The Avengers and a Demand for Grace

I know this is a weird statement, given the team\’s name, but all four of the Avengers movies have a surprising central theme: forgiveness. In each case, characters who are used to doing things by themselves find themselves putting up with other big egos. The central tension in these movies isn\’t so much their battles against bad guys, but against each other, learning to clean up one another\’s messes. The heroes need to learn to get over themselves and forgive one another.Writing for Living Lutheran, I argue:

It’s a theme simple enough for a Hollywood blockbuster but difficult to practice. American Christians often consider faith a personal endeavor, to be worked out in fear and trembling and solitude. Such prideful thinking reveals not only a fear of being exposed but also a fear of exposure to others. We don’t want to deal with our neighbors’ problems, so we insist, “My sins are between me and God, and your sins should be, too. Don’t bother me with them.”

Along the way, I pull from a little of Galatians 6 and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and I\’m pretty sure this is this only article to talk about both Infinity War and Lutheran theology.You can read the whole thing here! And don\’t worry — the piece contains no spoilers.