real and that love can win.
Nick Newkirk: On this page I write my last confession.
Nick Newkirk: Read it well, when I at last am sleeping, when I at last am sleeping.
Nick Newkirk: It's a story of those who always loved you.
Nick Newkirk: Your mother gave her life for you.
Nick Newkirk: They gave me to my keeping.
Simone, Jean, and Nick: Come with me when chains will never bind you.
Simone, Jean, and Nick: All your grief at last, at last behind you.
Nick Newkirk: Lord in heaven, look down on him in mercy, forgive me all my trespasses and take me to your glory.
Simone, Jean, and Nick: Take my hand and lead me to salvation.
Simone, Jean, and Nick: Take my love, for love is everlasting, and remember the truth that once was spoken.
Nick Newkirk: To love another person is to see the face of God.
Choir: Do you hear the people sing, lost in the valley of the night?
Choir: It is the music of the people who are climbing to the light.
Choir: For the wretched of the earth, there is a flame that never dies.
Choir: Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.
Choir: They will live again in freedom, in the garden of the Lord.
Choir: They will walk behind the flower shed.
Choir: They will put away the sword, the chain will be broken and all men will have their reward.
Choir: Will you join in our crusade?
Choir: Who will be strong and stand with me?
Choir: Somewhere beyond the barricade?
Choir: Is there a world you long to see?
Choir: Do you hear the people say Say, do you hear the distant drums?
Choir: It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes.
Choir: Will you join in our crusade?
Choir: Who will be strong and stand with me?
Choir: Somewhere beyond the barricades?
Choir: There a world you long to see.
Choir: Do you hear the people sing?
Choir: Say, do you hear the distant drums?
Choir: It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes.
Choir: Tomorrow comes.