I’ll be the first to admit that the simplicity of that Christian truth is not always easy to comprehend. Getting good things we don’t deserve and watching others get them, too, is difficult to grasp. Even a quick glance at the way God and faith make appearances in mainstream movies reveals our desire to make forgiveness into more of a logical concept. To meet God, our heroes must go on long and epic journeys. They must face physical, emotional, and often spiritual torture in order to earn (I mean, find) any sort of redemption. Even when God plays a part in one of our favorite comedies, the story will most likely exist outside of our reality and inside the realm of some fantasy or tall-tale premise.

But to have a main character find God and forgiveness in one night through the likes of a bunch of goofy churchgoers who are also flawed themselves? Let’s just say that seeing a movie like First Sunday in wide release on theater screens across the country is a bit outside of the norm.

But as I see it, First Sunday may actually be closer to our reality than many of the fantastic epics and inventive comedies in which we often accept representations of God and faith more readily. Most of us aren’t quite as tragically flawed and tortured the run-of-the-mill epic hero. Most of us don’t get a personal invite from God to take over for him for a few days. But all of us, in one way or another, have been judged by the world and/or ourselves to be lacking. We have, and will come to, places where we feel like we have no options. And when we get there, the reality of God’s hope may very likely be as close as our next door neighbor.

The only question for us is: Are we willing to let go of our judgment and instead learn to see ourselves and those around us through the grace of God’s vision and both accept and bestow forgiveness accordingly?

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