(This QuickTime Trailer can be downloaded)

I saw First Sunday on a Wednesday. The movie will open on a Friday. Audiences will be in theaters watching it every day of the week until it gets replaced. But whatever day you may head out to see it, you might as well consider it a Sunday.

Sure, First Sunday is a comedy. It’s a story about bumbling criminals. It stars Ice Cube, Katt Williams, and Tracy Morgan. It’s goofy and simple and cheesy and filled with stereotype on top of stereotype. But at its core, in the story it tells and the messages it presents, it could very well be the opening illustration of many a Sunday morning sermon.

In short, First Sunday is about two hard-on-their-luck men, Durell (Ice Cube) and LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan), who decide to rob a church to pay off their debts. When they find a church meeting and a choir practice in session, their attempted robbery turns into a hostage situation. And by the time the night is over, they end up leaving the money and walking away with new perspectives and a second chance.

The message of the story? Forgiveness—the judgment that thwarts it, the lives that long for it, and the power it has to change everything.

When First Sunday begins, it seems that all its main characters can find in life is judgment. Durell can’t get a job because he has to admit to being convicted of a crime on every application he fills out. When Durell and LeeJohn find themselves in court, the judge barely thinks twice before sentencing them to community service. And when Durell pays a visit to his son and his son’s mother, all she sees in him is what he brings—nothing.

Durell and LeeJohn have obviously made some bad decisions. When they find themselves in difficult situations soon after the movie starts, they make some more. But as we watch Durell interact with his family, he shows us that he is more than just a bumbling criminal. He loves his son more than anything else in the world. He is a man with a talent for fixing anything. And in his son’s eyes, Durell is someone he wants to grow up to be like.

The problem is, after so many times of being told who you are and who you aren’t, what you can do and what you can’t, and what you deserve and what you don’t, it’s hard to believe otherwise. When Durell and LeeJohn find themselves in need of help, the only reality they know is the one that they have been told for so long—they don’t deserve a helping hand, they are incapable of helping themselves, and they are criminals. And so the only option they see before themselves is robbing their local church.

Cue a change in perspective, a kindly widow fixing a plate of home cooking for LeeJohn and singing him Happy birthday for the first time in his life, a beautiful young woman recognizing Durell’s talent for fixing things, and a preacher willing to see both LeeJohn and Durell as more than just criminals and offer them a second chance.

Some have said that the ending of First Sunday is overly simple, unearned, and sentimental. But when you think about it, that’s really what it’s all about. Forgiveness is not based on justice or logic. It's not about the punishment we deserve or the rewards we have earned. Instead it’s about suspending judgment and awarding the freedom of potential and possibility. And the most beautiful thing of all, it’s as simple as recognizing that it is there and accepting its offer.

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