for your holiday parties

25Dec
by Jon Swanson

I wish I knew the percentage of us that will be looking at our email on December 25.

I’m not about to scold us. Though some of us are here because of addiction, many of us are just talking to our friends. It’s just like my sister sitting on the lot-line, telling her friend next door what she got. It’s just like me calling my boyhood friend Chris to talk about our gifts or to see about playing street football or snow football.

So be at peace about checking in with your friends and family here.

In the interest of helping you with whatever gatherings you may attend, let me give you some conversation starters.

1. So is it likely that at the first Christmas, Mary and Joseph would have been more likely to sing Hanukkah songs than Christmas carols?

2. In the mind of a pleaser, the absence of affirmation is viewed as condemnation. Agree or disagree?

3. Which disciples connect to which Tolkien characters? Is Bible more like John or Thomas? Is Peter most like Thorin or Balin?

4. What’s your favorite story about Jesus at a party? Water into wine? Feet washed by a woman with a questionable past? Eating with tax collectors and then explaining to the Pharisees? Being called a drunkard?

5. So, you got a new Kindle for Christmas. Have you gotten Jon’s book on The Sermon on the Mount yet?

6. What’s the coolest thing that happened to a friend of yours in 2012?

7. If you could give $47.50 to anyone in the world, who would you give it to? Why? What would you tell them to do with it?

8. Could we just get away from all these people and talk for a little bit? I’ve never asked you why you care so much about people with cancer / homeless people / ___

You’re welcome. Happy Christmas.

2 thoughts on “for your holiday parties”

  2. Lisa

    What would be more fun right now than answering these questions? I know they were supposed to be party conversation starters, but this could be a party and besides, I had too much caffeinated coffee this evening, so I know I have the time, since I will be up till 1 a.m.
    1. Was Hanukkah an event that came after or before Jesus? It has something to do with the oil not running out during something. I should, or did know more at one time, but wasn’t it an event after the birth of Christ? (I am going to look this one up since I feel kind of ignorant right now). Since the angels sang the first songs to Jesus at His birth, I say Christmas carols.
    2. Disagree. Saying something negative would be seen as condemnation. Saying nothing would be abandonment or rejection, in my view point.
    3. There are too many characters to fully answer this question. Frodo and Gandolf are Christ-like characters. Sam is like John, the beloved disciple. Peter strikes me as being similar to Gimbley (sorry Peter). Aowyn (sp?) maybe like the redeemed Mary Magdalene- right in the midst of the battle. Smeigel/Golom is like Judas. I will have to think on this one some more, and ask my son-in-law his opinion, since he is the biggest Lord of the Rings fan I know.
    4. Water into wine. I love weddings.
    5. I don’t have a Kindle and am not sure I want one. I am kind of an old-fashioned book reader.
    6. I have to think about this one.
    7. A very random number. Good question.
    8. I would love to talk about what I am passionate about, but I rarely get to talk about this with others because what I am passionate about isn’t polite dinner conversation. People just don’t want to talk about it unless they have been there. This is a good question to ask others. I hope I can remember to ask it.

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