WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:13.199 I am counting on everybody having mastered a memory of the life of Alexander Hamilton from Sophomore American History. 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:16.640 Can we all agree we're on the same page there? 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:18.719 We have it pretty well locked in. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:24.160 How many of you remembered it just long enough to take the test? 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:25.920 Right? 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:28.399 And it's been gone ever since. 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:41.600 Well, one of the fun parts of this particular show is that it is uh based in uh our own American history and some of our more important American history. 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:44.880 Uh and so uh um that's kind of cool. 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:56.960 There there's some uh read-ins as far as personalities and things like that, but for the most part, it's a historical musical uh that um it's pretty impressive. 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:00.880 I don't know how many of you have actually got to see it on the stage. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:01.840 Yeah? 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:03.280 Oh, good for you guys. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:04.799 And was it worth it? 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:11.280 I remember thinking to myself, we're mixing rap and musical theater. 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:14.079 How's that gonna go? 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:14.799 Right? 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:16.799 And then I left there amazed. 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:18.719 I thought this was such a good show. 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:20.079 I really enjoyed it. 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:25.680 Uh and have those of others of you seen it, uh uh the video version, right? 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:28.480 Seeing the they they taped a stage version. 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:30.719 So some of us have seen it that way too. 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:33.680 So many of us have seen it, which is cool. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:42.159 Uh, those of you who've already seen it, as well as those who haven't, I encourage you to come join us on the 28th, Friday night, our next movie night. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:44.560 We'll be watching that off the Disney Network. 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.239 Uh, and you can sign up for us because we try to have some dinner for everybody. 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:50.079 It's nice to have a number. 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:51.920 Um, but let's go. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.680 Uh uh starting with the story of the musical itself. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:57.920 Again, most of it is just the history. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.719 Uh, it shows uh Alexander Hamilton's life really in two acts. 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:25.360 He is a young man who grew up as an orphan, but through his wits, his brains, its capabilities, he ends up getting into uh uh some of the most significant parts of our government functioning, especially around the American Revolutionary War, and was even ready to go lead battalions and really uh go to war for real. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:33.360 But he was kind of drawn up by the leaders of the time because he showed such capability to leadership at even higher levels. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:47.039 And so he moved into those levels and was actually able to be uh part of the founding father's action, working uh uh alongside some of those other founding fathers to win independence. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:03:01.680 Uh, some of the ones he was closest with, Marquis de Lafayette and John Lawrence, uh, helped him uh um navigate a lot of that, give verbiage to a lot of that, but also he gets really tight with a guy named George Washington. 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:05.759 Did you remember that part of American history? 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:07.680 Right, that guy you got. 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:08.639 All right. 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:10.639 He was Apple Tree, right? 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:13.520 I cannot tell a lie. 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:16.479 Of course, that one's a fake story, too, isn't it? 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:18.719 Yeah, what are you gonna do? 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:27.439 All right, in the second act, he starts to really get even more influence in the establishment of our government. 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:34.639 Uh, we were a new kind of entity as a democracy, at least uh new in that age. 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:41.280 And uh so there was a lot of work to figure out what that was gonna look like, and he was really key in getting that organized. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:46.159 Also very key in developing our financial system early on. 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:50.960 But in along the way, he develops these rivals and he's in these battles. 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:58.639 Uh, one with Thomas Jefferson uh um and others with Aaron Burr, which we'll hear more about that story. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:04.960 Uh, but probably most significant is he starts facing some personal scandal in his life. 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:07.439 Uh, and that plays out in those two acts. 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:14.800 But the real rivalry that drives everything in this story is the one with Aaron Burr. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:20.480 He is a fellow politician, he is a lifelong rival. 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:27.759 Hamilton, kind of driven by his constant urgency to make his mark. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:28.319 Right? 00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:32.560 Remember the song I'm not throwing away my Yeah. 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:34.560 See, some of you remember it. 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:37.279 Some of you were just scared to sing it. 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:44.480 Yeah, not throwing, it's one of the bigger lines in the movie, and a lot of us walk away, kind of thinking that in our head. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:47.120 Burr is more of a hesitator. 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:51.439 He's more, he's gonna play his cards a little bit slower, a little more cautious. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:53.920 His song is Wait for It. 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:58.240 Uh, so that one we're not singing as much because who wants to wait for it? 00:04:58.399 --> 00:04:59.360 Am I right? 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.600 If you're gonna sing a song, it's gonna be not thrown away your shot. 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:06.879 But these two styles, they get in the way of each other. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:11.279 They're growing uh political conflict between the two of them. 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:12.720 It gets deeper and deeper. 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:21.040 Rivalry heats up first when Burr wins out over Hamilton's father-in-law for a Senate seat. 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:23.360 So then it starts getting a little thicker. 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:32.000 Then it goes a little further, this rivalry, when Hamilton backs Thomas Jefferson and not Aaron Burr for president. 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:38.240 And finally, tensions mount to the point that they agree to meet for a duel. 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:43.519 We don't know fully the mindset as they approach this. 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:52.720 The musical shows Burr thinking a lot about what brought them there, and so he's building up an anger and a concern about what's going to happen. 00:05:52.879 --> 00:06:00.959 Whereas Hamilton is a lot focused on his legacy as he approaches this moment, at least as the musical lays it out. 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:17.120 Then, for reasons we don't fully know, Hamilton, rather than firing at Aaron Burr in the duel, fires upward, Aaron Burr shoots straight, and he actually ends up killing Alexander Hamilton. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:26.800 So there's the main plot, the historical story that we all know and remember from sophomore American history, right? 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:31.839 That's the part, or at least the gist of what we knew. 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:38.480 What we should know, or what helps with the story, is there is a subplot. 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:44.639 Early in his career, Hamilton meets Eliza Schuyler and he marries her. 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:50.639 Despite being married to her, he is spending a lot of time working. 00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:51.279 Right? 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:54.800 And maybe justifiably, the things he were doing were significant. 00:06:54.959 --> 00:07:00.720 You know, he was creating and structuring this new type of nation, and so it might have been justified. 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:05.759 Uh, but more problematic is he starts having affairs. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:09.680 We were talking about the scandals that he got involved in. 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:24.079 And so this obviously puts a strain on his marriage, and one affair becomes so significant and problematic that his son Philip feels the need to defend his honor. 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:31.279 And in doing so, in defending the honor of Alexander Hamilton, his dad, he gets killed. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:43.360 So this is the setting for the song we picked out for today, as well as for the scripture that we picked out for today. 00:07:44.319 --> 00:08:02.160 We probably all pray that we or really anyone that nobody would have to go through this kind of tragedy in their life to have their son killed, especially killed defending your honor after mistakes that you have made. 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:14.160 Many of you know this story of Alexander Hamilton, we know how it ends, but this this is probably the key uh part of his life, at least personally. 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:18.639 This is the tragedy of Hamilton's life. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:21.839 His son's death, defending him. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:29.600 And I think we'd all agree this is pain uh that um this pain is only something we could know having gone through it. 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:33.279 I'm trying to be very careful. 00:08:33.440 --> 00:09:09.840 I'm trying to tiptoe through uh um some of the story and and uh uh potentially uh I don't want to minimize the pain that this situation would bring to somebody, but at the same time I feel like Paul in his second letter to the church in Corinth is lighting a pathway to healing even in a situation like this, when there is deep, deep suffering, that there's a pathway that's open to us when we are ready to take it. 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:18.720 So in Paul, in 2 Corinthians uh chapter 1, this is verses 3 through 7, he talks about suffering. 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:27.120 It's probably worth mentioning that it it there is an acceptance of suffering in our world. 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:34.399 There's not a pretense, he's not pretending that our faith protects us from pain. 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:43.919 And what it amounts to, his teaching, is pointing to a different way of understanding our suffering. 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:50.559 You might even argue he's pointing to a different way of understanding all suffering. 00:09:52.480 --> 00:10:02.000 His point is it isn't that we uh don't suffer, but that our suffering can open us to God's presence. 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:14.240 In other words, uh when we are suffering, there's potentially an experience of consolation as God offers it to us in difficult times. 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:19.200 Oftentimes the effect of suffering is to make us feel victimized, right? 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:27.840 This world is unfair, this world has cheated me, everyone around me is bad, right? 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:37.039 That's oftentimes the effect of our our suffering rather than looking at it as simply being a reality of our mortal life. 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:38.879 We are humans. 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:48.879 We live, we die, we have joy, we have pain, just that normal cycle of life. 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:53.679 Rather than recognizing that, we start to feel cheated often. 00:10:54.240 --> 00:11:04.240 What Paul is doing is he's encouraging us to do uh to uh in this process to be looking for God's presence. 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:12.399 When we are suffering, he's encouraging us to look for where consolation comes from. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:18.000 Family, friends, church. 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:31.759 He's inviting us to look for where grace is evident, where we feel the unconditional love of God, where it becomes real even in the midst of the tragedy. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:52.480 He's inviting us to look for where forgiveness for others, but also for ourselves, where that forgiveness becomes that pathway back to something more whole, something more holy. 00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:57.519 Paul even goes one step further. 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:16.240 He would say, when we walk that journey well, when we are able to work our way through that suffering, we actually become part of the presence, that consoling presence that God offers to the world. 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:28.720 With an understanding of that godly healing presence in tough times, we gain a capacity to be that presence for others. 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:39.120 So Alexander Hamilton and his wife Eliza, they are walking that pathway of suffering and of grief. 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:45.919 And we see it play out in the song called It's Quiet Uptown. 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:52.320 At this point, the couple has moved out of the city to grief. 00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:58.080 And what they immediately begin to feel is the quiet. 00:12:59.120 --> 00:12:59.440 Right? 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:06.080 Often quiet is the last thing that you want to hear when you're having tough times. 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:10.159 You want distractions, not quiet. 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:16.480 And they talk a lot about dealing with what's called the unimaginable. 00:13:17.759 --> 00:13:24.639 The unimaginable thing that happens, that deep, deep tragedy that tears the heart apart. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:35.039 This morning, you are being invited to listen for that pathway of suffering to healing. 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:39.120 And it plays out in the story itself. 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:42.960 The song comes in three parts, three parts of a story. 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:47.440 The first part talks about the depth of grief that we can feel. 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:50.399 The depth of grief in this particular situation. 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:56.720 The lyrics describe a pain so deep that words cannot reach it. 00:13:58.480 --> 00:13:59.600 The unimaginable. 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:12.559 This is the depth of his grief. 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:22.080 From there, the song moves into a rebuilding of the marriage between Alexander and his wife Eliza. 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:25.519 He begs for forgiveness for his past mistakes. 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:29.759 He begs for forgiveness for the pain that he has caused. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:36.639 He even wishes he could trade his life for his son's life. 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:43.840 But finally, as we reach the end of the song, we start moving towards some forgiveness. 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:49.519 Eliza slowly takes Alexander's hand in the garden. 00:14:50.159 --> 00:15:06.879 And the rest of the company, the company being the rest of the actors, the singers, they reflect on the grace, the survival, and the power of forgiveness after such a tragedy. 00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:14.080 So I'm gonna invite a couple of New Kirks to come up and to share that song. 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:16.000 It's Quiet Uptown. 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:33.759 In this particular instance, Alexander Hamilton is actually singing with his sister-in-law, his wife's sister, who has built a connection with both of the couple and is now talking about kind of walking them through that journey. 00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:51.200 There are moments that the words don't reach. 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:55.120 There is suffering too terrible to name. 00:15:55.519 --> 00:16:02.879 You hold your child as tight as you can and push away the unimaginable. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:10.639 The moments when you're in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down. 00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:22.240 Spend hours in the garden. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:27.039 I walk alone to the store. 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:29.919 And it's quiet up town. 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:34.639 Never liked the quiet before. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:39.039 I take the children to church on Sunday. 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:34.400 Look at where we started. 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:40.480 I know I don't deserve you, Eliza, but hear me out. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:42.400 That would be enough. 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:57.119 If I could spare his life, if I could trade his life for mine, he'd be standing here right now, and you would smile, and that would be enough. 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:04.640 I don't pretend to know the challenges we're facing. 00:18:05.359 --> 00:18:13.839 I know there's no replacing what we've lost, and you need time, but I'm not afraid. 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:17.440 I know who I married. 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:21.279 Just let me stay here by your side. 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:24.160 That would be enough. 00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:56.799 There are moments that the words don't reach. 00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:00.400 There's a grace too powerful to name. 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:03.920 We push away what we can never understand. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:07.599 We push away the unimaginable. 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:10.720 We are standing in the garden. 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:14.640 Alexander by lies aside. 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:17.839 She takes his hand. 00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:22.640 It's quite uptime.