YOU WERE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN
February 20, 2000
Rev. Eugene Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
Isaiah 43:18-28
Linus and Charlie Brown are sitting down, leaning against a fence. Linus says, "Life is difficult, isn't it Charlie Brown." Charlie Brown replies, "Yes it is. But I've developed a new philosophy...I only dread one day at a time." Ever feel that way?
Linus and Charlie Brown are out walking. Linus has been feeling nervous and anxious. He's decided he's afraid of the library. Charlie Brown says, "I think I can understand your fear of libraries, Linus. 'Library Fever' is similar to other mental disturbances. You fear the library rooms because they are strange to you. You are out of place. All of us have certain areas in which we feel out of place." "Oh, in what area do you feel out of place, Charlie Brown?" Charlie Brown puts his head in his hands and says, "EARTH!" Ever feel that way?
The psychiatrist is in. Charlie Brown says, "And so I can't help it. I feel so lonely...depressed." Lucy responds, "This is ridiculous! You should be ashamed of yourself, Charlie Brown! You've got the whole world to live in. There's beauty all around you. There are things to do...great things to accomplish. No man trods this earth alone. We are all together: one generation taking up where the other generation left off." Charlie Brown listens to all this, then says, "You're right, Lucy. You're right. You've made me see things differently. I realize now that I am part of the world. I am not alone. I have friends!" She looks at him for a moment, then says, "NAME ONE!" Anyone ever do that to you?
Poor Charlie Brown. Could the Psalmist have had him in mind when he wrote, "Insults have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none and for comforters, but I found none." Poor Charlie Brown. So many troubles. And so much like me. So much like so many of us.
Which was the genius of Charles Schulz and why I am going to miss him and his cast of characters, and why I think he – they – are the appropriate subjects for a sermon. I have always identified with Charlie Brown and his struggle to feel at home here on earth, indeed in his own skin. And isn't that really much of the story of our faith and our lives...the journey – the struggle – to find a home...to feel at home?
If it wasn't for the comic relief provided by Snoopy and Woodstock, one could argue that the world occupied by the "Peanuts" gang was often a melancholy one. Newsweek magazine commented on that world with these words: "Romance blooms and hearts pine, but happiness seems elusive." Lucy: "I was jumping rope, everything was all right, when...I don't know...suddenly it all seemed so futile." Charlie Brown is lying down with his head on a rock. Schroeder walks by. Charlie Brown says, "The world is filled with HATRED!" Schroeder asks, "So you really think that's true, Charlie Brown?" He replies, "I KNOW it's true. THE WHOLE WORLD HATES ME!!!" On the surface of things, pretty depressing stuff.
And we all know how the "Peanuts" gang struggles with love and relationships. Charlie Brown waiting by the mail box for the valentines that never come. His pining for the little red-haired girl who will never notice him. And even when he meets someone, it doesn't go well. He is at camp, sitting next to a girl on the dock at lakeside. She says, "Now that we've had lunch together, I can tell you my name is Peggy Jean." Charlie Brown blushes and tries to speak: "Well, uh..uh..My name is..uh..uh..my name is..uh....Brownie Charles!" "That's cute, I like it," she says. But all he can do is think to himself, "Maybe I'll just jump into the lake right here."
And of course, there is Lucy and her unrequited love for Schroeder who can love only Beethoven. She says to him, "Schroeder, why is it you like Beethoven better than you like me?" He answers, "Because Beethoven was BEETHOVEN and you are YOU!" She thinks about that for a moment then says, "That doesn't even leave room for discussion."
Melancholy, yes, loneliness and disappointment, yes, heartbreak, yes, but also so honest. Week after week, year after year, the children of "Peanuts" gave unblinking insight into the human condition. Again, who hasn't felt like Charlie Brown from time to time? Who hasn't been disappointed or depressed or hurt by others or had a relationship go bad? So human, so honest.
I've often said that one reason I find myself returning to the Bible again and again is its honesty, its humanity. We don't encounter other-worldly saints bathed in heavenly light. We encounter real people, trying to live out their faith in the midst of the struggles of daily life. Sarah, when told that she will give birth in her old age, laughs out loud. She views the divine promise as some kind of outrageous joke. Can't get a much more honest human reaction than that. The Psalmist cannot always see a way out of his despair: "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all day long?"
The Apostle Paul, a man of great faith and courage and strength, still at times is a mystery to himself: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate...I can will what is right, but I cannot do it!" To which the "Peanuts" gang would no doubt shout a hearty, "AMEN!"
I don't think it has been a case of misery loves company as much as it is this: when I see Charlie Brown once again getting his kite stuck in the tree or watching his team lose yet another ball game, I take some comfort in knowing I'm not alone in my struggles. That daily four panel strip has been a little window on a world in which all of us are trying to get by as best we can. It even gave us the opportunity to laugh at ourselves just a little in the midst of the struggle And what a gift that has been.
Once I started working on this sermon, a flood of thoughts and feelings was unleashed. I began to realize just how meaningful the work of Charles Schulz has been to me. Time allows for just a couple of other reflections. I know I don't want to leave us in a world of melancholy and unfulfilled hopes and dreams, because Schulz never left us there. A part of the honesty of "Peanuts" is that along with frustration and struggle, there is also hope. Lucy and Schroeder: He says to her, "I wouldn't marry you unless you were the last girl on earth!" Her ears perk up and she asks, "Did you say 'if' or 'unless.'" "I admit it, I said 'unless.'" At which point she cries out, "HOPE!" And so it is that hope has a way of showing up again and again in "Peanuts."
Throughout the ups and downs of Charlie Brown and his friends, I hear echoes of our text from Isaiah: "Thus says the Lord, do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"
Charlie Brown always believes in the possibility of something new springing forth. It's another losing day on the ball field. Linus says to manager Charlie Brown, "Do you realize that we are now sixty-three runs behind?" But Charlie Brown won't give up, "That's all right! We can come back! Let's show some spirit! C'mon team, let's talk it up!" All Lucy can do is let out a big sigh. Charlie Brown turns to her and says, "Sighing is not talking it up!" Each season he's out there, ready to give it another try. On the ball field, he truly believes all things will be made new.
He is not alone. I think of Linus and his yearly anticipation of the visit of the Great Pumpkin. Each year he finds a "sincere" pumpkin patch in which to wait. Of course, the Great Pumpkin never comes, but Linus never gives up. There will be another Halloween. And so Charlie Brown keeps trying to kick the football, keeps waiting for valentines, keeps believing this will be the year the tree does not eat his kite, and continues to believe this will be the year his team finally wins a baseball game. He never gives up; he never stops trying.
Is it all just depressing futility? Charles Schulz himself once said that Charlie Brown would never kick the football – that Lucy would always pull it away. Futility? Or in the continued strivings of the "Peanuts" gang do we see something else? A noble refusal to give into the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," a faith that maybe, just maybe, all things can be made new. So we had better not give up just yet.
It's Christmas. Lucy says, "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown. At this time of year I think we should put aside all our differences and try to be kind." He responds, "Why does it have to be for just this time of year? Why can't it be all year 'round?" She can hardly believe her ears. "What are you, some kind of fanatic or something?" And maybe he is. Because, again, through all his trials you get the feeling that he really means what he says...why can't we have peace and good will and friendship and valentines all year long? He continues to hope.
And finally, what emerges for me from the struggles and travails of the "Peanuts" gang is a sense of grace.
Lucy and Linus are looking out the window at a driving rain storm. She says, "Boy look at it rain...What if it floods the whole world?" Linus responds, "It will never do that, In the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow." "She says, "You've taken a great load off my mind." To which he replies, "Sound theology has a way of doing that."
Sound theology, or maybe a beagle. Snoopy has a way of reminding Charlie Brown and the others that perhaps they shouldn't take life quite so seriously, and he often brings, yes, a touch of grace. Snoopy is dancing as only he can. In the words of the country song, he dances like "nobody's watchin'." But Lucy is watching. "You're not as happy as you think you are! NOBODY could be that happy!" But Snoopy keeps right on dancing, saying, "To live is to dance...to dance is to live..." And how often over the years has even crabby Lucy ended up dancing with him. After all, everyone knows that, "Happiness is a warm puppy."
In "Peanuts", grace often comes at unexpected times from unexpected sources. Certainly one of Snoopy's missions in life is to grab Linus' security blanket. They have had some titanic struggles over the years. But what happens when Lucy buries his blanket. He pleads with her to tell him where it is buried and spends two weeks futilely digging for it – "Now I know what they mean when they say our future lies in the soil," he tells Charlie Brown. Who finally digs it up and brings it to him? Yes, his old nemesis, Snoopy: "MY BLANKET! Oh. Snoopy, you found it! You found it! You found it!" Snoopy returns to the roof of his doghouse and says, "Every now and then I feel that my existence is justified." In "Peanuts," as in life, you never know where grace might come from or who God might use.
Then there is this classic interaction between Lucy and Linus...yes, I've used it before. Lucy is crabby again. "My life is a drag. I'm completely fed up. I've never felt so low in my life." Linus says, "When you're in a mood like this you should try to think of things you have to be thankful for. In other words, count your blessings." "HA! That's a good one!" "I could count my blessings on one finger.! I've never had anything and I never will have anything! I don't get half the breaks that other people do. Nothing ever goes right for me. And you talk about counting blessings. You talk about being thankful. What do I have to be thankful for?" "Well," says Linus, "for one thing you have a little brother who loves you." Lucy looks at him, then bursts into tears as she embraces him. Linus smiles and says, "Every now and then, I say the right thing." This from the same Linus who once insisted, "Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life!" Grace from unexpected sources. But, of course, if it isn't amazing, it isn't grace.
I once came across this prayer: "What does the future hold? This bothers me sometimes, God. But it's exciting too. The possibilities for good and bad both seem infinite. I would thank you, God, for this creation – for the fact that I'm here in the midst of it, whatever happens." I believe that this prayer was lived out, week after week, year after year, in the fertile brain of Charles Schulz and in the lives of that wonderful gallery of characters we met in "Peanuts." Life was hard, but the possibilities were endless. And finally, isn't that what faith is all about...hope and grace and possibility? So I honor them; I honor him. And I say thanks. You were good men...Charlie Brown and Charles Schulz.