Will you live in light of grace?

I've never waded through Victor Hugo's 1000 page tome Les Miserables. The book is just so big - like the Bible - that it has put me off. So when I arrived at the musical, Les Miserables, in Brisbane I had only a vague notion of the themes and plot. This made the incredible story of grace that unfolded before me all the more captivating for it was so unexpected.

In so many ways it was a night of grace. For we experienced the beauty of the singing, the power of the performances and the artistry of the staging. The musical comes into its own here as various characters reveal their inner life: their emotions, hopes, dreams and deepest thoughts with sensational singing. It is hard to describe the beauty and wonder of the human voice when it has been honed to be a virtuso instrument. The perfect instrument to explore themes of the soul. Emotionally I was spell bound, caught up in the performances and the storyline. And all of this show cased the themes of grace, love and redemption.

In case you are like me and have never been to Les Miserables, nor cracked open that big book, let me give you a very short summary.The prisoner Jean Valjean robs a French church while on parole. He has been hardened by years of brutal slavery and hates the world. The theft reveals Valjean's character for the cleric and the nuns of the church had alone shown him mercy as an ex-prisoner. Quickly Valjean is hunted down by Police Inspector Jarvert. But at the moment of his arrest, the cleric comes forward and gives the precious golden candle stands of the church to Valjean as a gift, announcing to all that Valjean had forgotten to take the candlesticks as one of the cleric's parting gifts. In an act of great mercy, the cleric covers over the original theft, saves Valjean from Jarvert and bestows the criminal with the means to start a new life. Valjean's theft is rewarded with undeserved mercy - with grace.

Valjean spends the rest of his life living in light of this grace. He makes it his life's work to show mercy to the poor, the broken and the desperate. He starts a new life in response to grace. His life isn't perfect but it is lived in light of grace. And all the while Inspector Jarvert, who knows Jean Valjean is guilty of theft, hunts him down through the decades. Jarvert in stark contrast to Valjean lives by duty, rules and ultimately works. These lead to a graceless life that ends in despair and death.

The driving theme of the musical (and the book I assume) is grace. Take for instance the famous soliloquy by Jean Valjean after he is shown mercy by the cleric. It sets up the plot for what is to come.

Yet why did I allow this man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate this world
This world that always hated me

The song explores Jean Valjean's experience of grace and his response to grace , finishing with these words. 'Jean Valjean is nothing now, Another story must begin!'

Jean Valjean is nothing now, Another story must begin!'

He is so touched by grace, that what he was does not matter. It is nothing, it is over with from this point forward because of grace. And from this point forward, again because of grace, his life will be a new life, a new story. Jean Valjean had so experienced grace and mercy that he was born again.

Jean Valjean had so experienced grace and mercy that he was born again.

So there we were, listening to grace, thinking about grace, marvelling at the effect of grace and all through the power and beauty of the human voice. The applause was spontaneous, strong and long at the end of many songs and scenes. We were moved by grace.

And yet some of us were not touched by grace. For sitting in the row in front of me was a glaring woman. She applauded but then she quickly glared. She glared at the man sitting next to me and my lovely wife. She glared again and again because during the applause this man in his mid to late 50's dared to whisper the occasional comment to his teenage daughter. Yes, he dared to share the night with his daughter by speaking to her.

There she was without grace, this glaring woman, watching grace. She was enjoying the ever outward rippling themes of redemption and mercy. She had come to see a show about human fragility and brokenness that is wonderfully disturbed by grace. She was there to rejoice in grace but by her actions she show showed that it is entirely possible to see grace, but never understand it. To rejoice in grace but live without grace.

In short, she was the miserable for the grace she was enjoying had not, so far, changed her life. This is like many of us at Christmas in a post Christian nation. We enjoy songs about grace and presents that reflect grace - the birth of Jesus. He was the baby who came because of God's grace. But in our actions, our view of life, our relationships we live without grace, which shows we don't really understand it. It is just a thing to be enjoyed but not a thing to be lived under.

But grace like a musical needs to be experienced to be truly understood and truly enjoyed. So how can you experience this grace? Open up that large tome, the Bible, and turn to one of the short gospels about Jesus: Luke, Matthew, Mark and John. They are true stories of applied grace. The apostle Paul summarising God's work through Jesus - the gospels - said this

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. (Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter 2, sentences 8 & 9)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. (Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter 2)

When we start to understand the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we start to understand grace. But that isn't enough. It isn't enough to see, understand or even enjoy grace. The grace of God shown in Jesus is given so that our lives, like Jean Valjean's, might be transformed by it. Grace is given so that our old lives and old ways of living become nothing. Grace is given so that we are born again by grace to a new life.

The apostle Paul goes onto say because of grace, 'we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.' This sentence captures Jean Valjean's life after he experienced grace. His life was transformed by grace. Will ours be?