In case you are weary of my ramblings on “The Tree of Life”, at least skip to the bottom of this post where you will find a transcript of Malick’s stirring sermon from the film.
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Terrence Malick writes great sermons; at least he wrote a great sermon for “The Tree of Life.” The Job sermon to which the O’Brien family listen in church on a Sunday morning, is a profound piece of theology, a beautiful piece of poetry, and a deep well of spiritual wisdom and insight.
The sermon is powerfully delivered in the movie by the Rev. Kelly Koonce who is actually a priest in the Episcopal church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, Texas, not a professional actor.
The Book of Job explores the myth that we inhabit a quid pro quo universe in which people who live virtuously inevitably receive blessing, while those who do evil always suffer a painful fate. The story of the tragedies that fell upon virtuous Job, demonstrates that there is nothing in life than can protect us from the possibility of pain.
In “The Tree of Life” Mr. O’Brien is the picture of the “good” man. He is an attentive father to his sons, a good provider for his family, a faithful husband to his wife, a loyal employee at work, a regular church goer, even a generous financial contributor in his parish. Yet, misfortune befalls Mr. O’Brien. He loses his job and, years later, his middle son dies at the age of nineteen.
It is tempting to question the structure of the universe. “Is there some fraud in the scheme of the universe?” Malick asks in his sermon. Is there nowhere we might flee to escape the tragedies of life?
Mr. O’Brien’s oldest son Jack is haunted by the uncertain and unpredictable nature of life. As an adult, looking back over his life, he sifts through memory and imagination in search of something that might answer the deep question to which Malick’s preacher gives voice. “Is there nothing which is deathless? Nothing which does not pass away?”
This question haunts Malick’s entire body of work. “The Tree of Life” offers an answer in the voice of Mrs. O’Brien when she declares, “Unless you love, your life will flash by… Do good, wonder, hope.”
Mrs. O’Brien’s words sound to me like an allusion to the familiar I Corinthians 13 in which Paul assures us that
if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing…. Love never ends.(I Corinthians 13:2,3,8)
Love is the power that permeates “The Tree of Life.” It is the force that brought all creation into existence and flows through all of life like an endless rushing torrent of water cascading out of mystery into the unknown. It is the force that makes the trees grow and paints beauty in every moment of life for those with eyes to see. It is the power behind adolescent sexual awakening and even the anarchic energy unleashed when a group of teenage boys rampage through their neighbourhood. Love is the force that creates the stirring majesty of the music that serves as a major character throughout Malick’s film; it is the driving force that enables an adult to seek reconciliation by apologizing to his father for a hurtful comment.
In the end, it is not the suffering that wins. Cruelty, revenge, retribution, and meaningless violence do not have the final word. Malick’s film aims to guide us to that place within ourselves where we can encounter the ultimate prevailing power of love.
Malick portrays a dimension to life that exists beyond the knowing awareness of the human senses. It is on the further shore of this other dimension that all things are held and resolved.
The only important question for any of us is whether we will open our hearts to the beauty of this love that turns the universe. Will we allow our hearts to be touched and to soften? Will we embrace the struggles of our lives as tools by which the hard protective wall we have built around our hearts can be dismantled releasing the sweet aroma of the love that is the centre of all life?
Terrence Malick’s film invites us to step through the doorway of faith into the presence of that reality that dwells deeper than rational knowing, deeper than emotion in a dimension beyond time and sense. The film invites us into eternity in the present moment, encouraging us to allow our hearts to expand to the point where we begin to experience the reality that all the suffering and anguish of life are simply a crucible for the unfolding beauty that is our true nature and the true nature of all existence.
“The Tree of Life” makes a journey through darkness into the eternity of light. It does not seek to avoid the darkness or diminish the reality of our suffering. But it holds unflinchingly to the promise that there is more to life than the painful brokenness that seems to afflict every dimension of existence. This is a movie radiant with the light of a hope no pain can defeat.
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Below are the words of the Terrence Malick Job sermon transcribed from the film with the help of Kelly Koonce the episcopal priest who plays the preacher in the film.
Kelly and I have never met. But, when my wife discovered that the sermon was preached by a real Episcopal priest, she did some internet sleuthing and came up with his name and email address. She encouraged me to email Kelly and see if he might guide me towards the wording of the sermon he preached in the movie.
Kelly responded with a generosity that does credit to the spirit of “The Tree of Life,” enabling me to post the following text of the sermon he preached so powerfully in the film.
Job imagined he might build his nest on high – that the integrity of his behavior would protect him against misfortune. And his friends thought, mistakenly, that the Lord could only have punished him because secretly he’d done something wrong.
But, no, misfortune befalls the good as well. We can’t protect ourselves against it. We can’t protect our children. We can’t say to ourselves, even if I’m not happy, I’m going to make sure they are.
We vanish as a cloud. We wither as the autumn grass, and like a tree are rooted up.
Is there some fraud in the scheme of the universe? Is there nothing which is deathless? Nothing which does not pass away?
We cannot stay where we are. We must journey forth.
We must find that which is greater than fortune or fate. Nothing can bring us peace but that.
Is the body of the wise man, or the just, exempt from any pain? From any disquietude, from the deformity that might blight its beauty, from the weakness that might destroy its health?
Do you trust in God?
Job, too, was close to the Lord. Are your friends and children your security? There is no hiding place in all the world where trouble may not find you. No on knows when sorrow might visit his house, any more than Job did.
The very moment everything was taken away from Job, he knew it was the Lord who’d taken it away. He turned from the passing shows of time. He sought that which is eternal.
Does he alone see God’s hand who sees that He gives, or does not also the one see God’s hand who sees that He takes away? Does he alone see God who sees God turn His face towards him? Does not also he see God who sees God turn his back?
23 comments
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August 15, 2011 at 7:28 am
Tress
I get it ! And you have put it beautifully.
I am still troubled , not for myself , but fo those whose life appears to be unrelieved misery . Thse starving in Africa under repressive regimes, young children brought up with no love only taught the vices and greeds of this world . Why does the love that we experience not touch their lives?
August 15, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Ernest
Hi Tress,
For me, the answer to your question is in the last paragraph of the sermon.
August 15, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Tress
I understand what you are saying , but Why ? Where is the love? Only i death?
August 15, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Tress
I answered to hastily. After all Jesus died under awful circumstances , but he had the understanding of god in his heart.
What of god’s purpose for small chilldren who know nothing but misey . or have not learned or been exposed to any of the beauty of this world or og god.s gift to it,Or people who have never been exposed to ant of the gentler human attributes.How can they see god when they have not experienced any of his glory.
August 15, 2011 at 7:43 pm
jaqueline
I try to remember that although they may not see God , God sees them.
I have a hope that perhaps these who suffer so greatly have the greatest difficulty seeing God because they are up so close to the heart of God.
August 15, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Carlos D.
I know only two unambiguous answers to this question. The first and simplest is: there is no Christian God. That does away with the problem, but you may find the idea of a godless universe problematic for other reasons. The second answer is this: there is a Christian God but the faithful must live with this soul-crushing mystery and hope it all makes sense in the end.
I wish there was a third option, but there isn’t. There is simply no way around this mountain.
And speaking of endings: for those still interested in ‘The Tree of Life’ and particularly it’s odd last segment, I will post my own take on it in the next few minutes. It’s not as theologically deep as Christopher’s excellent reading of it, but I hope it’s not too obvious, or disappointing. I will post it were it belongs: on the comment section for the post “The Tree of Life # 16 – Film Critics Missing the Glory.”
August 15, 2011 at 9:57 pm
jaqueline
“there is a Christian God but the faithful must live with this soul-crushing mystery and hope it all makes sense in the end. ”
Soul crushing is about the sum of it actually…and if it doesn’t crush or if you try not to live with it and just talk it away then well…I am not sure it is worth being called Christian considering it’s about a God who got crushed too.
August 17, 2011 at 3:28 pm
J.N.
Some observations about the film:
The scene of the arrival of the telegram is nothing but an “Annunciation” filmed from “grace” to “gravity”.
“Steve” is the diminutive of Stephen. Malick was a pupil at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School (Austin, Texas). You should really pay attention to Steve, his relation with RL, his father, mother and, most of all, death.
R.L.: definitely “River of … Life, Love, etc.”: RL is continuously associated with the river (and the waterfall).
The stained glass alluded in the previous post is an “Ecce Homo”: this very precise episode of the Passion has more than religious associations.
For understanding the scene with the boys playing at the window before leaving the house:
“Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.” (Simone Weil)
The alligator you see in the baby’s arch: it is an animal associated with the power of God in the Book of Job.
That “He was in God’s hands all the time” was inspired in Lewis (A Grief Observed). Maybe you already knew that…
The bridge: the “re-ligare” clue is a false one. You see a bird flying along the bridge:
“As the forest bird crosses the peaks in flight,
Over the river shimmering past your floats
Airy and strong the bridge,”
(From the poem that structures the film.)
If you want to understand what “door” is that, you must first understand who the woman on the other side of it is.
Last advice: don’t try to “understand” a film that took 30 years to make in just 3, 4 or 5 viewings. I needed much more than 10.
If you want to consider this in a more profound way:
http://reviewingtreeoflife.blogspot.com/
Some knowledge about cinema necessary (some patience and open mind too).
April 12, 2012 at 6:58 pm
Binx Bolling
J.N., nowhere in your analyses do I see expansive discussion of “The Tree of Life’s” classical music. If Malick’s film is indeed “cerebrally built [and] precise in its internal net of associations made of sounds, images and words,” then why neglect dissection of the soundtrack, especially its sacred chorales?
September 15, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Howard
Are you sure this text is complete and correct? I just saw the movie and remember the phrase from the sermon: “We run before the wind…” I loved the sermon and the delivery was wonderful. Could you check the text?
October 4, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Martin McCool
I have a question about the content of the priest’s sermon (which is fantastic). Is it (as I think) adapted from the Bible but written by Malick specially for the film? I’m thinking especially of the part: “We vanish as a cloud. We wither as the Autumn grass…” etc
October 4, 2011 at 4:53 pm
inaspaciousplace
The sermon is based on the biblical Book of Job. As I undersstand it, the content of the sermon itself comes entirely from Terrence Malick.
April 19, 2012 at 11:20 am
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April 19, 2012 at 11:28 am
Nobody
Thanks for this transcript!
I believe most of it is indeed from Malick, but “Is the body of the wise man, or the just, exempt from any pain? From any disquietude, from the deformity that might blight its beauty, from the weakness that might destroy its health?” is adapted from Augustine (City of God, XIX.4) and the following is a quotation of Kierkegaard (Four Upbuilding Discourses, IV.19-20):
“The very moment everything was taken away from Job, he knew it was the Lord who’d taken it away. […] Does he alone see God’s hand who sees that He gives, or does not also the one see God’s hand who sees that He takes away? Does he alone see God who sees God turn His face towards him? Does not also he see God who sees God turn his back?”
July 17, 2012 at 10:08 am
mitch
There are some movie clips on WingClips.com from this film. Nature Vs Grace is my favorite.
April 12, 2013 at 4:11 am
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October 31, 2013 at 3:34 am
sleepgood
I have seen and felt god. Its not even a question of faith if you have experienced it. If any of you have doubts please do not. I used to be an atheist but once I experienced it first hand it was a done deal and I will never forget. If you haven’t personally had an experience don’t try to force it or over think it. All you have to be is a good person and that is all that counts. God is nature. You are god and so am I. We are the same entity along with every terrible person on this planet. All religions have the same root and everyone fights for absolutely no reason. If they were actually spiritual they would know that hating distances themselves from inner peace with god. The only advice I can give to people is shed the distractions and listen to yourself. Think about your relationship with the infinitely vast universe. You are nothing but at the same time you are everything and everything you experience is through your own filter.
I think the best analogy for god is a mycelium. Individuals are just like mushrooms. If you were to look across the field you would see different mushrooms but you don’t realize that below you are attached to the same entity which is mycelium. You just can’t see it and no other mushroom can. God is love and god is also hate. But at a cosmic level there is no such thing as hate and love without humans to define it. Black is no better than white and vice versa. Because we are in the realm of emotion, the best thing you can do is love others because karma is real. Karma is real because when you hurt somebody you are just hurting yourself since you are the other person. Don’t be an asshole ever and you will live a good life. Even when misfortune comes your way its always possible to see the good effects.
Fight the animal instinct and realize that we have the gift to decide our own destiny and change the filter that we live through.
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August 17, 2020 at 10:01 pm
Dawson Affleck
The full sermon is incredible. Thank you.