The third list

Hi everyone,

If you were there on Sunday, you would have heard me talk, at length, about the concept of the third list.  If you weren't there, I will run through the lists for you really quick.

List number one is the stuff you have to do.  It's the stuff you have to bake, what you have to clean, what you have to look after, what you have to sweep up and put away, what you have to wrap, and so on.  It's a list typically divided by person, to make sure that everyone has their own jobs to finish.

List number two is like it, but different.  List number two is the list of people who you still have to buy for.  It's different from the first list, because you don't know what you're actually going to buy.  You just sort of walk into a store with a list of names, and you have to match those names to gifts.  Good times.

But the third list is more nebulous, because it's not written down, now, is it?  The third list is composed not on paper, but in your mind, and especially in your heart.  All of us have a wonderful third list that is written on the list paper of our hearts, and it includes what makes Christmas Christmas.  That is, there are certain things that have to happen before it begins to feel like Christmas for you.  It might be cabbage rolls, it might be perogies, it might be the smell of Christmas tree, it might be the day when the Christmas towels come out, it might be when you hear Silent Night sung by candlelight at Good Shepherd at either 5:00 or 7:00.  All of these things have been known to make up the third list for some people.  Now, what's on your list is what's on your list, and it's your list and nobody else's, but it is absolutely vital for you to get that stuff done and together so that the Christmas season can be truly Christmassy.

But as I said on Sunday, a big part of what happens in the scriptures is the fulfillment of this third list for God, what makes Christmas Christmas.  And no, it's not cabbage rolls and Christmas trees.  The scriptures describe it as the fullness of time.  And this is why the Bible seems so worked up about the ancestry of Jesus.  The lineage of Jesus ends up being important to those who were watching and waiting for the coming Messiah.

This is what we forget, and forget pretty quickly, that there were people deseprately for that first Christmas, people waiting for the arrival of the Christ child and there were certain things on that great list that God had made, that they were all looking for.  And one of the major ones is that they were looking for the descendant of David to rise and sit on his father's throne.  Real quick primer, the monarchy in Old Testament Israel started with Saul, who ended up being a fairly bunk king.  Then, the next king was David.  And David was seen as the great king, the one who brought prosperity and light to the world.  And his throne was seen as bringing the kingdom of Israel together.  But David was an earthly king, and as earthly kings do, he died, and left his throne to his son, Solomon.  And Solomon was good too, not, you know David good, but still good.  And then Solomon died too, and he left his throne to, well, Rehoboam his son, and then after that, the kingdom was divided.

And so people hearkend for that time.  They longed for the time in which David sat on the throne, and reigned over Israel, in which they had their independance, in which they had their strength, in which they could repel invaders, and set themselves up as those who were in charge over everyone else .  That was the plan.  And that's what everyone was expecting to happen.  They all wanted to have God place a faithful king over them in the kingdom of Israel.  Someone who would turf out the Romans and who would reign in their place.

But here's the thing.  There's a very good reason that Jesus was of the house and line of David.  He was of the house and line of David to complete these lists, these lists from way back in the Old Testament, lists talking about what the house and line of David would be like, lists talking about the virgin conceiving and giving birth to a son, lists talking about what we are to expect from the coming messiah.  Birth in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, being Immanuel, or God with us, crushing the serpent's head, being called out of Egypt, called a Nazarene, raised up like a serpent in the desert, all these things.

You see, when you forget the Old Testament, you forget about the history of salvation, and it ends up being pretty important, and it helps you to understand Jesus, the Christ, and his echoes all the way throughout history.  If you know him, you see him everywhere, the all in all.  He shows up in the Old Testament in the most curious ways, glimpses of him in the miraculous births of Samson and Isaac, raised up on a stake in the wilderness like a fiery serpent, journeying to Egypt to escape a massacre like Moses, being baptized in the Jordan like Naaman the Syrian, he is all over the scriptures, you almost can't turn a page without seeing him.

And that itself is important for two reasons.  Firstly, because of the fulfillment of prophecy.  God was doing what God was going to do in his own time for his own reasons.  And in the fullness of time, he brought forth his son into the world.  At exactly the right time, in the right place, born into a time and place full of people who were expecting him to arrive, and who could look at him fulfilling the scriptures in their presence and know it.  And secondly, and for us importantly, is that seeing him all the way through the scriptures should remind you of Jesus' image of the final judgment, in which he says

Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me.

Think about that for a second.  We expect Jesus to be all over the Old Testament, becasue we can read backwards into it.  We expect him to be all over the New Testament, because that's his story.  Do we expect him to be all over the world, though?  Not really.  But this is a vital lesson for us to learn as Christians in the here and now. Jesus is everywhere.  The body of Christ is bigger than you had ever thought possible.  It affects you and me profoundly, because we're all in it. Looking into the scriptures, you can see Jesus in pretty much every page.  Look around you, and you can see Jesus in every person.
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And this brings us to God's third list.  The list that isn't written, but is still required.  You've heard it said that God the the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of David, of Solomon, and that's all true.  But the entirety of that list is not written in the scriptures, because that list would be far too long to ever endure.  Because it would contain that unbroken line of faith from Adam right the way down to you.  We talk about how Jesus is the reason for the season, which he is, but the reason for him being here at all is for you.  He forsook heaven and its glory, and came to earth humble in a manger. He lived life in obscurity, he fasted, he wept, he got dirty, he got tired, he got angry, he rode into town humble on a donkey, and was crucified between two common criminals.  He was whipped, beaten, scourged, mocked, and spat upon, all for one very important reason.

You are on his third list.

And it wouldn't be heaven without you.

Advent blessings.  Christmas blessings.

PJ.