 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Friday, December 23, 2022 The Eve of the Eve -and Adam You might not know that in the European Middle Ages, December 24 was the feast of Adam and Eve. Paradise plays were held, featuring the mythical tree laden with fruit – often apples, symbolizing the tragedy of the first couple’s disobedience. This heightened joy at the obedience of Mary – and then of Jesus himself, who in the New Testament is called the New Adam. In our culture we think of the characters of Adam and Eve as somehow guilty and bad – but in Eastern Christianity even today, and even before the Middle Ages, people saw them as having sinned but also as redeemed – as we all are. this might be a new perspective for you! Here is what Irenaeus, 2nd century Greek the bishop wrote: “The Lord, coming into his own creation in visible form, was sustained by his own creation which he himself sustains in being. His obedience on the tree of the cross reversed Adam’s disobedience at the tree in Eden; the good news of the truth announced by an angel to Mary, a virgin subject to a husband, undid the evil lie that seduced Eve, a virgin espoused to a husband. As Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and so fled from God after disobeying his word, Mary in her turn was given the good news by the word of an angel, and bore God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, so Mary was persuaded into obedience to God; thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve.” Irenaeus (130-200 AD)  The decorated “Paradise tree” seems to have been one of the precursors of our Christmas tree. After the feast of Adam and Eve was discontinued in the west, people still decorated trees at this season, often with red apples or glass balls, symbolizing that forbidden fruit – and the salvation that came anyway. We do know that there are records of Christmas trees being set up in town squares and other public places by 1610 – before Martin Luther popularized the custom. The evergreen, of course, symbolizes the always fresh always new, everlasting life of the second Adam – whose death and resurrection reversed the sorrow and the suffering of the fist Adam – and all of us. Christmas Eve at St Alban’s 5 pm Saturday. It is ON. We don’t have enough snow to make it hard to drive there. BUT there may be ice so if you come, BE CARFUL. It will be simpler than usual, probably, and the cold will keep many people away. That is fine – I do not want anyone out in this weather who will suffer because of it. Stay in. Stay warm. We have 12 days to celebrate- and we will!  |
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