Grace and mercy at the movies

Last week I took my daughter to see Les Miserables, the movie.  While both of us enjoy musicals, neither of us had seen this one before.  The movie is very well done, but like all adaptations of stage musicals, it made me want to see it live.

For those who haven't seen it, Les Mis is based on the novel of the same name, written by Victor Hugo.  Set in France during the French Revolution, it depicts a kind of hell on earth.  Jean Valjean, we are told, has served a 19 year sentence in prison for merely stealing a loaf of bread.  When he is finally released, he jumps bail and steals some silver from a kindly archbishop.  Valjean is caught, and brought to the archbishop so that he can press charges. But he refuses; in a gesture symbolic of God's enormous grace, the archbishop refuses to pres charges, and gives him even more valuable gifts--a pair of silver candlesticks.  This act of kindness changes Valjean forever.

Later, when Valjean (under an assumed name, because his former jailer has become a bail bondsman, searching relentlessly for him) has made an honest living, he is the owner of a factory which employs many under-privileged women.  One of those women, Fantine, sends all of her earnings to her beloved daughter, Cosette, who is being cared for by others.  Through an unfortunate event involving gossip and lies, the factory foreman fires Fantine.  She finds herself out on the street, and fends for herself as best she can.  She sells her hair, her teeth, and eventually her body in order to continue providing support for her daughter.  When Valjean discovers this, it is too late--Fantine has died.  With the sherriff hot on his heels, Valjean swears to redeem himself for Fantine's untimely death by finding and caring for Cosette.

Cosette comes to love Valjean like a father, although she doesn't understand why he is always looking over his shoulder, always on the move.  When Cosette falls in love with one of the young revolutionaries, Valjean gives her away, and retreats to a monastery, where he literally gives himself to God, as he draws his final breath. It is a story of the fall and redemption, of grace and mercy at odds with justice.

I left the theater thinking of my favorite verse in Scripture, Micah 6:8: "He has showed you, O Man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."  There are those, like the jailer turned bounty hunting bail bondsman, whose world revolves around justice.  But since sin has entered the world, justice is imperfect.  No one has ever said, "Perfect justice drives away fear."  If there were perfect justice, we would all be dead.

It is a fact that no one in this life gets what he deserves, either good or bad.  Valjean's punishment did not fit the crime. And his living the rest of his life on the lam was, in a way, no better than living in a prison: the only benefit of it was his ability to share goodness with others. Similarly, we read of Old Testament heroes, such as Moses, who was raised in the palace of Pharaoh, but who saw the plight of his fellow Jews and killed a man.  He lived in exile 40 years, but returned to lead his people away from slavery in Egypt and toward the Promised Land.

We make justice appear very noble by thinking of her as blind--she only exacts what is owed, without regard to a person's race, creed, gender, appearance, wealth or station in life.  But her illegitimate children are retaliation, vindictiveness, and revenge.

In fact, we humans need mercy. It is what allows us to live with ourselves and with others.  It is what allows us to overlook one another's faults, and to love.  It is within us a reflection of our Creator, the gracious God who provided a sacrificial Lamb.  It is why, I think, that the verse in Micah says we "know" justice, but we "love" mercy.  The perfect mixture of justice and mercy is God, who can truthfully say, "Vengeance is mine." The human combination of justice and mercy produces humility.  If we are honest, the most humbling thing we can hear is "I love you, and I forgive you" when we know we deserve punishment.

Today in my Scripture reading, I came across the passage in Mark chapter 11 where Jesus cursed the fig tree.  Many times in the Old Testament, the destruction of the fig tree is associated with judgment.  Hosea 2:12 says, "I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them."  Jesus said in Luke 3:9, "Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."  The symbolism of the passage in Mark is often at odds with people's thinking about Jesus and His nature. Why would he curse the fig tree? Didn't He know that it was not the season for figs? Didn't He have the power to heal the tree, or to make it produce figs out of season? Yet when the disciples asked him about it later, when they saw the fig tree withered from its very root, Jesus used it as an object lesson about faith.

Jesus, as a member of the Trinity and one of the Godhead, knows about justice as well as mercy. He is the Good Shepherd, but in the end He will be there when the sheep are separated from the goats, and the "goats" are cast into hell.  Yet it was He who laid down His life for the sheep.  How vast and how deep is the mystery of God!

I am grateful for grace and mercy.  I can see it in my life every day--in my job, in my marriage, in my entire life.  I can even see it in a movie musical.

Good vs. Evil--private retailer takes on big government

I was in Hobby Lobby yesterday.  Found a sale on "man-cave" related items and decorations.  Decided to buy some.  Now, Hobby Lobby is not a place I would normally be on a Saturday, but my daughter told me that yesterday was a day that was being organized in social media to support the store and it's owners in their fight against the mandates of the Affordable Health Care law.  While I cannot confirm that there was any organized support (as there had been last year when GLBT supporters had decided to boycott Chik-Fil-A), I do know that there are some supporters of the health care law and of the President who have decided to boycott Hobby Lobby.

Here is the background story found on foxnews.com:

A Christian-owned chain of hobby shops is facing a bitter backlash after suing the Obama administration over new requirements to provide insured employees with contraceptive and abortion coverage.

Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby filed the suit Sept. 12 in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, alleging that the ObamaCare mandate violates the religious beliefs of the company's owners. The suit followed similar suits by Catholic colleges and a Denver-based company whose owners also objected to the mandate on religious grounds. While a judge has not yet ruled on Hobby Lobby's suit, a Facebook page calling for a boycott of the company, which operates 500 stores in 41 states, has appeared online, and several other forums have featured posts urging customers to steer clear of Hobby Lobby.

“I’m boycotting Hobby Lobby!” reads the heading of one posting on image posting site Flickr. “Even if you're pro-life this kind of action stinks to high heaven! If things like this can be allowed then what's next?!,” the user added.

“They’re being told they have two choices. Either follow their faith and pay the government half-a-billion dollars or give up their beliefs."

- Lori Windham, attorney for Hobby Lobby

Others have taken to social media to protest against Hobby Lobby, with a “Boycott Hobby Lobby” page on Facebook.

“I've been to two Hobby Lobby parking lots today and they were fairly empty. I used to have trouble finding a parking spot!” read one posting from the administrator of the Boycott page. “I think the boycott is catching on! I do not think they are getting the reaction they hoped for.”

Hobby Lobby owner David Green is a devout Baptist who owns one of the world's largest collections of Biblical artifacts. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents Green in his suit, argued that compliance with the offending portion of the health care law  that the nature of their suit is “would force religiously-motivated business owners like plaintiffs to violate their faith under the threats of millions of dollars in fines.”

Lawyers argued that company employees are well aware of Green's views and their bearing on the company.

“The Green family’s business practices ... reflect their Christian faith in unmistakable and concrete ways,” the complaint states. The company employs full-time chaplains; close all store locations on Sundays and monitors all marketing and operations to make sure that it is consistent with their beliefs.

Failure to comply with the mandate could subject the company to as much as $1.3 million in daily fines, according to Becket Fund attorneys.

"They’re being told they have two choices: Either follow their faith and pay the government half a billion dollars or give up their beliefs,"  Lori Windham, an attorney from the Becket Fund, told Foxnews.com. "We believe that’s a choice no one should have to make.”

David Green could not be reached for comment, but in a recent USA Today Op-Ed, he blasted the Obama administration for imposing mandates he believes he cannot comply with.

“Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy," Green wrote. "Our government threatens to fine a company that’s raised wages four years running. Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs. It’s not right.”

The company does not object to providing coverage that includes birth control pills, but refuses to provide or pay for two specific abortion-inducing drugs such as the so-called "morning after" pill, because Green's "most deeply held religious belief" is that life beginning at conception, the family said in a statement released through its attorneys.

As for the boycott, the company's founders believe customers have the right to vote with their feet.

"The Green family respects every individual's right to free speech and hopes that others will respect their rights also, including the right to live and do business according to their religious beliefs.," the statement said.

Hobby Lobby is believed to be the first non-Catholic company to file an objection to the healthcare mandate. The Newland family, the devoutly Catholic owners of Denver-based Hercules Industries filed a similar suit this past summer and won a court injunction that ruled that they are not obligated to follow the mandate.

“I think the law and precedent set by this case is very strong for Hobby Lobby and the Green Family,” Windham said.

The lawyer for Hobby Lobby, Lori Windham, was quoted as saying  "They’re being told they have two choices. Either follow their faith and pay the government half-a-billion dollars or give up their beliefs."  I suppose there is a third way--to pay lip service to the government mandate, then to stop hiring women of child-bearing age who would request coverage for the offensive "morning after pill".  But this would also compromise the stand that they are taking.

In the Bible, there are many examples of people of God taking principled stands against evil.  Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego refused to bow down to an image of Nebuchadnezzar, even when they were thrown into the fiery furnace.  They were rewarded with life in this world, as they did not die in the furnace.  Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob and father of two tribes of Israel, did not compromise his beliefs when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him--although she had him thrown into prison, he was eventually rewarded with a prestigious title as the third ruler of Egypt.  Job did not bow to peer pressure to "curse God and die" when Satan was allowed to torment him for his faithfulness.  Job was rewarded with additional riches and family members in addition to the family that had been taken from him.

I hope that the owners of Hobby Lobby can win the court injunction and will not be obligated to follow the offensive mandate in the healthcare law.  I hope that the company and employees will reap multiplied blessings for taking a stand against evil.  But most of all I hope that people will see God's justice and mercy in all of this.  As the saying goes, all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.  If that means I shop at Hobby Lobby and buy things I didn't even know I needed, then so be it.