An apple a day...

In the third lesson from Lessons and Carols, the prophet Jeremiah proclaims God's message of forgiveness for Israel and Judah through the new covenant established between God and God's people. God will write the law upon our hearts so that our very being will becoming the embodiment of God's promise!

The concept of a covenant between God and God's people is central in the Hebrew Bible as well as the Christian scriptures. Covenant necessarily implies a relationship between God and humanity. It is the promise of God to love and care for us and the promise of humanity to love and obey God. The God who covenants with us is not a God that is unaffected by our suffering but rather it is a God that is in intimate relationship with all of humankind.

In Lessons and Carols, each lesson is accompanied by a musical reflection. Epiphany Schola, offered Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, a poem set to music as the reflection on Jeremiah's proclamation. In this poem, the mystical apple tree became another image for the covenant of God with God's people. The apple has quite a symbolic history in the Christian tradition, most notably as the forbidden fruit in the garden that caused our fall. Yet, in the same garden is also the tree of life. Christ as our apple tree, our tree of life, is the other option for us in the ancient and ancestral garden symbolizing the new covenant of Jeremiah's proclamation - a promise of transformation from sin and suffering into wholeness for all of God's people and all of creation.

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
the trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.