Tuesday, December 8

Scripture: Genesis 3:14-15
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

THE SECOND EVE

It is perhaps strange to our ears to hear curses and enmities included in our Advent readings. Today we fight “wars over Christmas”, but do we have room for the thought that Christ’s nativity is itself a war, or rather the deciding battle in a war that has been raging since God ordained it in his curse against the serpent?

The battle begins in Genesis, when the serpent sets out to bring ruin on the woman in the garden, and God crystalizes this enmity with his curse, and prophesies that it will continue through generations. It rages in the stories of the Old Testament, as Eve and her children battle against the Satanic plots set against them. But, of course, this prophecy not only applies generally to Eve’s children, but also to a single descendant who, in entering the battle, will crush the head of the serpent forever.

Britten’s carol lyrics illuminate the strange fact that Christ’s very presence, as a newborn child, wages war against the serpent:

With tears he fights and wins the field,
His naked breast stands for a shield;
His shots are his cries,
His arrows, the looks of his weeping eyes.

Somehow, in merely being in human form, despite his frailty, Christ hurls arrows at his enemy. The last line gives us a hint at how this might be:

If Christ can foil your foes with joy, Stay near the heavenly boy.

It is the joy of the incarnation that foils the foe, because the joy that Christ brings wonderfully subverts the serpent’s lie. He promised Eve that she would not die because she took the fruit, and with Christ’s incarnation these words become true.

Rupert Bunny further illustrates the way the joy of Christ’s coming wages war against the enemy. The painting is divided into two halves. On the left Mary kneels, behind her a fresco depicting Eve’s expulsion from the garden. This is the moment of the serpent’s great victory, and Mary and all those whom she represents live in the shadow of that closed door. However, on the right stands Gabriel, backed not by the scene of Eden barred, but rather by an open door covered by a red cloth reminiscent both of the curtain in the temple and the blood which will atone for sin. Gabriel brings news that there will be given a new door through which to enter paradise.

We don’t often envision the newborn Christ as a warrior. But perhaps this year, as we celebrate his Nativity in the midst of so much conflict and suffering, it is crucial for us to reimagine his coming. Christ does not come, even in his Advent, merely as a vulnerable child in need of protection. Rather, even in his nativity Christ is a warrior, doing battle against the serpent on our behalf, ready to foil all our foes with joy.

This is Advent, season of promise. In our worship we prepare for the birth of a baby in a dusty stable in Bethlehem, and remind ourselves that this child will become the Savior of the World who will return again in power and glory to draw all of his children together with songs of everlasting praise. The promise of the baby is also the promise of eternal life to all who believe.

PRAYER
God of hope and promise, be with us throughout this Advent season and draw us ever closer as we journey together toward the stable and the birth of your Son, our Savior.
Amen.

Read more at: http://www.faithandworship.com/prayers_Advent.htm#ixzz3rsVnzbSD 
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Janelle Aijian, Assistant Professor, Torrey Honors Institute