One of the great traditions at this time of year is putting up the Christmas tree.  The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree has its origins in what was known as the Jesse Tree.  Christian would decorate evergreen trees with images from Scripture.  It was a reminder to them of very important events in salvation history.  I have come to believe that part of the problems in our faith is a general lack of knowledge regarding salvation history.  Inspired by the Jesse tree and one of my great discoveries this year the computer clipart of Phil Martin (www.phillipmartin.info/clipart/homepage.htm), I wish to take you all on a journey through a quick overview of salvation history. 

1.            Creation
 “In the beginning…” literally the first words of the Bible, we learn that God created the world.  Whether he did it in seven days or with one big bang the Scriptures do not tell us.  What is important though is they tell us that God created the world out of nothing.  Unlike other myths about creation, there was no battle between divine beings.  Our God spoke and creation happened.  We are not the consequence of some divine battle, we are not pawns created to serve God because God had some divine need, but rather we were created through a conscious thought filled action and most importantly we were created freely out of love. 

2.            Adam & Eve
 We quickly go into the story of Adam and Eve.  The first two human beings were special.  They had dominion over the animals and most importantly they had free will.  We learn at first that there was a deep personal relationship between God and Adam and Eve but we also learn that Adam and Eve doubted God’s goodness and disobeyed God’s command and sinned.  Why did God allow Adam and Eve to sin?  God chose to respect Adam and Eve’s freewill because God knew for a true relationship to exist each person had to have the ability to walk away from it.  Love that is forced is no love at all.  The important thing is after the consequences of sin are declared, God does not simply abandoned them but rather offers hope by clothing them and offering a promise of a redeemer.

3.            Cain & Abel
 We don’t go too far in salvation history to see that sin simply breeds more sins and often these sins grow in intensity.  Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve’s first two sons, go to offer God a sacrifice.  Abel offers God something from his best while Cain offers God what was left over.  God appreciates Abel’s offering but does not care for Cain’s offering.  Cain out of jealousy because the first murderer in the Bible and kills Abel.  The story ends with an important detail that even after Cain had done such a horrible thing, God is still going to remain in his life and protect him from others. 

4.            Noah
 Sin is simply out of control, when we reach Noah.  Noah and his family are saved from God’s cleansing flood really through no merit of their own.  It is only because God gives them a heads up that Noah decides to build a boat and we learn through the story that Noah’s cooperation with God’s plan saves him and his family.  This is the first time we see God using “water” to re-create the world making the story of Noah a sure sign for Baptism.  It is also important to see that God did not simply destroy the world and all humans and start over that way.  Instead God chose a small group to begin his rebuilding.  You would think that Noah would have lived a pretty moral life after the flood but no.  He ends up getting drunk and sleeping with his daughters.  So in a way Noah is also the first of many imperfect people whom God will use to bring about His plan of salvation.

5.            Tower of Babel
 The Bible tells us that there was a time when everyone spoke the same language and that these people decided to build a temple into heaven on their own accord.  God prevents this by mixing up their languages.  The story is a reminder that all our human efforts will result in failure if God is not on our side. 

6.            Abraham
 After the story of Noah, God remains sort of inactive in the life of the world.  While we know that God keeps the world in existence (in fact if God ever stopped thinking of the world, we would all simply cease to exist) but the Bible tells us that God seems to have left the world to its own demise.  Something changes, and God we learn that God has a plan and this plan begins with an old man named Abraham and his wife Sarah.  Abraham and Sarah move from their home in Ur to a distant land.  Abraham and Sarah have many great adventures in this new land as God shapes them into the people that He wants them to be.  The ultimate test for Abraham comes when God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac.  Abraham passes the test and Isaac is saved by an angel.  Maybe the most important part of the story is that on the way to be sacrificed Isaac not realizing that he was going to be the sacrifice asked his father where the animal to be sacrificed was.  Abraham’s responds that God will provide the sacrifice.  In the historical moment God provides a ram to take the place of Isaac but from our vantage point in history, we see that God did indeed provide the sacrifice His only Son, Jesus.

7.            Jacob & Esau
 Abraham’s son Isaac growing old wished to bless his oldest son Esau with a special inheritance.  Isaac is deceived though by his wife and his youngest son Jacob.  Jacob ends up getting the blessing.  Jesus will come later and say that the kingdom of God will not be about the greatest but rather about the least.  Jacob will have many adventures including spending one whole night wrestling with an angel.  At daybreak the angel declares that Jacob will no longer be known as “Jacob” but will rather now be known as “Israel”.  The word “Israel” literally means “he who struggles with God.” 

8.            Joseph
 Jacob ends up having twelve sons by four different women.  His favorite son though is Joseph the oldest son of his favorite wife.  Joseph’s other brothers become jealous of him and sell him into slavery.  As a slave in Egypt Joseph is first sent to prison and then released and given a position of high authority because his power to interpret dreams allowed him to save Egypt from a severe famine.  Joseph is eventually put into a position where he has the power to get revenge on his brothers for selling him into slavery but instead he forgives them.  Joseph is a great character in the Bible because so much of his life mirrors that of Jesus.  Both Joseph and Jesus were sold, both were criminals, both were elevated by God to positions of power and both in the end ended up forgiving all involved. 

9.            Slavery in Egypt
 Israel and all his family live in Egypt under Joseph’s protection for many years because of the severe famine.  Eventually that generation dies off and a pharaoh who did not remember Joseph enslaves the Israelites.  While they are slaves in Egypt they cry out to God for help but it does not seem to come.  There are times in our lives when it seems that God is far from us or does not care.  What we don’t know and what the Israelites did not know was that God has a plan.

10.          Moses Saved
 If slavery was not bad enough Pharaoh orders that all baby boys are to be killed.  A woman places her male child in a basket and leaves him for dead.  The boy though is found by pharaoh’s sister and named Moses - another example of God using water to save a life.  God’s plan is at work even though it seems strange to us and God is definitely not working as fast as we would like him too.

11.          Burning Bush
 The Israelites have been slaves in Egypt now for many years and the one person God has chosen to lead them to freedom has fled Egypt after murdering and Egyptian guard.  Moses is now in the desert and from the outside he looks to be having a very comfortable life as a shepherd.  He has a good wife and two sons.  God though is not done with Moses and through the use of the burning bush God summons Moses out of his life of comfort and gives him a mission.  Moses is to be the deliverer.  Reading about Moses’ encounter with the burning bush one cannot help but ask oneself if God is calling us out of our life of comfort and asking us to have more of a life of service.

12.          Exodus
 Moses returns to Egypt and insists that Pharaoh let the Israelites go.  Moses and Pharaoh get into a contest over whose God is better.  Each of the ten plagues is a sign that God is greater than any of the Egyptian gods.  The last plague though is a special plague because God sends an angel through to and kills the first born male of the Egyptians. The Israelites escape this plague by sacrificing a lamb, smearing its blood over their door posts and eating it.  This is the beginning of the Passover meal.  For Jews whenever they partake of the Passover meal, they are transported back into time to this night.  Jesus’ last supper was the Passover meal that he gives new meaning to.  Moses leads the people through the Red Sea and the Egyptians are defeated.  If one reads the crossing of the Red Sea in a spiritual context we see that God’s people are saved through water (baptism) and all sin (the Egyptians) are destroyed.  The Israelites are now free.  God’s people are set free through baptism because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

13.          10 Commandments
 The Israelites are set free and they return to Mount Sinai where Moses first encountered God through the burning bush.  God gives them the gift of the 10 Commandments.  You may be saying to yourself how the 10 Commandments can be a gift.  The 10 commandments are a gift because these laws will help the Israelites create a just society.  Even before they are written down though the people begin to rebel against God and they build an idol-the golden calf.  We can begin to see a pattern.  God does something great for human beings and in return human beings reject God.  God though does not desert his people.

14.          40 Years in the Desert
 The Israelites because they would not do things God’s way and trust in God are forced to wander through the desert for forty years.  God continually takes care of his people by giving them water, food (quail), and bread (manna) but the Israelites keep turning away from God.

15.          Ark of the Covenant & Meeting Tent
 Two important things happen during their time in the desert.  The first is the Ark of the Covenant.  God instructs Moses to build a wooden box to hold the Ten Commandments.  In addition to the Ten Commandments the Israelites keep in the Ark a jar of manna and Moses’ shepherd staff.  Christians later will seize on this imagery and refer to Mary as the “Ark of the Covenant” for within her she held Jesus who is the new law of love, the bread of life, and the good shepherd.  The Ark would represent for them in a very real way God’s presence.  The second was the Meeting Tent.  The meeting tent was the beginning of the idea for the Temple and the Jewish sacrifice system. 

16.          Joshua & Promise Land
 The Israelites finally reach the Jordan River and are almost ready to enter the Promise Land.  Moses is told that he will not be allowed to enter the Promise land.  At first I was shocked when I learned this but from a spiritual point of view it makes sense.  God is showing us that no matter how holy we are and how much we do for him entrance into the promise land is a gift that cannot be earned.  Moses though is granted entrance into the heavenly promise land.  Joshua Moses’ aid takes over and leads the Israelites into the land of Canaan and they try to destroy everything in the path.  If one does not read these passages from a spiritual point of view one can become very sick and scared at the God that is presented.  I personally believe that the best interpretation of these violent stories is that each of the Canaanite towns that are destroyed represents sin and for us to reach the promise land we must eradicate all sin from our life.  We cannot compromise with it.

17.          Time of the Judges
 As the Israelites begin to exist as a kingdom, God appoints not a king over them but rather temporary rulers known as judges to guide them.  The judges would rise up in time of danger and lead Israel in battle.  Two of the most famous were Gideon and Samson.  In the story fo Gideon, we learn that God brings about the victory as Gideon is forced to rely not on the strength and skill of his soldiers but rather in God’s might to defeat the enemy.  In the story of Samson we learn of the importance of keeping one’s vows to the Lord.  Samson made a vow never to have his hair cut or to drink strong drink.  When Samson kept his vows he was unstoppable when he did not because of Delilah he was weak.  Remember when reading the book of Judges to understand the enemies of Israel in a spiritual sense represent sin.

18.          Samuel
 Samuel is the last of the Judges.  Samuel hears his call as a young boy sleeping in a sanctuary.  Israel has developed this great desire to be like other nations and so they want a king.  Samuel tries to reason with them and states that they do not need a king who will tax them and make their children his servants because they have God.  God though gives up and sends Samuel to anoint Israel’s first king.  In somewhat of a funny scene Samuel anoints a young boy who can’t find his donkey.  (Think about it and see if you can see God’s humor in it.)  Saul becomes the first king of Israel.  Unfortunately Saul will stop listening to God and so God sends Samuel to anoint another king.  This time he anoints a young shepherd boy named David.

19.          Saul
 Saul in a way is the prototype for all future kings of Israel except David.  They all seem to start off following God but eventually get full of themselves and turn away from God.  Saul becomes jealous and paranoid and eventually dies a horrible death.

20.          David
 David is the youngest of Jesse’s children.  In a time period when birth order was important we can see how unlikely a choice this shepherd boy would be.  Once again God is not choosing who the world would choose.  David begins his public ministry by defeating the giant Goliath in battle.  Saul becomes jealous of David and tries to have David killed.  David for his part refuses to stop fighting the Philistines (in a spiritual sense combating sin), he raids the priest temple and eats the priest bread (think of the Eucharist), and finally he refuses to kill Saul because Saul was the Lord’s anointed (imagine what life would be like if we all refused to harm anyone who was baptized and anointed with Chrism).  David eventually becomes king and despite his close friendship with God becomes a murderer and an adulterer.  God though promises to remain close to David.

21.          Solomon
 When David dies his son Solomon becomes king.  Solomon is an interesting choice because he was not the oldest son of David that was Absalom and Solomon’s mother was Bathsheba.  Solomon though is God’s choice.  Solomon realizing that he has a big task ahead of him asks God for the gift of wisdom.   God is pleased that Solomon’s request is not for wealth or money grants him the gift of wisdom.  Guided by the gift of wisdom, Solomon builds the Temple in Jerusalem. Solomon though will eventually turn away from God and begin to worship false gods.  There is a civil war and Solomon loses 10 of the 12 tribes and we now have two kingdoms - the kingdom of Judah in the south and the Kingdom of Israel in the north.

22.          Wisdom Literature
 Solomon’s reign as king was perhaps the high water mark for Israelite culture.  It is quested that at this time that a lot of the wisdom books like Job and the psalms were written.   These books were designed to help Israelites come to a better understanding of who God is and how they were to live and the book of Psalms was a book of songs that were to be sung in the temple.

23.          Elijah & Elisha
 With God’s people now divided into two, we have the development of the prophets.  We learn of two miracle workers: Elijah and Elisha.  Elijah continually speaks out against the evil kings and queens and eventually finds himself in a competition against 400 plus prophets of a god named Baal.  Elijah wins the completion when God consumes his holocaust offering with fire from heaven and Baal does not consume his.  Elijah gets a little carried away and kills all 400 plus prophets and so has to flee before King Ahaz and Jezebel have him killed.  Elijah while fleeing discovers God in the quiet while in a cave.  Elijah passes his cloak to Elisha before being taken up into heaven by a chariot of fire. Elisha continues to be a miracle worker by curing Naaman a leper.

24.          Prophets
 Eventually prophets begin to do less and less miracles and instead become voices crying out to the Israelites in hope that they will forsake their evil ways and return to God.  Soon though the prophets’ very lives begin to become the message for example Jeremiah buys a new loin cloth buries and digs it up again and Hosea marries an unfaithful prostitute name Gomer. 

25.          Exile
 Eventually the moment that the prophets have warned against arrives and both the north and south kingdoms are defeated and people are moved off of their land.  This was done politically because the conquerors assumed it would be harder for the people to revolt if they were living in a new place.  The temple is also destroyed and all seems dark but instead of total hopelessness prophetic voices like Ezekiel begin to talk about a new future in which God will bring them all back. 

26.          Return
 Have you ever made a bargain with God? You know ask God to do something for you and in return you would do something for him.  I think all of us have at one time or another.  Unfortunately we are often like the guy who tells God he will go to Church on Sunday if God helps him find a parking spot at the mall now and when the perfect parking spot opens up the man says never mind God I found one.  The Israelites are allowed to return to their homeland.  Nehemiah and others exhort the Israelites to return to God but at last they do not.  

27.          Greeks & Romans Conquer
 Eventually other people will come and conquer Israel and Judea the first being the Greeks.  The Greeks came in and tried to make everyone alike and therefore tried to forcibly make the Jewish people turn away from God.  Some devout Jews led by Judas Maccabeus lead a revolt.  Eventually the Romans come in and conquer Israel and Judea and the Romans were just downright cruel.  During these times, hope began to emerge that a new king of Israel a messiah would come and free Israel from all foreign tyranny.
  
 28.          Gabriel
 Gabriel, whose name means “God’s strength” appears on the scene and he is about to turn everything upside down.  He a divine angel comes to a lowly girl of no importance and asks her the most important question of all time.  Will she be the mother of God?  Keeping with the pattern we see in the Old Testament, God has chosen an unlikely person to participate in His plan.  God has promised to be with that person for the angel says to Mary “the Lord is with you.” Now is the time of fulfillment.  Will the young virgin say yes?

29.          Mary
 A lowly peasant girl was chosen from the beginning of time to be the mother of God.  She was kept free from sin by the grace of God but like Adam and Eve who were also created without sin could have said no.  Mary though says “yes” to God’s plan without really knowing all of what she was agreeing to.  Mary in the eyes of the Church was not only the Mother of God but also she is the ultimate example of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

30.          Joseph
 Joseph after Jesus is perhaps the best image of God in the Bible for us.  Joseph did not have to accept Jesus as his son but he did.  Just like God did not have to love us but chose to and we believe that through baptism God adopts us just like Joseph adopted Jesus.  We are made a part of God’s holy family.  Joseph did all that he could to keep Jesus safe and to help him grow because Joseph wanted what was best for Jesus and God even more so wants what is best for us.

31.          Christmas
 We have now reached the center point of history the incarnation.  God becomes one of us.  God descends his throne to save us.  God could have lived his entire life without feeling pain or sorrow but instead out of love he chose to be born into time.  Jesus reveals through is very life who God is and we learn that God is Love.  At Christmas we see a few important things to remember.  The shepherds who are considered poor are present and wise man come from a far teaching us that the new born child is not only the King of the Jews but the God of all.  Jesus is laid to rest in a manger (A place where animals eat) because He is the Bread of Life.  He is born in Bethlehem, a town whose name means “house of bread” and whose primary industry was providing bread and lambs for sacrifice. We also learn though that not everyone will accept the new born child as Herod tries to have the child killed and the Holy Family is forced to flee to Egypt.

32.          John the Baptist
 Slightly before Jesus’ public ministry a strange new character arrives on the scene –John the Baptist.  John preaches that the kingdom of God is at hand and now is the time to repent.  The word repent in the English language carries with it a moral overturn but the word in Greek is Metanoia and means “change the way you are thinking.” The important thing about John’s preaching is that he tells people to simply be holy in their professions.  He instructs soldiers to stop bullying and tells tax collectors to stop cheating people out of money.  He does not tell them that they must stop soldiering or tax collecting.  John impresses people with his humility by declaring that he is not the savior.  Jesus will later declare John to be the greatest person ever born of woman and if you think about it by doing so Jesus sets forth new criteria for greatness.  Greatness has nothing to do with fame, money, or power for John would die as a criminal, penniless and not even able to save his own life.  Greatness has everything to do about following God’s will. 

33.          Apostles
 Jesus begins his public ministry and quickly begins gathering twelve special followers that he will refer to as his apostles.  It is important to see the variety of people Jesus chose.  For example he chose Peter, a fisherman with the habit of speaking first and thinking later, James and John two brothers who were known for their temper, Bartholomew (Nathaniel) who probably was a religious leader of some sort.  Simon who is believed to have belong to the Zealot party ( a political party with the hopes of having a violent revolution), Mathew a tax collector who would have been ostracized from the community for collaborating with Rome, Thomas, who would doubt his resurrection, Judas who would betray him, and Phillip, Jude, James the Lesser, and Andrew the brother of Simon Peter.  All of whom were called by God despite their diverse backgrounds.

34.          Mary Magdalene
 There is perhaps no more controversial character in the Bible today than Mary Magdalene.  In a way Mary Magdalene has come to represent all the women of the New Testament of questionable character.  The important thing to remember is that each of these women was forgiven by God and was important followers of Christ.  I chose to focus on Mary Magdalene here because she was the first one to discover the empty tomb.  What if no one had gone to tomb on the first day of the week?  Mary Magdalene is an example for all of us who have been blessed to have our sins forgiven by God. 

35.          Last Supper
 While Jesus lived He performed many miracles and taught many wonderful things.  One of the greatest and most revealing events in his life though was the Last Supper.  Jesus following Passover tradition ate a meal with his disciples but elevated the meal by saying that the unleavened bread and the wine was now his Body and Blood.  He also went on to show us how we are to live by lowering himself down and washing the feet of His disciples.  For all these years people thought that being like God meant getting one’s own way but Jesus shows us that being like God means lowering oneself to be the servant of all.

36.          Paschal Mystery
 Jesus’ death and resurrection are referred to as a whole as the Paschal Mystery.  While I could spend weeks writing on this topic alone I want to instead just point out a couple of things.  Fulton Sheen in his book points out in his book The Life of Christ that there are actually two trials that take place.  In the first trial Pilate pronounces Jesus guilty because Jesus is “to Godly” and in the second trial Herod pronounces Jesus guilty because Jesus is to “human”.  The Church however professes Jesus to be True God and True Man.  Fr. Robert Barron, a professor at Mundelein Seminary, explains Jesus’ death on the cross as Jesus going into god-forsakenness in order to find the lost sheep and bring us back.  The only witnesses to the resurrection, the Roman guards, flee and do not believe.  Mary Magdalene and the other apostles must first wrestle with the idea of the empty tomb before they can be open to the idea of the resurrection.  When Jesus finally reveals himself to the Apostles He offers them peace.

37.          Pentecost
 Pentecost is considered the birthday of the Church because the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and they began to preach to all nations.  Peter gives an excellent defense of the faith on that first Pentecost and many come to believe.  Peter like Jesus does not condemn anyone but rather offers peace.

38.          Conversion of Saul
 Saul a devout Jew strives with all his might to crush this new religion.  He even consents and watches Stephen be stoned to death.  On his way to Damascus in order to capture the followers of Christ he is knocked down and blinded.  Jesus asks Saul why he was persecuting Jesus.  This question will forever unite Jesus with the Body of Christ on earth –the Church. Ananias a devout Christian heals Saul’s blindness.  An important note that is often overlooked is that Saul does not immediately begin his great missionary work.  For two years he does nothing.  It is only after Barnabas comes and gets him that he begins to proclaim Christ.  What if Barnabas never gave Saul a chance?  How different would the world be?

39.          Paul’s Missionary Work
 Saul will eventually change his name to Paul and travels the known world spreading the Gospel.  He follows up his visits by writing letters.  Paul will eventually be arrested but will continue to write.  He is martyred in Rome.  Paul spends a lot of his time not writing about Jesus’ life like the Gospel writers will but instead focuses unpacking the meaning of the Christ event.  What did Christ’s coming, His Death, His Resurrection, and His ascension mean to us becomes the focus of Paul’s writing. 

40.          Gospel Writers 
 Eventually the early Church finds it necessary to begin writing down the stories about Jesus’ life and teaching.  While many will write only four will be chosen as being inspired by God – Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.  All the other Gospels will be rejected for containing stories about Jesus that went against his loving nature.  For example I believe the Gospel of Thomas has Jesus as a kid killing his next door neighbor and raising him back up again.  We know that Jesus would not give into violence like that so we know that the Gospel of Thomas was false.

41.          Persecution
 Early Christians were not gladly accepted for many reasons.  The first was that the Jews considered them heretics for they believed that Jesus was the messiah.  The second was that the Romans saw them as enemies of the state because they spoke out against many moral issues like infanticide, prostitution, and other evil things that went along with Roman cults.   This is the age fo such great saints as St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp, St. Lucy, St. Agatha, etc.

42.          Romans Destroy Jerusalem
 In 86 A.D. the Jewish people revolt against Rome and this time Rome does not mess around.  Titus comes down and destroys everything including the Temple.  I bring this point up because it seems to have influenced the Gospel writers and the author of the Book of Revelation and secondly because it is a good time to point out that the Jewish religion survives because of the Pharisees who were not Temple based but rather synagogue base.  We must be careful when we read Scripture not to lay too much blame of the Pharisees for everything that happened but rather we must realize that if we would have been in their place we too probably would have been yelling “crucify him”. 

43.          Christianity is Made Legal
 In the year 315 A.D. the Emperor Constantine is about to enter into a great battle but he has a vision of a Chi-ro the “p””x” symbol which was a symbol for Jesus Christ.  He is told in the vision to paint this sign on everything and he will win the battle.  He does and is victorious.  He therefore legalizes Christianity.  The main thing is that Christianity can now be practiced out in the open and not in secretly in houses and catacombs.  Church buildings are built and liturgies are regulated. 

44.          Barbarians Sack Rome
 Eventually the great Roman empire falls.  The important thing about this is that the Church survives and becomes the center of communication and culture for the west.  In the East much later the Turks will come in and cut off the East from the west. 

45.          Us Today
 It would be easy to end with the fall of Rome or to continue on for many more months but for the sake of time and because I have other things to ponder, I will jump up to the present day.  The Church, the Body of Christ on Earth, is now has over 1 billion members and touches all seven continents.  We continue the work of Christ today as we reach out to the poor and proclaim the truth both in season and out of season.  Two important things that our Catholic Church teaches us is that we all have a part in God’s plan and that He loves each of us just as much as He loved Moses, Joshua, Joseph, Mary, etc.  For love is something that does not diminish the more that it shares but is rather something that grows.  What role are you playing in Salvation History right now?