Les Miserables Lent Course

West Norfolk Priory Group

This years lent course is based on the musical Les Miserables and was written by Jonathon Meyer.

The book can be purchased from the Eden Christian Bookstore using the link below.


Each week a review of the content will appear on the website for those who have been unable to make any of the sessions or who want a recap.

Introduction

For Jonathon Meyer, the author of the course, in scriptural terms, lent is the 40 days and nights that Jesus spent in the wilderness. Indeed, it is often the passage that we preach on, as we did last Sunday, at the start of Lent.

But for Jonathon, we do not approach Lent in a spirit that calls us to be Jesus - but rather to follow Jesus. He calls on us, during our Lenten journey, to seek to ascertain what God’s will is for us - and in some respects to get to know ourselves better.

During the next few weeks, we will do this by looking at some of the key characters from the book.

  • Fantine who might represent our fallen state. To reflect on her life we need to contemplate sin and what that might mean for ourselves - but also in society.

  • And then we will look at the Bishop who marks a deeper journey of formation and the need for us to be open to the new and unexpected.

  • Jean Valjean and Javert both represent ways and choices that we might make. Right versus wrong and law versus grace.

So let us use this period of lent to use this story, and of course the Bible itself, to reflect on our inner natures, but also to reassess what we can do with our lives and those around us.

As the author points out, studying the text of both the film or the Bible will not provide us with all the answers we might be searching for this lent. But as Rowan Williams points out in one of his books, a narrative that remains open can have a far more profound effect on us than a fable that tries to dictate all the answers.

BIBLE READINGS

The introduction to the course highlights the following Bible passages. Why not take a look at them before you set off on this journey.