May 2, 2019 is the National Day of Prayer. In addition to our morning breakfast and speaker, Pastor James was invited to share a devotional at Fisher-Titus. Part of his inspiration was the recent Avengers movie. What does the Avengers have to do with health care workers? It's a stretch.
This last weekend, Avengers: Endgame became a pop culture event. The movie is poised to top every other movie in box office sales. I’m not giving away any, but the premise of the movie follows directly from the last Avengers movie, Infinity War. In that movie, the villain, Thanos, decides to kill half of all life in the universe. He sees this as an act of compassion. We live in a world of limited resources. By killing half of the population, Thanos believes that he is making life easier on the other half. It is no wonder that Thanos takes his name from Thanatos, the Greek god of death.
For the villain of the movie, life has no meaning. Death is divorced from any real cost or sorrow. The Scriptures speak about death as an enemy to be defeated. Thanos in the Avengers sees death as a tool to wielded. As I prepared for my time here today, I began to think about the contrast between Thanos and our doctors, nurses, therapists, and medical personnel.
The folks here at Fisher-Titus seek to preserve life. They dedicate resources and time to heal and to comfort. Unlike Thanos who is rather caviler about life, you are willing to sacrifice yourselves for others. That’s the very definition of love. In that way, health care workers imitate a God who values every life. Rather than destroying half of life to save some, our God sacrifices himself out of love to save the entire world.
This year’s theme for the National Day of Prayer is taken from the words of Jesus found in John 13:34.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Jesus loved us so much that he went to the cross. We love because God first loved us. All of you, are following in the footsteps of the Master. Your sacrifice and love on a daily basis make a huge difference in a world of disease, injury, and death.
You are an Avenger, an Avenger for love. Thank you.