Knapsack 1-24

Notes From My Knapsack 1-24-13

Jeff Gill

 

Calculating Where I'm From

___

 

Somewhere in the last few weeks I crossed a subtle, but significant (for me) dividing line.

 

I was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, part of what's known as "Chicagoland," and my parents moved to a different corner of that region when I was six weeks old, across the state line into Indiana.

 

So from not long after I was born to just before my seventeenth birthday, I lived in Valparaiso, Indiana, the place that for most of my life I've called my hometown, and even my birthplace though not strictly true on that count.

 

When I moved into a dorm at Purdue University, I began seven years of residence in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, five in West Lafayette and two on the other side of the Wabash in Lafayette. At the end of that time, I got married, and the Lovely Wife and I moved to Indianapolis after a last summer at Scout camp in Michigan.

 

(Another odd calendar note: I spent seven to eleven weeks every summer for ten years at that camp, meaning I lived a total of a year and a half in Michigan, but never outside of June, July, & August!)

 

We lived for four years in Indy while I was in seminary there, and then in 1989 we came for the first time to Licking County, Ohio. For four years we lived in Newark, then departed in 1993 for West Virginia where we spent the next six, returning to Hebron in 1999. We lived in Hebron for five years, moving to Granville in the midst of the infamous ice storm closing out 2004.

 

So what all that chronology and math means is that I have now lived longer in Licking County, Ohio than anywhere else I've ever been. In our marriage, we've been through what was, at one time, a shocking number of addresses (seminary and grad school and associate pastor positions all add up to a whole bunch of moving), something like ten moves in twelve years. But we had six years in Fairmont, West Virginia, and six Christmases in one home (a parsonage, but a nice one), a welcome change of pace – and now, here in Granville, we've had eight, a level of stability new for us all, but now what we're used to.

 

And altogether, I've lived just over seventeen years in Licking County. I've never lived longer in any other place. My childhood memories, and sense of "home" are still powerfully shaped by Valpo, and the presence of Lake Michigan just to the north (ah, lake effect snow), not to mention Chicago always in the background . . .

 

But this is now, and continues to be ever more so, home. We hope and pray for a ninth and tenth and many more Christmases with the tree in the same spot, and decorations hung on nails and hooks we put in place ourselves, and expect to use again and again.

 

Someday, around 2021, I will have lived in this one town as long, and then longer than the place where I grew up. By then, I suspect it won't even matter that much, other than as a number. Licking County as a whole, and Granville, Ohio in particular, is where my family and I are . . . from. We're from here, because at a certain point we've been here, and it's "from" this place we go so that in time we can come home, to here.

 

We haven't yet bought funeral plots here, but it has crossed our minds. I guess that's when you really know where you're from.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; tell him how you know where you're from at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.

Faith Works 1-19

Faith Works 1-19-13

Jeff Gill

 

The Bishop's Candlesticks

___

 

My first encounter with "Les Miserables" was not the book, nor the musical, but in a chancel drama for church.

 

It wasn't even a production I saw, but a still photo and the story that went with it from decades before I was born.

 

The picture in the First Christian Church history room was in black and white, of course, and showed a rather cobbled together bishop in mitre and robe, holding a staff, a couple of women in housekeeper's uniforms, an obvious stage set of table and chairs and flats behind for a wall, with an angry looking man crouching forward in the foreground, almost ready to leap out of the picture.

 

And a pair of candlesticks on the table behind him.

 

The angry man was young, in the picture, but his face familiar. It was Red Clover, who was to me, when I first saw that photo, older than God.

 

Cloyce Clover signed my ordination certificate at Valparaiso, Indiana in 1989 along with other elders and clergy present on that occasion, and he died the next year at 90. But twenty years earlier (when, I now realize, he was only twenty years older than I am now, clearly nowhere near older than God), Red Clover taught me to pray. He was the first person I went out with to take home communion to shut-ins other than my dad, and Red Clover prayed as if God was a very respected friend who was right there in the room. His prayers didn't presume a casual acquaintance or an informal offhandedness, but they were personal, from him, to God, and drawing anyone else in the room into the conversation.

 

Red Clover was not always an elder, nor was he always on good terms with God. He had been a young man back in the 1920s, and as the Depression pulled people down in 1930, Red got drug into a corn auger. He lost a leg, shockingly high. Everyone told him his survival was a miracle.

 

Miracle was not how he saw it, he explained to me as we drove from one nursing home to the next, but a curse. And he cursed God. And found that drinking helped him curse God more fluently. He left the church, slept in on Sundays after cursing God Saturday night, but built his strength and kept on in school weekdays, and planned to get a degree in scientific agriculture at Purdue University.

 

He got good at working around his disability, and using his new artificial leg. Just about everything on the farm he'd done before, he got back to doing. And one day, he was atop a haybaler, powered and mechanized, back in the days before safety cut-offs and other such improvement. And he slipped.

 

From a perch up above, Red slipped into the mouth of the baler. Thunk, thunk, thunk, the arms of the device swung and chopped the thick heavy hay and shoved it deeper into the machine. He had no purchase on the metal chute, and slid on down. Thunk, thunk . . . chunk.

 

The baler's arms bit deep into . . . Red Clover's artificial leg, and stuck in the cork and wood and metal, jamming the equipment to a stop. He reached down, unstrapped his leg, clambered out, and at least when he told me the story, "hopped on one leg all the way to church, just so I could apologize to God properly."

 

Not long after, the Young Adult group was doing "The Bishop's Candlesticks" in worship, and they asked Red if he would play Jean Valjean; the picture tells the tale from there.

 

His story and that of "Les Miserables" will always be utterly intertwined for me.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County. Tell him about what you've seen recently in an old photo at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.

Faith Works 1-12-13

Faith Works 1-12-13

Jeff Gill

 

The Triumph of Javert

___

 

If I were to tell you my intention is to write about "the triumph of Javert," some of you would say "are you still writing about that darn musical?"

 

Others might note that, avoiding spoilers, it is kind of difficult for Javert to win given the closing scenes of "Les Miserables."

 

So I guess what I'm talking about is sort of a symbolic victory, even more so since Javert is a fictional character.

 

But if you've not read the Victor Hugo novel (and it's a long one), nor seen the musical now nearing thirty years in production, let alone missed the movie trampling like a T. Rex across the local cineplexes, Javert is the relentless cop who pursues the fugitive Valjean across the decades.

 

Javert does not come out a winner, really, in the musical or movie versions of the mid-1800s book. He devotes a chunk of his life to pursuing this one paroled felon who skipped out on his terms and vanished, although both book and movie make it clear Javert is a dedicated police officer, stern and unyielding , whose work over the years is about law and order in general, not just this one fellow.

 

But oh, this one fellow. Valjean. Prisoner 26401. Mayor Madeleine. Monsieur Leblanc. Urbain Fabre. Ultime Fauchelevent. Jean Valjean adopts many names and identities, and by all accounts keeps on working his way, over and over, up from laborer to something of a success in a variety of positions, ending up a factory owner, a landlord.

 

As Valjean flees justice, Javert pursues. It began with a theft of bread for his sister's starving child, and it continues because of his attempts to escape cause Valjean to be branded an incorrigible, a dangerous character, a parolee who will be watched and labeled for the rest of his likely short and brutal life.

 

So Valjean escapes the net by remaking himself, starting with the aid of an elderly bishop whose humility and perceptiveness about Valjean leads him to a risk, and a request. For Valjean to make something more of himself than he had been, as the bishop asked, he had to remake his very identity, a tension that runs through the entire storyline.

 

What kept nagging at me as I watched these scenes from early 1800s France was how utterly impossible Valjean's journey would be today, and how mechanically the demands of Javert's sense of justice are imposed in our world now.

 

Let's just argue, for the moment, that someone in 2013 could be either unjustly accused, or be much less guilty than simple circumstances warrant. I'm not saying this happens always, or even often: maybe it never happens. I doubt that. But we'll say it might come to pass.

 

Can someone, in any way, escape the label of thief or predator or criminal if they come out starting with absolutely nothing and no one to help them? Can one "lift themselves by their own bootstraps," a phrase that hints of the essential impossibility in the idea, since you can't counteract gravity with a sharp tug on your shoelaces.

 

Your identity is in so many ways less personal than it is official, and your SSIN, your driver's license number, your fingerprints and retina scan and grade school permanent record . . . you are in so many more ways now than 1832 the person Javert says you are, and if that record says something bad about you, I fear it is ever so much harder to turn that around than it was then.

 

In "Les Miserables" we have the Thenardiers to remind us that the ability to shed one's past and take on a new identity can be woefully misused, even evilly twisted to sin and sin again without repercussions, and that's why we are so intent on "keeping track" of criminals . . . and others. It's not meant to be shackles for life, but it can be, and a weight that keeps people from climbing back up to where they might otherwise rise.

 

As you can tell, I'm not done meditating on "Les Mis," and Valjean, and Javert, and the good bishop of Digne. And even Valjean learns that you truly cannot remake yourself alone, but there has to be a loving community around you, and you need to let them share their aid, to enter your wounded heart, or no healing can begin.

 

But I worry about Javert, too, and how his compulsions might well be our own without our even recognizing in the mirror who we've become.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; tell him about how you've seen lives changed at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.

update for 1-09-13 - full pastor's column!

Notes From My Knapsack

[for 1-09-13 "Newark Christian"]

We're barely into the new year of 2013, and what's the parson talking about but: Lent! 

That's right, Lent. The season of prayer and preparation to approach Easter will begin February 13^th, and 40 days plus Sundays, on towards March 31^st.

We have a long-standing tradition at Newark Central of Wednesday night Lenten dinners, following an Ash Wednesday service which will be Feb. 13^th at 6:00 pm, then the dinner programs in Fellowship Hall on Feb. 20 and 27, Mar. 6, 13, and 20. Stay tuned for our guest presenters and meal preparers for these simple soup & sandwich suppers.

During Lent, with those 40 days, I have a proposal. We will have some commitment cards in the bulletin the next couple of Sundays, and they will be for you to make a commitment to yourself, not to the pastor or the church. Mainly between you and God.

There are 260 chapters in the New Testament, Matthew's Gospel to John's Revelation, all 27 books. If you were to read seven chapters a day, with Saturdays off and a skip day or two just to give you some flexibility, you could read the whole New Testament (7 chapters a day!) by Easter morning right down to Revelation 22.

To be fair, I know there's a goodly number of you who've read the whole New Testament (hat tip to y'all!), and I also know there's more than a few who really, really have meant to get around to doing that . . . so this is the Lent to get it done!

And even if you're already taken the full tour through what God has to say in the "Apostolic literature," here's a new suggestion. Frank Viola, a Bible teacher & preacher, has proposed a sort of chronological order of the books of the New Testament. As most of you know, we have the library of the NT organized with four gospels, a bunch of letters, most from Paul, a few from others, then the closing prophetic vision of Revelation. It's not chronologically organized, and your reading of it "straight through" can cause a fair amount of back-flipping and flip-backing.

Viola offers this sequence, not in order of events, but in the order they were (possibly) written, to help you feel the development of Christian thought & belief:

Galatians, James, I & II Thessalonians, I & II Corinthians, Romans, Mark, Matthew, and Luke; Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, Philippians, I Timothy, Acts, Hebrews, Titus, John; I, II, & III John, I Peter, II Timothy, II Peter, Jude, and finally Revelation.

Or, you could try Marcus Borg's proposed sequence:

I Thessalonians, Galatians, I Corinthians, Philemon, Philippians, II Corinthians, Romans, Mark; James, Colossians, Matthew; Hebrews and John; Ephesians, Revelation, Jude, I, II, & III John, Luke; Acts, II Thessalonians, I Peter, I Timothy, II Timothy, Titus, and finally II Peter.

Either way, it's an experience of the New Testament that might well bless your Lent this year!

In grace and peace, Pastor Jeff

The Newark Christian, Jan. 9, 2013

The Newark Christian

Serving God's Transformation of Licking County

January 9, 2013

Volume LXXIV

Issue 1

 

Summer 2013 Camp Schedule 


Registration for summer programs will be available early in 2013

Grandparents Camp - For Children in grades 1 & 2 and a Grandparent
Held at Camp Christian, May 31 - June 1

 

Otter Junior Camp - For youth in grades 3, 4, & 5
Held at Camp Christian, June 16 - 22


Chi Rho Camps - For youth in grades 6, 7, & 8
All Chi Rho Camps are held at Camp Christian

Hocking June 9 - 15

Portahoga July 7 - 13

Maumee July 14 - 20

Miami August 4 - 10

 

CYF Conferences - For youth in grades 9, 10, 11, & 12
All CYF Conferences are held at Camp Christian

Hiram June 23 - 29

Phyo June 30  - July 6

Lakeside July 21 - 27

Wilmington July 28 - August 3

 

Adult Ministries - For adults of all ages
Held at Northwest Christian Church, Columbus, June 17 – 21

Adventure Camp - For adults of all ages and high school age youth
Location TBA, June 28 – 31

Advance Ministries Summer Conference - For young adults ages 19 - 29
(at least one year out of high school)
Held at Camp Christian, August 11 - 18

 

General Board Meeting

All elders, deacons, deaconesses, trustees, department chairs and fellowship group presidents are reminded of their right and responsibility to attend the board meeting January 16 at 7:00 pm.

 

Caroling was a Success!

Many thanks to all who came out to carol around the neighborhood in December.  We ended up with around 30 people and received good response all the way down Jefferson Road, around the corner to Woods, and back up to the church on Rugg Avenue.  Many folks came out to hear and received an invitation to our Living Nativity and our worship services.  Thanks, also, to Carol Thompson, who provided refreshments for all of us.

Youth Sub Sale 2013
The youth of Central Christian Church will be making subs for Super Bowl Sunday February 3, 2013. All proceeds will go to SCOOP (Special Concerns Ohio Outreach Program). This year the youth will offer Italian and turkey subs (lettuce and mild banana peppers will be offered on the side). Each sub is $5.00 and you can pay cash or write a check to Central Christian Church and write "subs" in the memo line. Please turn in all money and orders by Sunday, Jan. 27 to Harry Cline or Samantha Frizzell. The goal is 175 subs and $800 to send to SCOOP. Thanks again for your continued support!

Youth All Christian Skate Night

On Monday, January 21, all youth should meet at the church from 6:15-8:15pm. Skating admission is free, thanks to Betty Lou and Larry Iden, In line skates are $1.00 and any money needed at the concession stand. We will have devotions at 7:30 at the skating rink. Until then get ready to play the number game!

Planning Event

Christian Education will be having their annual planning meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the church on January 15. Please send any ideas for events to Kim Halter at kmhalter7@hotmail.com

Book Club

On January 20, the Book Club will meet in the parlor after the 10:30 service.  Lunch will be provided.  The book for Jan 20 is That's Why I'm Here, the story of Chris and Stefanie Spielman.  Come join the discussion.

Please Remember

The parking lot on the North side of the church, near the elevator, is intended for handicap parking only.

2013 Board & Program Cabinet schedule

 

(all meetings of the general board are at 7:00 pm on the ground floor)
Wed., Jan. 16

Wed., March 20 (after the Lenten dinner)

Wed. May 15

Wed., July 17

Wed., Sept. 18

Wed., Nov. 20


The meetings of the Program Cabinet, made up of team leaders & committee chairpeople, will be on third Monday nights as follows at 6:30 pm:

Mon., Feb. 18
Mon., Apr. 15
Mon., Aug. 19
Mon., Oct. 21

 

Notes From My Knapsack

We're barely into the new year of 2013, and what's the parson talking about but: Lent! 

That's right, Lent. The season of prayer and preparation to approach Easter will begin February 13^th, and 40 days plus Sundays, on towards March 31^st.

We have a long-standing tradition at Newark Central of Wednesday night Lenten dinners, following an Ash Wednesday service which will be Feb. 13^th at 6:00 pm, then the dinner programs in Fellowship Hall on Feb. 20 and 27, Mar. 6, 13, and 20. Stay tuned for our guest presenters and meal preparers for these simple soup & sandwich suppers.

During Lent, with those 40 days, I have a proposal. We will have some commitment cards in the bulletin the next couple of Sundays, and they will be for you to make a commitment to yourself, not to the pastor or the church. Mainly between you and God.

There are 260 chapters in the New Testament, Matthew's Gospel to John's Revelation, all 27 books. If you were to read seven chapters a day, with Saturdays off and a skip day or two just to give you some flexibility, you could read the whole New Testament (7 chapters a day!) by Easter morning right down to Revelation 22.

To be fair, I know there's a goodly number of you who've read the whole New Testament (hat tip to y'all!), and I also know there's more than a few who really, really have meant to get around to doing that . . . so this is the Lent to get it done!

And even if you're already taken the full tour through what God has to say in the "Apostolic literature," here's a new suggestion. Frank Viola, a Bible teacher & preacher, has proposed a sort of chronological order of the books of the New Testament. As most of you know, we have the library of the NT organized with four gospels, a bunch of letters, most from Paul, a few from others, then the closing prophetic vision of Revelation. It's not chronologically organized, and your reading of it "straight through" can cause a fair amount of back-flipping and flip-backing.

Viola offers this sequence, not in order of events, but in the order they were (possibly) written, to help you feel the development of Christian thought & belief:

Joys and Concerns

·        Lucille Peoples, Sue Lynn, Monica Broceus and June Harman Butts  

Daily Scripture Readings

Jan     9       Revelation 21:1-7

         10     Genesis 1:26-28

         11     I Corinthians 3:5-11

         12     I Corinthians 13:1-7

         13     Colossians3:1-4

         14     2 Corin 6:1-2

         15     Matthew 5:38-48

         16     Psalm 103:8-13

         17     Matthew 25:31-46

         18     2 Corin 4:6-12

         19     Psalm 32:6-11

         20     I Corin 12:12-27

         21     Psalm 139:1-18

         22     Matthew 18:10-14

         23     I Corin 9:24-27

         24     Titus 3:3-7

         25     Genesis 39:1-23

 (Taken from The Upper Room)

 

Looking Ahead

January 13 –

 Why we do what we do: Baptism

         Matthew 3:13-17

January 20 –

 WWDWWD: Communion

         I Corinthians 11:23-26

January 27 –

 WWDWWD: Hymns

         Ephesians 5:15-20

February 3 –

WWDWWD: Elders & Deacons

Titus 2:1-15


February 10 –
 

WWDWWD: Discipleship
          

II Timothy 3:10 – 4:5


Wed., February 13
   Ash Wednesday, Lent begins

Thank You and You're Welcome!

First, we would like to thank everyone who came to celebrate Mom's 90^th birthday. It was wonderful to see so many of our church family there to honor her. Second, we would like to thank Linda Hurst, Susie Morris and Jeff Gill for their help with the party. Third, we would like to thank Steve Crothers, Ron Thompson, Earl Stevenson, Dave Engle, Rick Crothers and Cooper Leibas for putting in our ramp. It really makes it easier getting Mom in and out. Thanks to all. The Kohlers

 

Hello my friends at Central Christian Church. You certainly outdid yourselves. Thank you for your more than generous donation for the homeless. Just got another family off the streets and your donation paid for the stove and refrigerator and 2 beds. I praise God for you all and I ask Him to favor you and your church with His mighty blessings! Again, thanks and God will bless. Love, Effie Enman, "My Corner and Beyond"

         

Thank you for all the concern shown to me after my hospital stay in the way of cards, calls and visits from members and Jeff. It is wonderful to have a caring church family. Jean McDonald

           

I just wanted to drop a little note to say thanks for the cards, phones calls, and special visits from Rev. Jeff Gill and a very good friend, Carol Van Winkle, while I spent some time in the hospital. Also would like to thank the elders who filled in for me in church services. For all you have done, we are blessed for a great church and such leadership. There is a God in the mountain and a God in the valley. I have been both places and He is real. He said I will never leave thee or forsake thee. James Green

         

Adrian and I would like to say "Thank You" to our Central family! We have been shown such incredible support through all of our journeys. The generosity we have been shown is overwhelming as well! Thank you for the prayers, diapers, monetary gifts, etc. We are so blessed! Katie Leibas

           

Greetings from First Christian Church, Tuscaloosa, AL!

To my church family, Happy Holidays! Thank you for your thoughtfulness following my recent hip surgery. I so enjoyed the cards and visits at the nursing home. A special thanks for those taking time to bring me communion at home. I still can't drive and am having eye problems but look forward to a speedy recovery so I can get back to church again. A special thanks to the Medical Loan Closet for their hard work. I still use my walker and the shower chair. Hope to be on my own soon. Happy New Year everyone, Margaret Kreager

I hope all is going well with all of you. I want to tell you again how much we appreciate all you did to help restore our community while you were here. I really need to get back to some of the areas that DV worked on, but haven't done a very good job of getting it done.

            I have copied some photos (which are hanging on the narthex bulletin board) of some of the businesses that have been rebuilt and are operational. There is still a lot of new building going on in our city and there is s still a lot of repairing going on as well. There is still a lot to go, though. I hope that you will have an opportunity to come back to see the progress that has been made.

            Merry Christmas! "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory." John 1:14

Kathy Mason, FCC Tuscaloosa

 

[the following from the front page sidebar:]

Church Office Hours:

Monday – Friday

7:00 am – 2:00 pm

 

Phone:  740-366-4961

 

Email:

secretary.newarkcentral@gmail.com

 

We're on the Web!

Visit us at:

newarkcentralchristian.com

 

Our mission is to lead people to faith in Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit and Scriptures from the Holy Bible.  We seek to grow in knowledge and grace of Christ to strengthen the unity of all Christians toward building the Kingdom of God.

 

Faith Works 1-05

Faith Works 1-05-13

Jeff Gill

 

A film called "The Downtrodden"

___

"No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us." (1 John 4:12, NLT)

The climactic line of "Les Miserables" is: "Take my hand, and lead me to salvation. Take my love, for love is everlasting. And remember, the truth that once was spoken: To love another person is to see the face of God."

As a Christian and a pastor, these are stirring lines however sung, and they were when I first heard them on Broadway, and they are beautifully delivered in the new film version of the musical. I cannot encourage people of faith enough, who have not experienced this show in some form already, to please go and see this.

For older youth groups, I'll note that there is one scene not graphic but unmistakable when Fantine is forced into prostitution that might be over some folks' lines, and the Thenardier's have potty mouths, even as they are the grim comic relief of the narrative. But I'd take high schoolers without a second thought . . . only if you can also leave time after the two and half hours to debrief, to discuss what they've seen and heard.

For those who've expressed some confusion with the politics & history context of "Les Miserables," try reframing it this way:



"The Downtrodden" is about a poor man named John Johnson, who was convicted in the 1920s South for theft, and ended up on a chain gang. He finally makes parole, skips out of Mississippi, and after an encounter with the abbot of a monastery in Arkansas, decides to change his life, using a grubstake from the abbot to start a business, and in the course of that becomes a mayor in the Central Valley of California during the 30s. One of the state prison officials from Mississippi, Javerts, works his way up the law enforcement career ladder to a federal job, and is assigned to a fraud investigation post checking migrant labor for the INS. He runs into Mayor Madison, who is actually Johnson.



Johnson's manufacturing business gives work to women most of whom have husbands working in the fields around the town; Fantina Martinez is one of them, who ends up out of a job after turning down the foreman's advances. By the time this sequence is over, Mayor Madison is revealed as Johnson, Javerts makes moves in court to have him extradited back South, and as Fantina dies, Johnson takes in her little girl who was staying at a Motor Court and tavern out in the Mojave with a family named Thernstrom who were taking advantage of Fantina while not caring for her child, named Cosette.



Leaping to the dawn of the 1940s, Johnson and Cosette are now in Los Angeles, under an assumed name once more. They live near Long Beach, where labor activism is stirring up again, based on memories of the IWWs just a few decades earlier. The labor organizers have a pub down by the docks where they hang out with each other and the longshoremen. A college grad named Mark is there, whose family made their wealth in the railroads, but he became aware of the injustices done in his family's name during his studies.



The growing move to a war footing makes the more radical union members realize that if they don't get the whole dockyards organized now, they will be forced into paralysis once war is declared. They decide to use an upcoming Fourth of July parade as the occasion for a public demonstration that will likely draw the assault and even gunfire of the LA County sheriff's deputies, which they hope will cause the workers as a whole to rise up and join them in protest and unification. The parade and demonstration go as planned, but the people in general turn their backs on them, and the protest organizers retreat back into the tavern, barricading themselves in, hoping that the national news will pick up the story, and support from around the nation will rise to their defense . . . but the story does not go further, and the National Guard is called in along with the sheriff's deputies, to surround and demand the surrender of the protesters, who will be charged with murder of a deputy killed in the parade protest.



Javerts has infiltrated the pub, and hopes to lead the entire crew out in surrender by convincing them of the hopelessness of their cause, but is frustrated in this by being revealed as a federal agent by Gavin, a teenager who hung about the docks as an orphan and occasional errand-runner for the union leaders. Gavin had seen Javerts working with customs inspectors earlier out on the docks. But all the while, Mark had seen Cosette, Johnson's ward, at a carnival on the boardwalk the week of the Fourth, and couldn't get her out of his mind.



I think you can fill in the rest, but that's my best historic reframing for those trying to "understand" the context. But don't let French history get in the way of this stunning story of faith and choices and redemption.

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; yes, he's a fan of "Les Mis." Tell him what you think about faith and musical theatre, or anything else, at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.