United Methodist Church Westlake Village

Gardens of Redemption: Where God and Humanity Meet

• United Methodist Church Westlake Village

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Gardens hold a sacred place in our spiritual journey - they're where humanity first walked with God, where Jesus prayed before his sacrifice, and where Revelation promises we'll return to paradise. In this powerful culmination of our Les Miserables series, we explore how gardens serve as transformative spaces where divine encounters reshape human hearts.

Victor Hugo's masterpiece consistently returns to the garden as a place of healing and renewal. For Jean Valjean, working in the monastery garden provided essential restoration after years of imprisonment and hiding. This sacred space prepared him for his ultimate act of selfless love - sacrificing his happiness so Cosette and Marius could experience the gift of romantic love. 

The final reprise of "Do You Hear the People Sing" takes on profound meaning when we recognize its transformation from a political battle cry to a celebration of love's victory. While the revolutionary cause appears defeated, something more significant has triumphed. Valjean, Fantine, and Eponine join this chorus as living examples of Christian love that transcends worldly power. Their witness changes Marius and Cosette - and us as audience members.

This Palm Sunday, the parallels between Jesus and Valjean remind us that apparent defeat often masks spiritual victory. Just as the Christian movement outlasted the Roman Empire, the kingdom of love, grace, and forgiveness continues transforming hearts today. When we embrace this truth - that "to love another person is to see the face of God" - we join a movement more powerful than any political force. Love is real, and love will win.

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Pastor Darren:

Well, Palm Sunday has become kind of an interesting adventure for the church leader these days. 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. 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. And so part of it, you think, Palm Sunday. 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. But if everybody's so busy they can't do it all. We're trying to do both here in one Sunday. Do you feel it all bouncing around in on you? It's a wild day. And then we had our great journey with Les Miserables, and so we're trying to culminate with Les Miserables too. So this is a perfect storm of a Sunday. I hope you're feeling the excitement of that and hoping that we don't drown in our ship. Amen, yeah, nobody want to drown, nobody want to drown. And so we finish our material with Pastor Matt.

Pastor Darren:

This chapter, the Blessed Garden. 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. You might remember that the garden is where the priest, the bishop, is often found living out his Sabbath in his work week. 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. And they go on. They happen on this monastery and they go on. 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. 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. He spends 19 years in prison for a crime that he should have maybe served, I don't know. Unfair punishment. 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. But there's always that secrecy, that hiding, that is always part of what he's doing. 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. 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. So you can see, the garden is a really significant place. 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. It definitely is a place where God lives. So our scriptures feature gardens as well. 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. The beginning, the very beginning of the story of our people of faith. Right In Eden, in the garden. 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. You probably also remember that we kind of blew it right With the whole sinning thing. We kind of blew it right with the whole sinning thing, right. You know, we had to eat the fruit tree of knowledge. 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. He goes with his disciples to pray. Where Jesus goes after the Last Supper, he goes with his disciples to pray. He knows what his next couple of days are going to look like, his next 24 hours. 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. Yet again, you're hearing the intimacy that we can have with God in the garden, in gardens. These are obviously places where there is that real intimacy, where we get to know God deeply. 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? All right, a couple of you are a little bit nervous. How many people have no idea why anybody would be scared to read a book of the Bible Anyone. We'll just go for it. Brenda Rogers, I said your name wrong. I apologize, but she's one of those that's like why would we be scared to read the Bible? 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. 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. 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. 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. I hope you can feel that. 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. Do you Hear the People Sing? Now, what's interesting about this song? It was originally or earlier in the book. It is a call to arms against the. Well, it's a call to arms in their rebellion against the monarchy. 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. Do you hear the people sing, singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again. Pretty clearly, rebellion right A song. 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. 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. 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. They are singing that song again, again. What's interesting to me about it is, politically, in the story, nothing has really changed yet, at least that's my understanding. They are still fighting that fight. Now.

Pastor Darren:

The book, the play, the movie these were all written afterwards. 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. They knew enough to be able to do that and yet they didn't. They didn't, which leaves the question. 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. They kind of failed in their rebellion. So why do you hear the people sing? Well, it didn't quite work. Does it make you wonder why they would return to that? 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. 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. And remember, valjean had to overcome a certain selfish desire in the midst of that too. He had to learn to love and to love in this world, and his love was for that adopted daughter, cassette. 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. Valjean does what many of us are trying to learn as Christians. We're trying to learn how to perfect this selfless, gracious life of love. We're trying to master that in a world that doesn't always honor that. 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. I think this is why Valjean appears.

Pastor Darren:

He comes back in that final song when they are singing. Do you hear the people sing? He's in the middle of it, along with Fantine and, I think, eponine Am I right? Eponine and Fantine all characters who are kind of models for a selflessness, what we might call Christian love. They model that in this story. 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? Could it be the victory of gracious love? Could that be what they are celebrating, Marius and Cosette? 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. Maybe this is the victory that's getting celebrated with this final song. The other people, the other people who are changed by the end of this song by the end of this story are us. We're changed.

Pastor Darren:

As much as Marius and Cosette get this living example of selfless love, so do we. 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. You know, does it feel like kind of a hollow victory for Marius, cassette, valjean? A little bit hollow. The National Guard, the monarchy still in the context of the story still wins. No.

Pastor Darren:

And yet a similar conflict was experienced some 2,000 years ago with Jesus. We had a national power. With Rome we had local power, at least. That Jesus had to deal with with Pharisees, sadducees and others, church leaders. 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. And even then, 2,000 years ago, it appeared that he lost this battle, did it not? I mean, he was crucified, after all. 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. Maybe that movement has done okay. 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. So we're going to hear. Do you hear the people sing? 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. Read it well, when I at last am sleeping, when I at last am sleeping. It's a story of those who always loved you. Your mother gave her life for you. They gave me to my keeping.

Simone, Jean, and Nick:

Come with me when chains will never bind you. 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. 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? It is the music of the people who are climbing to the light. For the wretched of the earth, there is a flame that never dies. Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. They will live again in freedom, in the garden of the Lord. They will walk behind the flower shed. They will put away the sword, the chain will be broken and all men will have their reward. Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade? Is there a world you long to see? Do you hear the people say Say, do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes. Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricades? There a world you long to see. Do you hear the people sing? Say, do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes. Tomorrow comes.