Theology of Peanuts never fails to teach
Christmas cheer should be more than just words
With grateful attribution to the late cartoon artist Charles Schulz, I present you with the following brilliant thought from a Peanuts comic strip:
The first panel shows Charlie Brown and Linus walking and talking together on a snowy winter day as Snoopy stands shivering in the foreground.
Charlie says to Linus: “Snoopy looks kind of cold, doesn’t he?”
And Linus responds in the next panel: “I’ll say he does … Maybe we’d better go over and comfort him.”
The third panel shows Charlie and Linus standing over the still-shivering Snoopy, and Linus says: “Be of good cheer, Snoopy.” And Charles says: “Yes. Be of good cheer.”
The fourth and final panel shows the two boys walking away in the far background, and a befuddled, still-shivering Snoopy sits watching them walk away with a huge question mark above his head.
And that, in a Peanut’s nutshell, is a profound theological message that comes to the fore, especially at this time of the year.
We are so full of words of “Good Cheer” at Christmas. And yet, words will not fill tummies or provide shelter, any more than they will heal broken hearts and comfort the lonely.
I wonder how many people — metaphorically shivering on the inside or outside — I have walked past this week? Was I too busy to notice they needed something?
Dear readers: You do realize you’re celebrating a religious holiday, don’t you?
“Oh ya,” I hear you thinking. “I forgot about that.”
You’re not alone. It happens to all of us. The glitz and glitter and noise of rampant commercialization and pressure to give the best, looms large. Meanwhile, the origins of Christmas take a backseat to all the fuss.
And right about now, the non-religious will stop reading this column and go back to wrapping gifts. That’s OK. Even Jesus got gifts. Frankincense, myrrh and gold were expensive stuff.
The act of giving plays a huge part in our thinking and acting right now. But, still, there’s a yearning — especially now — for such ethereal gifts as the Advent themes of: hope, peace, love and joy.
Think back to that Peanuts comic strip where Charlie and Linus have the opportunity to provide the gifts of those four themes to Snoopy by finding a way to warm him — and yet, in their usual (and albeit charming) way, they just don’t get it. So, they end up offering platitudes to poor Snoopy and keep on walking.
Recently, I found an old newspaper clipping of a column written by Sydney J. Harris, who wrote for newspapers 40 years ago.
Harris had some thoughts on why we even have religion. His theory was that humankind needs more balance: “Not until the world is no longer seen as revolving around each individual ego, which is the sun, and everybody else just satellites — will any political or social or economic system work for the full benefit of humankind, instead of for a powerful few.”
The reason for religion, he continued, is to help us become more God-centred rather than people-centred and to make us realize that what happens to anyone else, is as significant in the scheme of things as what happens to each of us.
In other words, when Snoopy shivers and suffers from the cold, we too, should feel his discomfort. And we who can, should rush in to help.
Harris said that if he is going to look to anything for his strength and truth, he would rather it be God than the world’s power-structures found in politics, societies or economies.
He warns that if we don’t put our trust in some kind of powerful and supreme Goodness, then we face the danger of turning towards false and perhaps, malevolent — or at the very least, self-serving — gods. Makes sense to me.
And religion didn’t start with the birth of Jesus. He didn’t try to start Christianity as he travelled around his part of the world. Christ brought a different understanding of God’s desires for creation to those who could hear him. Christianity came a few centuries later. So, if you have a problem with religion — don’t blame God. Religion is a human construction — and a very flawed one at that.
That simple, humble, birth 2000 years ago that led to our Christmas celebrations in 2020, may have been dirty and complicated, but it was full of gifts that last today.
Advent is a time of waiting and preparing. And as we go through the four weeks leading up to Christmas, we have the opportunity to think about the promises of hope, peace, love and joy.
We may not be able to physically see and touch the Christ that was born at Christmas. But for many of us, that doesn’t negate the existence of a compassionate and powerful supreme Goodness all around us.
So, whether or not you are religious, whether or not you believe in the God we call Christ at this time of year, may you feel the blessings that are always being offered freely by the One of many names who loves you beyond your understanding.
Happy Holidays to all.