Introduction
During the sermon I would like to show a film that I shot in my garden.
I recently bought a camera that can do time-lapse photography and I tried it out:
(https://youtu.be/9tvPP-hiYPA?t=118, run).
Fascinating, isn't it? You can see how clouds are created, virtually out of nothing, and how they also disappear, vanishing into thin air. One image was recorded per second for the video, the whole video lasts over 20 minutes and corresponds to 10 hours and 32 minutes. If you want, you can watch it on YouTube.
But I didn't bring you the video because of the fascinating cloud movements. I actually made a mistake here, because I wanted to set the camera even steeper so that there weren't so many trees in the picture, but more of the sky. I wanted to see the movement of the clouds.
If you look at the trees here, you realise that something doesn't fit in here, maybe even disturbs it. You can see the movements in the wind, which come out much more clearly thanks to the time-lapse, but one object isn't moving at all, the dead tree on the left.
This pear tree was probably 100 years old and did not survive last year's drought, which I very much regretted.
Although it appears to be stable in the wind, we know that it is only a matter of time before it has to be felled, otherwise it will topple over in a storm.
He no longer reacts to anything, the wind does not touch him, indeed nothing touches him.
In this film you somehow see life and death in comparison and I would like to think about "life" with you today.
Life
The Bible verse that first came to my mind was the well-known one from John 14:6; NL:
Way, truth and life, I find the word "life" the most difficult of these three expressions.
The other two are also not easy to understand, but it is easier to visualise them: Path is direction and orientation, and truth as the opposite of what is not true can also be understood somehow.
But what does "life" mean?
Let's start with biological life.
It is not yet scientifically clear how this life came into being. As Christians, we clearly know the source of life, which is the almighty God, and I think we can see three levels of life.
The first is plant and animal life.
The second is human life and there is the interesting passage Genesis 2:7; NL:
He didn't do that with the animals, not all animals have noses ;-)
The word that stands for "breath" or "breath" here can also mean "breath" or "gust of wind" and in one place, in Proverbs 20:27, this word is also translated as "spirit of man".
According to the Bible, there is a difference between animal and human life, which in my opinion is obvious. Only humans ask metaphysical questions, such as the meaning of life or God. Animals don't do that, not even the smartest animals.
Let's take another look at the film. What is life like?
In purely biological terms, life means having a metabolism, the ability to grow, to reproduce, to inherit and to react to changes in the environment, roughly abbreviated.
The dead tree in the film obviously no longer has this: no interaction with the environment, no metabolism, no fruit and instead of growth only decay.
And the other living trees in this film? Obviously there is always a bit of wind tugging at the living trees. They wobble, they give way, they also grow in the wind. The wind also somehow transports nutrients, at least those that the tree takes directly from the air, such as CO2 and nitrogen. In some trees, the seeds are also spread by the wind.
In the Bible, the wind symbolises the Holy Spirit.
And that is the third level of life. When you come to know Jesus, you not only have the breath of life as a human being, but you also have the Holy Spirit.
Through the Holy Spirit, God wants to lead and guide Christians who are travelling with Jesus, give them impulses and sometimes you feel a little torn by this. But that's the Christian life. If you are no longer moved by the Holy Spirit, then you are as if dead. You may be standing firm in the landscape, but it is completely useless.
Light also offers an interesting comparison here. Jesus says in John 8:12 that he is the light of the world. The key point of this comparison is that we no longer have to wander around in the darkness, but the light also becomes visible the other way round. When we live in the light of Jesus, it can be seen. And in the film you can also see how friendly it looks when the sun comes through and illuminates the trees. It only makes no difference to the dead tree. The sun's rays have no effect there.
Life in the Bible
The most important thing for us is of course the third level of life, life with the Holy Spirit. And this is true life, which is also what Jesus means when he says that he is the way, the truth and the life.
Interestingly, we find various combinations of terms with the word "life" in the Bible:
- Tree of life: Genesis 2:9; The tree of life as a symbol of eternal life stood in the centre of paradise. The centre is usually the most important place and for God it is most important that people find eternal life.
- Water of life: The term appears at the end of Revelation in 22:17 and it expresses that this eternal life through the Holy Spirit is not only optional as one possibility among many, but that it is just as vital as water.
- Word of life: this is how Jesus Christ is referred to, for example at the beginning of the Gospel of John or at the beginning of the First Epistle of John. He is the one who brought us life and told us about it.
- Grace of life: The term appears in 1 Peter 3:7 and yes, this life with Jesus is a gift. You can't earn it, you are given it.
- Book of Life: This book is mentioned in Revelation 17:8 and it contains those who have this life. I don't want to get into the discussion about when this is fixed or how changeable or unchangeable this book is, but let us pray and work for many people to be written in this book.
- Crown of life: And when you have reached your goal, you are face to face with Jesus and can see what you have believed.
What about us?
We have now heard a lot about life.
Let's take another look at the film.
Do I feel more like one of the living trees? Sometimes torn, but moved by Jesus?
Or am I the rigid, dead tree where nothing happens?
And what is our community like? How do you feel about it?
Rigid in the landscape, every now and then a branch breaks off and in a few years the tree falls over or has to be cut down?
Or is it like the cherry tree on the right? We had a rich harvest this year and I pruned it quite a bit and it's alive, moving in the wind and will hopefully bear fruit again in the next few years.
And even if I have no hope for our dead pear tree, I do have hope for the community. No matter how things really are with us or how we may just feel: Nothing is impossible for God. Psalm 119 contains some prayers for precisely such situations, e.g. v. Psalm 119:25; ELB
Summary
Let me summarise.
- The dead tree stands out in fast motion. It no longer seems to be moved by anything.
- According to the Bible, there are three levels of life: plant and animal life, human life and life through the Holy Spirit. The third level is the crucial one that the Bible is concerned with.
- The source of this life is in Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life.
- This life is described in the Bible in several places with pairs of terms:
- Tree of life
- Water of life
- Word of life
- The grace of life
- Book of Life
- Crown of life
- What about us? What tree do we compare our lives as Christians and our church to?
- No matter how we are or what we feel. God is stronger and can and wants to give us new life.