This sermon was originally preached in Savannah, GA on June 28, 2026 for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity. The lections were Psalm 27; Luke 6:36-43; Romans 8:18-23. The guiding image for this sermon was Les Miserables and unbeknownst to me, the Savannah Bananas game the night before my sermon included a two-minute rendition of Valjean’s famous soliloquy, “Bring Him Home.” Thus, the Bananas are the featured image for this post instead of something more revolutionary.
The 8:00am service did not include Ecclesiastes and the space for the sermon was only 7-10 minutes. The text/audio for the longer sermon can be found here. This sermon is under 1500 words (much shorter than my normal) and would qualify for “Sermons that Work” for the Episcopal Church.
Who God Says You Are
In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo and Claude-Michel Schönberg paint the landscape of revolutionary France. In this harrowing tale, we are shown loss and redemption, law and gospel, grace and mercy.
This dichotomy is best embodied by Jean Valjean, a man seeking an identity.
Newly on parole after serving 19 years of hard labor for a simple crime, Valjean no longer knows who he is. He believes he is a slave to the law, known only by his prisoner number: 24601, bearing “the mark of Cain” on his papers.
The unexpected double-kindness of a local bishop catalyzes Valjean’s search for a new identity. He assaults the bishop and steals his silver. When the gendarmes bring him back, the bishop states that he gave Valjean the silver. He even adds two precious silver candlesticks to his bounty.
The bishop claims he has bought his soul for God.
Valjean asks two big questions on his journey of transformation. The first question is this: what have I done?
He believes that he’s nothing more than the sum of his sins, defined by his deeds, the product of his past. He believes he must escape from the world of Jean Valjean by becoming someone else.
Years later, after he has become the mayor of a little town, Valjean is forced to make a decision. Someone has been imprisoned with his name and number, and if he doesn’t correct the mistaken identity, an innocent will go to judgment in his place. This is when he asks his second question: who am I?
He remembers that he was saved by the grace and mercy of God.
God gave him hope when he had none;
Redemption and restoration when there was none;
And a future when he could see none.
The unveiling occurs before the judge, the court, and even Javert. Who is he? he’s 24601.
A sinner shown mercy;
A ragamuffin redeemed by grace.
Our lections tell a similar story of transformation initiated and completed by God, of sinners being adopted as children of glory.
Jesus’ comments in Luke 6 are challenging. Without the broader picture, we would be tempted to see this portion of the Sermon on the Plain as a form of works-based righteousness or as a morality check: do this, don’t do that; work harder; be better; etc.
But Jesus isn’t pushing an agenda of pseudo-spirituality. He’s proposing life in his kingdom as his kingdom people.
Jesus identifies our current cultural context: judgementalism, withholding forgiveness, mocking mercy, only looking out for number one, dividing between us vs them, and only seeing faults in those around you. That all sounds eerily familiar…
This is the cost of discipleship for Jesus’ listeners. The people hearing this sermon are a people being called by grace. And when grace comes calling, it is an invitation into transformation.
At the beginning of Les Mis, Valjean is arrested by grace. By the end, he is transformed into a “man of mercy,” an agent of the same grace he so powerfully received. The one saved by grace now becomes the grace-filled hunter stalking his prey.
Like Javert, we have been trained to see the speck in the eyes of everyone around us. We balk at Jesus’ comment about the log in our eye versus the speck in our neighbor’s…The Pharisees, the Javerts, the you’s, the me’s…we all love to focus on other people’s sins, their problems, blessing ourselves while counting their crimes.
Why?
Because it keeps the focus off of us!
Because it keeps my misdeeds in the dark;
Because it keeps me out of the spotlighted hot-seat!
Transformation is initiated and completed by God, not us. We undergo a powerful transformation because grace and mercy are working on us simultaneously,
Preveniently,
Overwhelmingly,
Relentlessly.
The story of God at work in your life is the end of human striving and vanishing mist. It is realizing that our attempts to better ourselves, to heal ourselves, to save ourselves are meaningless and useless.
This is what Paul has been working toward in Romans! He has been laying out the case for his audience that in a criminal courtroom, we will always be found guilty with no recourse or recompense for our sins. We were enemies of God, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death.
Valjean walks back into criminal court and declares, “I am 24601.” He confesses exactly who he is—a criminal shown mercy.
But Paul says that, in Christ, the final courtroom is not criminal but adoption. And there the Judge does not pretend we are not guilty. He declares whose we are.
Criminal court says, “Guilty.”
Adoption court says, “Beloved.”
Paul says that our almighty father has adopted us into his family, made us co-heirs with our sibling and savior, his only begotten Son, and in so doing he has redeemed us while we wait for the consummation of his kingdom.
You are a beloved child of God. You may have come to church today not feeling worthy of God’s love based on your past or present: What God says of you, over you, and about you defines who you are, not what you’ve done. As the incarnate Word, Jesus’ word over us is the last word. If you are in him, he calls you beloved child; a daughter or son of glory.
The law called him 24601.
The bishop called him Jean Valjean.
God calls him beloved son.
Our fallen nature, however, tempts us to earn our inheritance, to strive for our standing, to achieve the very gifts which have been granted us through Christ. We believe lies like…
God helps those who helps themselves;
Or a little bit of grit and determination will save you;
Or hard work leads to just rewards from God;
The Bible tells a different story where God is the main actor;
Where God does the work of salvation;
Where God transforms us through his grace and mercy.
It’s a story of the God who always loved you.
We are not saved by what we have done.
We are saved by what God has done for us.
We are saved by who God says we are.
The Gospel tells the story of transformation and redemption. And the story doesn’t end with transformation. The Gospel was never only about personal salvation. It was always about being Christ’s witnesses as agents of reconciliation and ambassadors of the good news in a world desperately in need of hope, of a future, of God.
Saul encounters Christ on the road to Damascus and then travels all over creation sharing the news of God in Christ. The demoniac is made whole and becomes an evangelist in the Decapolis. Mary and the women are changed by the resurrection and become the first preachers of the good news.
And then there’s you.
Me.
Us.
If we have received the grace and mercy of God;
If we have said yes to the scandalous foolishness of the cross;
Then the call is to share it with others, to make sure every woman, man, and child you meet knows that they too can be adopted into God’s great and glorious family.
Maybe you’ve come to church today because you are searching for a place to belong, believe, and become who God created you to be. If that’s you, I pray that you would accept the grace which God so freely offers.
Will you join in God’s search and rescue mission?
Will you be ambassadors of his grace and ministers of his mercy?
The world is groaning for the hope, redemption, and transformation which only God can bring. There are countless women and men who believe they are the sum of their sins, defined by their deeds, the product of their past – go and tell them what God calls them. Amen.
Porter C. Taylor 