Be of good cheer, Snoopy
It’s around Christmas time, it’s snowing and Snoopy is
sitting all alone, shivering. Charlie Brown and (I think) Shermy,
dressed against the chilly weather are looking at Snoopy (poor thing),
they’re overcome with pity and decide to do something. So over they go
and Shermy says, "Be of good cheer, Snoopy" and Charlie says, "Yes, be
of good cheer" and off they walk leaving Snoopy as they found him. Well,
not quite as they found him. He's still alone and shivering but he has
that slightly perplexed look on his face as he looks at the figures
walking off into the distance. There’s a big question mark in a bubble
above his head.
Mr. Schulz obviously had James 2:14-16 in mind.
When someone is in need and we can certainly do something about it but
we leave him or her (or them) needy, having mouthed a few pious
words—that’s pathetic.
There's something deeply sickening about
our being warmed and filled while a million Lazuruses are lying around
us in plain sight. To hoard is a sin! Of a man who had more than enough but built greater barns to hoard even more of the goods God gave him to share—of him God said, "You fool!"
Do
we not too often tell people, "Be of good cheer" without giving them
good reasons to be of good cheer? You don’t hear that kind of thing in
the NT. "Be of good cheer" in the gospels doesn’t occur without a reason
following. To frightened disciples Jesus said, "Be of good cheer, it's me." To a poor miserable and fearful wretch the Master said, "Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven." To followers frightened of having to face a world that will give them trouble and pain the Christ said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." And so it goes in all the other texts where words like these occur.
Where
it’s possible and appropriate we ought to be saying, "Be of good cheer
because I have the money you need and I will gladly give it to you." "Be
of good cheer they have found your child that was lost." "Be of good
cheer we now have a way around that difficulty." There are countless
situations where we can make an immediate difference to a situation that
needs changing! Sometimes we can do it alone. Sometimes it takes a
handful or a multitude of us all banding together—but there are things
we can and should change!
I don’t have to tell you that
there are countless situations that can’t be changed immediately, no
matter how many of us there are that fervently wish we could do
something about them. The situation is too complex and too far-gone. The
child will die, the marriage will crumble, the son will go to prison, the business will fail, tens of thousands will die in the famine, the firm will go belly-up and the employees will be out of jobs...and on...and on...and on.
That
doesn’t excuse us when we leave Snoopy sitting bewildered and shivering
in the snow, with a bubble over his head and a big question mark in it.
And ministers of the Word of God can’t be excused for trotting out the same well-worn moralizing week after week after week.
No development of rich truth, no wrestling with the scriptures in the
sight of God to strengthen the hearts of those whose immediate
circumstances can’t be changed. No, instead we get the same seven-steps
to moral fine-tuning, ten more reasons we should all be happy, the
nineteen laws if you want a great family, eight more points showing that
we’re not to "sweat the small stuff" and why it is that all our
problems are "small stuff".
No attempt to develop the cosmic
ramifications of what God has done and is doing in Jesus Christ. No
sustained and vibrant talk of a judgment that will right all wrongs or
how it is that our suffering is playing its part in the redemptive work
of God on behalf of the human family. Nothing complex, nothing
challenging, nothing that gives the hurt of the nations depth and
meaning and dignity. Nothing but the wringing of our hands in the pulpit
(or out of it) and an unsupported "Be of good cheer" as we make our way
into the foyer.
In God’s name give us some reason
to "be of good cheer". After a while we want more than your piteous
tone, your pained look and your obvious sympathy. We get sick of that no
matter how sincere it might be. And we especially get sick of the
verbal hand-wringing. Plunge into the gospel and come back with
something about Him that galvanizes your faith and hope. And with that help us to gallantly face down our situations that can’t immediately be changed.
Quit educating us or instructing us [of course
I'm overstating my point!]—inspire us, empower us! We're tired learning
how much you know, what a scholar you are; we're tired of hearing you
explain—one more time— what this or that verse means before moving on to
explain another; we're tired of you proving—one more time—whose
doctrine is false. You've piled enough firewood in the fireplace—it's fire we want and fire we need!
All
right, yes, we know that you know more than the rest of us and we know
that much of what you say is accurate but we want and profoundly need the kind of truth
that stuns, astonishes and empowers us to speak and stay on our feet
when a "world" demands we be silent and threatens to flatten us.
We're
not interested in pep-talks, sermonettes or stand-up commedians or good
old boys with lots of personal stories to tell! Give us God! Give us
the massive truths about God. We don't need you to be smart, at least we
don't need for you to show us you're smart—we need to know and see that
God is magnificent!
Give us big reasons, big truths that gives substance to your glib pulpit oracles like, "Be of good cheer!"
Be a preacher/teacher of the GOSPEL!
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, theabidingword.com.