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Happenings 2 Kids/Youth 3 Other Things, 4 Calendar 5 FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH OF HOOPLE, ND Christmas 2015 2015 Pizza and Ad- vent worship Wednesday De- cember 2nd, 9th, and 16th starting at 6:15pm Sunday School Christ- mas Program, Potluck on Sun- day December 20th Christmas Eve Candlelight Worship Thurs- day December 24th at 5pm SANTA AND God at the mall There I was, the day before thanksgiving, eating lunch at Rising Bread Company at the West Acres Mall in Fargo. Which by the way, a quick plug, I love this place. I know I’m not Marilyn Hagerty but if you haven’t eaten there, I recom- mend it. Ok back to the story. There I was, eating lunch with the family when all of a sud- den the guy who was eating his lunch two chairs down from me turned to me and said the following out of the blue “It is because of God’s patience that Jesus hasn’t re- turned yet.” I was taken off guard as I looked at the middle aged man who had a scruffy stubble kind of beard, who was eating from the same place I was, who had apparently just purchased a new apple laptop and who was holding a yellow colored legal pad of paper that had all kinds of notes written in pencil on it. I’m not sure why, but I have a track record for random people wanting to engage with me about religious/spiritual matters at malls. And to be honest, I’d kind of rather not have these conversations. In this instance I didn’t really want to respond to the man and I didn’t really know how to respond to the man. There’s a lot of debate over the end times and many people are passionate, even hostile I’d say, when it comes to what is the right thing to believe. Even though I would have rather not had the con- versation, I responded to him the best I knew how. We then went on to have a little chat about God, the end times, heaven, Christians, Muslims, and other religions. Then his phone rang (thank God?) and I was off the hook. In a couple of weeks we will again celebrate the birth of Je- sus and in doing so we will read again the story of the virgin Mary, the carpenter Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, the ma- gi, the feeding trough, Bethle- hem and the inn. I know it has become a “normal story”, and perhaps this is because we have heard it so many times. But the more you think about it, or at least the more I think about, it’s really a crazy story. It’s a story that for me doesn’t make all that much sense. I mean what’s up with God de- ciding to enter the world as a person? How did God decide this? Where was Jesus from the beginning of time? Just hanging out waiting for the op- portune time? And why in the Middle East two thousand years ago? And what about the whole virgin birth thing? It’s a crazy story, an unbelievable story, and a story that I don’t necessarily always really get. But maybe that’s the point. For those of us who are crazy and daring enough to believe that there is a God, maybe the Christmas story invites us to believe that this God works in ways that are surprising, if not unbelievable. That what we have in mind and that what God has is mind are not always the same thing. Maybe the Christmas story then is this caution against believing that we have it all figured out, this caution against being too cer- tain as to what places and peo- ple are godforsaken. Maybe the Christmas story invites us/ challenges us/dares us to keep our eyes, hearts, and minds open, lest God shows up in a small town, through an insignif- icant person, or in a feeding trough and we miss it. I don’t believe that God is a puppeteer and makes every- thing happen. I don’t neces- sarily believe God placed me or my friend at West Acres Mall to have a conversation with one another on the day before Thanksgiving. But what I do believe is that perhaps in that random and by chance conver- sation, God was there and maybe even invited me (and him?) to grow and learn in it in an unexpected way. “‘Look the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” – Mat- thew 1:23 Merry Christmas, Patrick
