On a beautiful, almost summer-like afternoon yesterday, over 40 people gathered for the latest edition of Café Church.    As always delicious treats were enjoyed over tea and much use was made of the outdoor play area by both the young and young at heart before we gathered for the talk and for worship.   John Barber used a vibrant painting by Vincent van Gogh called Olive Trees and with Yellow Sky and Sun as the basis for the talk, which focused on God as the maker and sustainer of all life and on the ways the painting can be seen to portray God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.    Sarah and Fraser Noble and Alfie Walker led our worship beautifully, introducing many of us to a song new to us – God I look to you – and finishing with a rousing rendition of Cornerstone.

 The painting and the verse on which John concentrated are set out below along with his speaker notes to help with interpretation of the painting.

I have some questions as we start – does anyone have an idea who painted this image?  And when?  And where it might be?

It was painted in Provence in 1889 by Vincent van Gogh, who sadly had short life of just 37 years.   Does anyone know how many artworks he produced in his lifetime?  The answer is at least 2,100, including 860 oil paintings, mostly done in last two years of his life.

He painted rapidly and with great energy – often doing 2 or 3 paintings a day.

As I mentioned the setting is in Provence, near an asylum where he was sent to try to recover from severe mental illness.  He found peace in continuing to paint every day.  Initially he painted the view from his cell window, as effectively he was imprisoned in it (but as a sign of hope he always captured the view without the bars on his window), then the garden of the asylum when he was allowed more freedom – the famous Iris series was done there.   Eventually he was allowed out to a neighbouring olive grove and painted 18 works set there.  This is one of them – can you feel sense of freedom, with the image bursting with colour and motion?

van Gogh was the son of a pastor and had a strong faith in God.    He thought nature reflected spiritual life and the hand of God as creator.   He refused to paint Biblical scenes or images of Jesus as a person, as many of his artist friends did – he thought nature itself was sufficient as a subject to portray God and God’s role in the world.

So – let’s pause and talk at our tables about what you might see in this painting that reflects God.  Can you see any signs of God the Father, Jesus or the Holy Spirit in it?

We know from a letter he wrote to his brother Theo about this painting that van Gogh made a link in his own mind between the olive trees and Jesus – this recalls the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went the night before he went to the cross, which was a grove of olives.   Their gnarled, twisted form conveys the pain of Jesus’ crucifixion, but at the same their fresh green leaves speak of new life.

So maybe we can take this metaphor on and sense the Holy Spirit in the rustling of leaves in hot Mediterranean wind, as seen in the shimmering brushstrokes.

And what about the sun and its position?  What strikes you about it?  

Judging by the fall of the shadows from the trees, properly the sun should be steadily rising and on the left. Perhaps van Gogh started the painting in the morning, accurately capturing the lower two thirds of the scene then, and returned to it later in the day when the sun was higher in the sky.  He was too skilled an artist and observer to make such a ‘mistake’ lightly, so what might be read interpretively into his purposes?

All the motion at the ground level is from left to right, reinforced by strong brushstrokes, and almost as if the ground is composed of lava flows, interrupted by the cooling streams of the shadows.  If the sun was in the ‘right’ position, we could see it mostly as the source of life, for without it, there would be no light nor warmth.   And without light or warmth, there would be no softening of the earth to allow tilling of the soil, nor photosynthesis; without photosynthesis, no plants; without plants, no ecosystem; without an ecosystem, no sustaining of life.

Yet the sun and the light it produces are not where our eyes would normally expect them to be, given the other signals in the painting – instead, it’s right at the centre of the image, with absolutely no diminution of its brilliance across the whole sky.   The much tighter brushstrokes reinforce this consistency and, as you can see, its light is as bright and glorious on the left as it is on the right and in the middle too.  Could this be seen as a sign of Father God’s sovereign authority across all creation — and also of his patient generosity in sustaining life even when his creatures defy him? This is the God who, as Matthew 5:45 says, ‘…causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.’

So – to sum up – as our verse from Isaiah says – ‘Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.’    It is God that has made everything, who makes all life possible and who keeps everything alive, never tiring or holding back – ‘He does not faint or grow weary.’ 

But he is also present in our lives – we can know him through his son Jesus and can feel his presence through the Holy Spirit, just as we can feel a rushing wind on our cheeks.

Let’s go back to our tables to discuss, as he head back to school or to work tomorrow, what difference it will make to be freshly aware of the relationship we can have with this great God who is the creator and sustainer of all life, who is our saviour and who is our advocate, counsellor and guide.