ENDGAME?

Avengers: Endgame, released in April 2019, smashed a staggering number of box office records. As the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the picture had the highest ever opening weekend gross figure of $1.223 billion, and was the fasting movie to reach $2.5 billion worldwide, doing so in only 20 days. Endgame just topped $800 million dollars this week, in the United States alone.

Many of our students were clamoring to see the movie when it was released. I even saw one student binge watching Infinity Wars, the film that leads up to Endgame, right before going to the theatre to catch the new flick (both films are around 3 hours long, by the way). While I have never been compelled by Marvel mania, I can see the appeal of the last installment of this series. Everyone loves a finale; the conclusion to an epic journey. We love to celebrate the characters we have come to love so well; see heroes battle that one last time.

The question out there, of course, is whether Endgame is actually the ending. According to TIME, the answer is, well, kind of. “Avengers: Endgame marks the end of an era — and the beginning of a new one. Though many of the movie’s characters died or retired, others earned new titles or set off on missions across the universe.”

Here at Berkeley Preparatory School, we have come to our version of Endgame (of sorts). Last week we honored the Class of 2026 in their successful completion of Lower Division. This week marks the celebration of the Class of 2023, as they wrapped up Middle Division. The two-part culmination held for the Class of 2019 (Baccalaureate last weekend and Commencement this weekend) signifies the ending of Upper Division. These gatherings, too, mark the end of an era – and the beginning of a new one. Students will transition to new divisions, colleges, universities, even cities and states, to embark on the next leg of the journey.

As an Episcopal school, we claim God led us to these celebrations, is fully present in the here and now, and will guide us into the new era. Which is why all of these occasions are bookended by prayer. What’s more, this theological framework is an ongoing reality in the Christian tradition: death always leads the new life; one ending yields another beginning.

Mortal death is often depicted in the sacred text as falling asleep, underscoring the transitory nature of existence. Even the end times depicted in the Revelation to John speaks of a new beginning: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (21:1-2).

Endgame is here. With many more to come.