Jordan Memorial UMC

By the time you read this, the midterm elections will either be underway or just behind us. Maybe the results went the way you hoped. Maybe they didn’t. Either way, there’s a good chance you’re feeling something strong, whether relief, disappointment, energy, or plain exhaustion. Politics has a way of dividing us, sometimes even at the dinner table, and sometimes even in the pew. The question for us as a church and as a community is what do we do now? I believe our beloved Peanuts characters have something to offer us as we think through what we do next.

As we continue our Parables of the Peanuts, I want to stop and look at the characters Charles Shultz gave us to see if there is something we can learn from them. Think about who is in that neighborhood. Charlie Brown is a lovable worrier. Lucy is certain she’s right about everything. Linus carries his security blanket and his theology. Peppermint Patty is loud, loyal, and often wrong about the details. Schroeder would be happy if everyone just let him play his piano. Pigpen can be recognized by the cloud of dust that follows him everywhere, and then there’s Snoopy, who lives by his own rules and is still somehow part of the family. They don’t agree. They argue over who’s the better pitcher, what things mean, and whose turn it is. Yet they keep showing up at the same ball field, the same pumpkin patch, and the same table.

Franklin joined the gang in 1968, when Charles Schulz added him to the strip in a time of deep national pain and division. He wasn’t introduced as a lesson. He was just a kid on a beach who helped Charlie Brown find his ball, and then he was a friend. The circle got wider, and nobody had to give up who they were to fit in it. In A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Peppermint Patty invites herself and her friends to Charlie Brown’s house for dinner. It’s a little presumptuous and messy. The meal is a disaster, with toast, popcorn, and jellybeans on a ping-pong table. Charlie Brown, who never meant to host anyone, ends up with a full table anyway. The dinner isn’t perfect, but everyone is there, and it’s good.

That’s the picture I’d like us to carry out of this election season. When we disagree, the easy move is to shrink the circle. We stop listening, and we decide that those who see things differently must be foolish or worse. The harder and holier move is to widen the circle. Paul writes in Romans 15:7, “Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, in order to bring praise to God.” Notice that Christ didn’t welcome us because we’d earned it, agreed with him, or voted the right way. He welcomed us in the middle of our mess, and he asks us to do the same for each other. This is how we praise God. Not just with hymns and prayers, but by living in unity with one another.

Our differences are not a threat to the body of Christ. Paul reminds us that the body has many parts, and the eye can’t tell the hand it has no need of it. The neighbor who sees the world differently may be the very person God uses to stretch your thinking, soften your heart, or show you something you would never have seen alone. Our diversity of thought can help us grow, if we’re humble enough to let it. None of this means pretending we don’t care or that convictions don’t matter. Lucy and Linus will never fully agree, and they don’t have to. What holds them together is something stronger than a shared opinion, they belong to each other.

So do we. What unites us in the love of Christ is stronger than anything that can divide us. As we move out of this election and into a season of thanksgiving, let us be a church known for the wide circle and the full table. Be like Snoopy this month. Dance a little, share the popcorn, and make space at the table for someone. There is room for everyone!

  Rev. Chris Smith