With it it was a note addressed to "Christians" which read:
Christmas Cactus
for Christians
the Pine tree is
Sacrad (sic.) don't kill
it decorate
it out side
the house
talk to all
religions eat bread
of life and cherry juice
of love Jesus lived to
save us not died
Strange, huh? I have these kinds of encounters every few weeks (especially when I'm wearing my collar, for obvious reasons). But I think that it would be a mistake to dismiss this kind of thing as the work of some mentally ill person. Even if it is, it still expresses a coherent set of thoughts aimed at us "Christians." So let's parse this mysterious message a bit.
First of all, this business about the pine tree is interesting. I must admit some sympathy on that account, I'm not a big fan of killing trees for decoration, either, but this is really more a secular than religious custom. It's history likely dates to some pre-Christian pagan ritual that was co-opted by the Christians. We did that a lot, it's a pretty natural part of a new movement gaining ground in a culture. The Christian explanation (perhaps created after the fact as a justification for the popular custom) is that the evergreen tree represents new life--something green and living in otherwise sparse white landscape. Anyway, it seems rather innocent to me--we are all guilty of much more heinous environmental crimes. Note, by the way, that this note was written on white paper--probably not recycled...
The next thing I noticed is this instruction to "talk to all religions." Well, I think we do a fairly good job of that, on the whole. Certainly we talk with all the religions interested in dialog.
Then there is this curious eucharistic reference: "eat bread / of life and cherry juice / of love"--well that's rather nice.
And now we get to a more problematic theological claim: "Jesus lived to / save us not died." I'm not exactly sure what this means, but I guess that the author may be claiming that Jesus never died on the Cross. Curiously, I've encountered this belief quite a bit among people who wish to criticize Christianity through me. I remember a very nice German Buddhist who was convinced that Jesus was really an advanced Yogi who merely looked dead on the cross. I realized immediately that she had come up with this explanation to reconcile her newfound Buddhist faith with her culturally-Christian upbringing. What touches me about this story is that she returned the next day to apologize to me for attacking the foundations of my faith. Now there is humility!
Anyway, I think these folks that claim that Jesus never died on the cross are trying to make the whole Christian Easter story (aka the Pascal Mystery) less threatening by explaining it all away. Of course, this is one of the more unlikely explanations when you consider that the Roman executioners would be unlikely to be fooled by a man who was simply faking it. Nor is it likely that Jesus would have survived the spear thrust meant to confirm his demise. Nor does this explanation explain what happened to Jesus after his fake burial.
Anyway, to return to the note/present at hand--I'm reminded of something Edwin Friedman wrote: "Criticism is a form of pursuit." Meaning, this person is trying to engage us, somehow, but can't quite do so in person (nor even sign their note with a name). It's a hopeful sign. I know people who would take this as evidence that we Christians are besieged by a hostile society--but I fail to see how the gift of a plant is evidence of hostility.
-t
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