“The Gospel in Peanuts: Good Grief” Romans 6: 12-23

Charlie Brown is known for many things, one of which is the phrase “Good Grief!” Often exclaimed when he is frustrated, annoyed, or when things aren’t going his way. It’s an interesting phrase isn’t it “Good grief”. Is there such a thing as good grief or bad grief? And if so, what is the determining factor?

The truth is - we are a culture that doesn’t like to talk about grief in particular. There is a Peanuts cartoon where Lucy is telling Charlie Brown that sometimes she gets discouraged, to which Charlie Brown says that life has ups and downs. Then for the next several panels, Lucy cries in a loud voice that she only want the ups of life. In fact she says the Ups and Ups and Ups, while Charlie Brown can’t do anything but shake his head. 

Yet, how true is this particular cartoon in our life? We seem to be a society of niceties - we only want to have brief conversations and only talk about good and uplifting things - yet, we certainly know in our heart of hearts this isn’t how things are. 

A few months ago I took a class called Shared Sorrow: A Faith Community’s Response to Grief and Mourning. Now this class was talking about very particular grief that follows the death of a loved one, but it stirred up with me all the things that I struggle with as a pastor around grief in our culture. Have you noticed that most jobs only give a very limited time off to grieve - as if our grief is regulated to those particular days? Or that you only get bereavement leave for certain types of relationships you have, no matter how deeply you loved that person? Further, because our culture tries to relegate grief is certain time frames and certain places, often we, even as a faith community, can respond in harmful ways, saying things such as “Don’t cry” or “You need to put the past behind you”. 

Grief is hard work. But the type of grief that Charlie Brown is talking about, and the type of grief that we find in Romans chapter 6 - is a different type. Grief over sin. When we are talking about the death of a loved one, grief is the internal thoughts and feelings that we have when someone we love dies, and mourning is the outward expression of that grief. I think those definitions hold up when we are talking about sin as well, brothers and sisters. 

Good grief, in terms of our sin, is that which leas us to confession and a change of heart. In Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, he describes it this way, “Godly sadness produces a changed heart and life that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets, but sorrow under the influence of the world produces death.” Paul is essentially contrasting different types of grief, that which leads to repent, and the grief the world produces which leads only to regrets, or wanting to rewrite the story in our minds, and no real change. 

Once again, it is so hard to separate what Paul is talking about here, from our own culture around the word grief, which often tries to talk about grief only around death, but grief is so much more than that. There is a grief that can be deeply felt around sin in our life, but when we confess that grief and embrace the love of God, we can find new life. 

Paul in his letter to the Romans is essentially asking if our hearts are deeply grieved enough by sin to want to change, to want the new life that Christ offers. Because unchecked, sin can rule over our minds and bodies, in ways that we may not even notice for a while. But we are invited, through the cross, to a place where sin no longer has that hold over us. 

Around Easter time I went with my parents to Sight and Sound to see Jesus. With those of you who are familiar with Sight and Sound they do a wonderful job bringing the Biblical stories to life through songs. They are clear that every detail may not be absolutely Biblical, but open up imagination and heart to receive the Biblical narrative by what they do. 

In the production of Jesus, they had Mary Magedaline sing a song about how she used to be a prostitute, posing that it was her that Jesus saved when the religious leaders wanted to stone a woman caught in the act of adultery. While the details may have been a bit off, the power of the song rang true. Healing came to heart when Jesus rescued her and her life has never been the same since - there is no going back. 

Yet, what Paul is warning of here is that it is so easy to slip back into sin. So easy to be where we were before we met Jesus and Jesus’s grace sank into our heart. I was talking to a Bible Study group about this recently. I think that we ask people to give up such large pieces of their lives when they come to Christ, but as the church, sometimes we fail to support them in this change. We say in baptism liturgies and in membership vows that we will support these folks on their Christian journeys, yet not a week later we act like they are all on their own - that it is just that person and Jesus, and not us surrounding them and supporting them as the family of God. 

Instead, together, we are called to be obedient salves to Christ. Now I am the first to admit that this language can be troubling in Scripture and that scriptures about slavery have been misused in many harmful ways in this country. When you hear the word slave in this passage think of it in the way that Paul intended it, not in the way we have abused it. A slave is one who is loyal, obedient, and a servant of ultimate allegiance to Christ. Paul is essentially saying - has the love of Jesus truly changed your life? Have you experienced that good grief that leads to repentance? You will know by looking at who you serve. 

Because the truth is that we all serve someone or something. And when our hearts our changed we should see a living faith - not just talking the talk, but truly walking the walk. And this is where I think we can sometimes falter church. We want to change, but the temptation to just keep things the way that it is - is so strong. Instead of serving Jesus with all of our lives, we want to do it only when it is convient. Instead of allowing Jesus be the bread of life, we want him just to be the icing or decoration on our cake. Instead of living a life of praise, service, and witness, we want to relegate Jesus to one part of the week. We want to have a Savior who we don’t have to follow, but instead one who blesses what we are already doing, as we worship at the idol of personal independence 

The truth is that the way of Christ is the way of the cross - both his cross, but also the cross that we pick up when we follow him. But instead of seeing that cross as a burden, we are invited to see it as the source of freedom. In fact, a double-fold freedom. The freedom from sin - the freedom from the destruction in life. Freedom from that which you want to leave behind and half-broken habits.  But brothers and sisters, it is also freedom for. Freedom from our sin is the first step, but alone it doesn’t lead to flourishing life. Additionally, we need a freedom for - a freedom that points out the direction in our life moving forward. A freedom to serve and love our Savior. A freedom to follow the call of Christ with our entire being. We call that sanctification - the freedom to grow in holiness. 

Friends, have you experienced that good grief that leads to change in life? That good grief that calls you from being list to being found? Has it lead to a total change in you life that is marked by freedom? Will you not go forth and share? Amen.