“Which of you parents if your child asked for bread you’d give them a stone, or a fish and you’d give a snake” (Luke 11.11)
So here we are, at the final week of Spooky Season and Halloween beginning to tap at our doors with its skeletal fingers and sheet-shrouded figures. You know what that means, right? It’s time to settle on a pumpkin patch. The most sincere one you can find.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown premiered sixty years ago this week (27 October 1966). It aired annually (first on CBS then on ABC) until 2020. You know this story. While the rest of the gang goes trick or treating (and all someone gets are rocks), Linus chooses to sit and wait in the most sincere pumpkin patch he can find for the Great Pumpkin. Spoiler: the G.P. never shows.
I have loved this special since I was a little kid. The music is amazing. There’s artwork in it that is beautiful (all of Snoopy’s travels through the French countryside). And, over the past two decades or more, I find it fascinating that the character who is so taken with this never-before-heard-of figure of the Great Pumpkin.
Linus was, for the longest time, the youngest of the Peanuts gang. Yet he was the scholar of the group. It’s Linus, of course, that takes center stage and recites the Nativity story. He is a little theologian and philosopher. He is the wise one.
So, it’s mildly surprising that he is convinced of the existence of a legendary character that rises out of a pumpkin patch, flies through the air, and brings toys. He’s Santa Claus by way of a Celtic folktale. And, based on what his sister and best friend say, this has been a long-standing belief. One that’s persisted despite Lucy’s…aggressive attempts to dissuade him.
But what I find interesting is what happens as the night concludes. The rest of the kids are heading home to bed, porch lights are being turned out, and Linus makes one last attempt to get them all to wait with him. He’s sincere. He knows it won’t be long, and he doesn’t want anyone to miss out. He even promises to put in a good word if he comes. Which is something he can’t take back. He said if and not when the Great Pumpkin comes. One slip like that will cause him to pass you by.
It’s a silly comment, just one more part of this odd legend our blanket-toting friend has concocted. Or, maybe it isn’t. I’ve wondered, does Linus believe faith is transactional?
I’ve played with the idea of a transactional relationship with God. Perhaps you have too. It’s in those if/then prayers that I said out loud as a kid but now say only in my head. If you’ll do this then, I’ll do that. In my case it’s when some minor issue has come up. We had a loose connection coming into the house a little while back that was causing flickering lights and brief outages. It took a week to get it diagnosed, during which time we were headed for some very hot weather. And though I know it’s not how faith works, I was still offering up tokens if God would just help us hurry and get this little issue dealt with.
Transactional faith assumes that bad things happen to us when we’re bad and good things happen when we behave. If the alarm clock breaks and we’re late for work, well, God let that happen because I haven’t been taking time to pray in the morning. If the weather’s real nice on Saturday, well, I must be in good graces with those above.
Of all characters, Linus should know that faith doesn’t work like that. Jesus several times tries to make clear that there’s no one for one in his relationship with us. In the verse above particularly, he’s attempting to be clear: there’s no if/then in this relationship. You know how to give regardless of if the other person’s done something or another, don’t you think I’m at least the same way?
God is not capricious. The Holy One has far more important things to do than see if disasters and annoyances can convince us to act a certain way. Jesus, in his time on earth, never bothered with what someone else ought to be giving or doing to earn his favor. He just gave it, even when someone said if.
I like to think that Linus was smart enough to separate his faith in God and his faith in the Great Pumpkin, but his worry each Halloween makes me wonder. Maybe not so much about him but about me, whether in some part of myself I think sincerity will convince the Divine to pick me for rewards. Or maybe I believe that if I have unbreakable faith that all will work out.
How often am I worried that I said if?
Jesus, your love is unconditional, your dreams for us all grow from that love. Remind us that our mistakes, our doubts, and even our unbelief do not lessen that love, nor your desire to give it.