Dear Friends

Have you ever read the book or seen the film "Chocolat"?

Taken at face value it is a rather sentimental and predictable story about a very prim and proper French town. However lurking below the surface there is a profound exploration of the weakness and dangers of some aspects of religion. The people of the town are encouraged by a rather insipid but devout Count to live honourable lives by suppressing all sense of fun.

Into this rather false and dour existence comes a woman called Vianne Rocher and her six year old daughter Anouk. Vianne turns a very run-down patisserie into a chocolate shop where she offers people conversation and acceptance as well as the sheer pleasure and delight of chocolate. The store, which opens during Lent, instills both wonder and angst amongst the repressed villagers. Vianne likes people and is interested in them.

The church on the other hand is presented as very rigid and excluding. It is controlled by the Count, who, in order to compensate for his own inadequacy, adopts a very austere and repressed view of God and religion. He imposes his version of faith on the village and the church. Religion is presented as something that cannot cope with change or with those who are different and is powerless to make any impact on the life of the individuals within the village. It tries to reform one man by imposing a harsh discipline of prayer, self-denial and the respectability of a new suit, but he soon fails and is worse off than before.

By contrast, at some cost to herself, the chocolate lady accepts everyone, even the Count, and she brings life and joy to the village. As I see it, Vianne is much more like the followers of Jesus ought to be, than was the church. She embodies my dream of a church which celebrates life, shares pain and understands failure. She represents a community where there is a sense of fun alongside a sense of the holy. She portrays a community which stands for stability whilst being able to be always on the move; a community of people who share a real feeling of belonging and yet who are always reaching far beyond their boundaries to express the compassion of God as Jesus did.

It is not surprising that Chocolat has also been turned into a Lent Course in its own right. The story it tells offers a very clear challenge to all of us in the church to think about the way we use our faith. Do we use it as a means of suppression in which we inhibit our humanity, or as the gateway to the truth, liberation and new life which resurrection is all about?

May the joy of Easter be with each one of you.

With my love

Liz

© St.Andrew’s URC - Eastcote 2010 - Website update (email) - Last updated: 27th February 2010