11.09.05 Steve John 8: 1-12 Seeing the light
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The Discovery of Photosynthesis
Joseph Priestley was one of those tinkerers that happened to stumble across some of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. Priestley was born near Leeds in England on March 13, 1733.
Now, remember that Priestley also became a pastor in Leeds at the same time. He lived next to a brewery and was intrigued by the "air" that floated over the fermenting grain.
Priestley didn't know it at the time, but he was about to become one of the most famous chemists of all time. From his first experiment, he was able to show that this brewery gas extinguished lighted wood chips. He also noticed that this gas drifted to the ground around the vat, implying that it was more dense (heavier) than normal air. This gas would later be identified as carbon dioxide.
He devised a method to produce the gas back in his home laboratory. When the heavy gas, as he called it, was dissolved in water, he found that it had a very pleasant and tangy taste. For this invention of fizzy juice, he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1772 and received a medal from the Royal Society in 1773
Joseph
Priestly discovered that when he isolated a volume of air under an
inverted jar, and burned a candle in it, the candle would burn out
very quickly, much before it ran out of wax. He further discovered
that a mouse could similarly "injure" air. He then showed
that the air that had been "injured" by the candle and the
mouse could be restored by a plant. Priestley became the first person
ever to observe the respiration of plants - the fact that they take
in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. All life comes from light - Air
to breathe - food to eat - it keeps warm and alive (eclipse) - along
with every other crawling, flying and swimming creature. Jesus said -
I am the light of the world. He lights up our lives.
This summer in Durisdeer - the height of Light ... no shadow - dare I say 'too much'
So many living, crawling, buzzing things - you can almost see the verges growing, and the crops sizzling in the warm breeze. The long summer days never fail to cheer - the luxury of golden light at 10pm - quickly followed by the cool, fresh early dawn light greeted by the birds only a few hours later. Life and light = very closely connected.
Visible light is is merely a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum of energy, in between ultraviolet and infrared radiation. It is this region that is absorbed by the photoreceptors of the human visual system. It's hard to appreciate, but the human eye does not see light, but rather the effects of light - as it bounces off the surfaces around us. The ways in which illumination is provided, and finished surfaces specified, will create the effects of light that influence and shape experience. We can make our own environments from the effects of light. The surfaces that define a given space (the walls, floor, ceiling, glazing, installations, furniture and textures) are themselves transformed by the light they receive. The available light changes as it strikes those surfaces and in this way, environmental space and light are inextricably linked.
Light,
God's eldest daughter, is a principle beauty in a building. Thomas
Fuller
The effects of light, which are both biological and psychological, require the interaction of 'sensation' and 'perception', whereby the remarkable physiology of the eye serves to provide data for neural interpretation. At most of the visible wavelengths the human eye is more sensitive than photographic film and can discern differences in the green sector as small as one nanometer - a billionth of a meter. Although an object in direct sunlight may be as much as one million times brighter than the same object illuminated by moonlight, the eye can register both effectively. We live our lives benefiting from, an intimately connected to the effects of light.
It is little wonder that the ancients so revered, worshipped the light - the giver of life. Precisely because of its life-giving powers, light has always been associated with the divine. In the ancient world, fear of darkness and reverence for the sun as master of the seasons, inspired well-known monuments and religious sites, such as Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids.
The
Hebrew scriptures begin with a theological affirmation of creation
(written for exiles in Babylon) Of particular significance is that
this giving of light is the first act of creation. Light is 'the
first born of creation'. "Without light there is no creation;
only light reveals the contours of the creature blurred in darkness"
He emphasises the 'creatureliness' of light in Genesis; essentially
distinct from, but belonging to God. The designation of light as
'good' (a designation not shared by the darkness), reveals, God's
'prejudice' toward light. And the approval of light is associated,
not with aesthetics but with purpose and salvation. It is, an
immediate, first hint of a trend that will shape the 'whole story of
the created world' and of God's people.
It
is one of the key metaphors of John's Gospel, where it appears twenty
one times. Chap 8:12 'I am light of the world' (Feast of the
Tabernacles) describes a function or effect of Jesus as light. Thus
'light' 'is not a metaphysical definition of the person of Jesus, but
a description of his effect upon the cosmos: he is the light
which illumines and saves it. In him only the world has its day in
his absence is darkness. The light described by Jesus can be in
others, so that they may become 'children of the light' (John
12:36). The first letter of John restates that the source of saving
light is God (1 John 1:5) and uses the image of light as a symbol of
Christian living ('walk in the light as he is light').
Having begun by describing light as the first act of creation, the biblical account concludes with the Johanine vision of the heavenly city where the saving process is complete. The redeemed realm is characterised as light whose source is Christ. Here, the only 'form' required is light itself:
I
saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the
Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to
shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and the lamp is the
Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and kings of the earth
shall bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day,
and there will be no night there. Revelation 21:22-25
Our
lives are intimately connected with the effects of the light of the
sun, inextricably linked to its energy, nourished by it, sustained,
warmed, coloured by it – So also the call of Christ is to be
intimately connected, nourished, sustained, warmed and coloured by
the light of Christ – by his life, his words, his giving of
himself, his rising, his presence in all creation – called to walk
in that light – and to see with the sensitive eye of the
soul, Christ's presence in the brilliant shining light that is
obvious in some people/places – but to see the light of Christ in
the dark or dim parts of our world, or in the least likely people –
even those who would harm us.
May we know always in our lives, at our beginning and our end, the effects of the light of Christ.