Today, we’re going to focus on the movie, Chocolat, which helps us to wrestle with the issue of having a rules oriented religion vs. a more relational and life giving faith. This movie seems to be pretty popular because of the number of people who have told me that they have seen it. Its popularity coupled with how the plot centers around a church located in a small community during the season of Lent, makes this movie a good choice for us during our Movie Month sermon series.
So let’s set the context for the movie.
One blustery winter’s day, near the beginning of Lent, a woman named Vianne and her daughter Anouk, arrive in a small village, and rent the old, run down pastry shop where they plan to open a chocolate shop.
Vianne is a wanderer, and she has moved her daughter many times, never staying long in one place.
The mayor of the village, who keeps everyone in their places and clings to tradition, comes to call on Vianne and Anouk. He invites them to worship at mass and she replies that they do not go to church.
He addresses her as Madame, and she corrects him that she is a Madamoiselle, since she has never been married.
Finally, he gently chastises her for opening a pastry shop during Lent, since it is a time of fasting. Vianne tells him that she is not opening a pastry shop, but the type of shop she will be opening is a surprise.
.
News begins to spread about the new woman in town. Let’s watch this clip to see what type of shop Vianne is opening.
[Movie Clip]
As the movie develops, we discover that the people in town are stuck in their ways. Each person in town has his or her own set of troubles, which they stuff way down inside. They are bound and held prisoner by their troubles. For them, their religion is all about looking good on the outside and keeping their religious rules rather than about having an authentic and life-giving faith in Christ.
There is Madame Clarimont, a widow who is over-protective of her son, Luc. She is also estranged from her mother, and will not let her see her grandson.
Then there is the lonely widower Monsieur Bleurot, who has a fancy for the widow Madame Audel. But she is still mourning her husband who died in the war—the first world war—more than 52 years ago.
There is Josephine Muscat whose husband, Serge, is abusive toward her, made worse by his heavy drinking.
There is the mayor himself, who cannot admit, even to himself, that his wife, who he always says is traveling throughout Europe, has really left him, and she is never coming back.
And, there is the priest, Father Henri, who is dominated and manipulated by the mayor, the Comte de Reynaud.
Vianne tries to make friends with Josephine who is abused and intimidated by her husband. She tells Vianne that the mayor tells everyone in town what a bad influence Vianne is since she doesn’t follow the town’s customs or attend church. He tells everyone in the village to stay away from her and her shop.
Let’s watch this scene from the movie when Vianne goes to confront the mayor.
[Movie Clip]
Even though she is still new to the town, Vianne can easily see through the hypocrisy of the mayor and of the small village in general. Instead of allowing their faith to bring freedom and new life, their over-emphasis on rules and outward appearances was actually turning people away from God and perpetuating dysfunctional behavior.
This struggle between having a rules oriented religion vs. having a more relational and life-giving faith is nothing new for the church. If it was, the Apostle Paul wouldn’t have needed to write one of his letters – his letter to the Galatians.
Instead of the modern day French village setting of the movie, Chocolat, think of the first century setting of the region of Galatia located in the southern part of modern day Turkey. The main reason Paul needed to write this letter was because the church in that area was missing the point of what was at the heart of the Christian faith. For Paul, the good news of Jesus Christ isn’t about setting up rules and regulations that include some people at the exclusion of others. The good news of our faith is in how Jesus’ death and resurrection has broken down the barriers that divide people so that all of God’s people can be included in God’s saving and healing love.
Just like Vianne confronted the hypocrisy of the Mayor and the town, the Apostle Paul confronted the hypocrisy of Christians in the Galatia area who were using their faith to exclude others.
In Paul’s day when he wrote this letter, Greek theater make-up wasn’t very advanced and they used a clever technique to help the audience. They had the actors and actresses hold masks which they would put in front of their faces. In Greek theater, this became known as “play acting” referring to people who were pretending to be something when they were in fact something else. This is the Greek phrase from which we get our words, “hypocrite” and “hypocrisy” meaning someone who pretends to be something they aren’t. And this is the same word Paul uses her in our Galatians passage.
It’s in this letter from Paul that we get this wonderful verse speaking of how all are included in God’s family when he writes, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus uses the same word to describe the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day when they confronted him about whether or not they should pay taxes to Caesar or not. It was a trick question and they were hoping to trap Jesus into saying something that they could use against him.
As Jesus did so many times when people were trying to trip him up with a challenging question, he outflanked them and made them think about what it means to be the people of God in a new and different way.
In the movie, Chocolat, Vianne is able to see through the hypocrisy of the Mayor and many of the town’s people and she meets resistance.
Vianne still seeks to make friends. She hires Luc to draw a sketched portrait. He comes to the chocolate shop on the sly, while his mother is at her weekly hair appointment. Vianne has hired him to draw a portrait of his grandmother. It is the first time they’ve been able to see each other in a long, long time.
One night, Josephine shows up at Vianne’s door. She has been beaten by her husband, and she has gotten up the courage to leave him. She seeks shelter and sanctuary at the chocolate shop, with the only person in town who has ever befriended her.
Word soon gets out that Josephine is staying with Vianne. The mayor shows up at the store.
The mayor is angry with Serge Muscart for abusing Josephine; he sets out to reform him with repentance and contrition.
Meanwhile, Lent is slowing passing, and the chocolate shop is doing a good business despite the mayor trying to shut it down.
One day, some vagabonds glide into town on the river. They live on their boats and go from town to town seeking to do odd jobs for money. But, they are not received well in this small, French town.
[Movie Clip]
The town council cannot force the river rats to move from the river bank as it is public land. That may be true, but the mayor implores the townspeople to make sure to let them know that they are not welcome in this town. He calls them ruthless, godless drifters, who will contaminate the spirit of their quiet town, and the innocence of their children.
The mayor starts a campaign to boycott immorality, and posts flyers all over town in all the shops – well, all the shops but one – that the river rats aren’t welcome.
Vianne befriends Roux, played by Johnny Depp, and hires him to fix the front door to her shop.
The mayor continues his campaign against the river rats, and Vianne and the Chocolate Shop. Some customers stop patronizing her shop, and one day her daughter comes home from school after being teased at school about her mother being ‘Satan’s helper’ a term the mayor uses to refer to Vianne.
Vianne gets frustrated, and goes to talk to Armande. Armande suggests that Vianne throw her a 70th birthday party; they will not give in to the bigots in town who are against them for being different. So the invitations go out for the party.
Vianne and Josephine begin lots of preparations for the party cooking and baking sumptuous dishes to eat. The day of the party arrives.
Everyone enjoys the party, a feast of delicious food and wine. Vianne exclaims that if they like the food at the party, they will love the food at the chocolate festival on Easter Sunday. Then she tells them that dessert is being served on Roux’s boat; you can see the shock and dismay on the guests’ faces.
The party moves down to the riverside on the boats, where music and joyous dancing break out.
Serge stumbles upon the party and goes and gets the mayor so he can see for himself.
The party goes on, and eventually winds down as the night grows longer. Serge takes the mayors words to heart, “something must be done…something must be done.”
He sneaks down to the river after everyone is asleep on the boats and pours gasoline on the boats, lights the fire, and sets the boats adrift into the middle of the river. It is a horrific scene.
Luc takes his grandmother home to her house, and he washes up the dishes while she takes it easy in her chair. When he goes in to check on her, he discovers that she has died peacefully in her chair.
Vianne decides that it is time for her to leave this small, provincial town where she and her daughter are not accepted and never will be.
One evening, Serge comes to see the mayor.
When Josephine finds out that Vianne and Anouk are leaving the town, she is certain that everything will go back to the way it always was before she came. She seeks the help of the townspeople to stand by Vianne.
They come to her aid, and help prepare for the Easter chocolate festival.
The mayor feels like he has lost control of his town. In despair he breaks into Vianne’s chocolatier. In what is probably the most famous scene from the movie, let’s watch as the hypocrisy of the Mayor catches up with him.
[Movie Clip]
One of my favorite parts of that scene is in how Vianne extends grace and mercy to the Mayor even though he had broken into her shop and had caused her so much grief ever since she first came to town. The irony of the movie is that it was the people who were outside the church who taught the people who were inside the church the meaning of grace and acceptance.
Like the Galatian Christians and the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, sometimes we who are in the church forget just how wide and all embracing God’s love is. And as a result, we trade a faith that is meant to be dynamic and relational for a faith that is focused primarily on rules and boundaries of who’s in and who’s out.
Several weeks ago, a staff member told me about a member of our church who prayed one morning that God would help her live her life so that people would see her faith in the love she showed to them.
.
Little did this church member know how God would answer that prayer! She came to the church that day to help with a ministry project and while here, she met a 21 year old man at our High Street entrance. This man went on to tell her about his struggle with drugs and how he had been off drugs for a week. He said how he wanted to straighten his life out. She invited him to church and he said to her, “You mean, they wouldn’t tell me to get out?” She assured him that our church would welcome him.
She then met a 70 year old woman who was looking for a room in our church where she could pray. She shared that she was homeless and needed God’s help. When the member invited her to go with her into the sanctuary to pray, the woman hesitated because she felt that she wasn’t dressed nice enough to come into the sanctuary.
She assured her that it was OK and together they came into the sanctuary where this woman told her story. She talked about being homeless and losing her teeth and not being able to get a job.
This woman then asked the member of our church if she would be willing to write a letter to her ex-husband to invite him to come to church since he used to attend here a long time ago. She agreed to write the letter.
I celebrate the many ways that we are a church that reaches out to all people because God has reached out to us.
At the end of the movie, the pastor finally preaches the Easter sermon. It’s a sermon that sums up what this little French town and church learned about God’s grace from an outsider, the woman who became known for her chocolatier.
Let’s listen and allow his sermon to be the ending for our sermon today.
[Movie Clip]
March 13 - (8:15 A.M. & 11:00 A.M. Traditional Services & 9:45 A.M. Praise Service) & Wednesday, March 16 (6:30 P.M. Casual Service @ Crossroads, 2095 Fair Avenue)
