The Well Palmdale, CA

This Sunday we continued our sermon series called "Be The Church" where we look at the reality of our existence as Christ's bride and what that means for our day to day.  This weeks theme was forgiveness (see Mark 2:1-17 for more info), and how that is the most valuable thing we can do as the church.  Well, I didn't get the chance to share a story that I had hoped to (believe it or not...I do edit myself down :), so I thought that here would be a good place to share. 

Our friend Cindy Charlton who is a missionary in Japan recently visited The Well and spoke about her ministry.  One story that she shared has stuck with me.  When she first arrived to Japan, Cindy's Japanese wasn't very good.  She remembers sitting in a worship service only being able to pick up on the occasional word, but every week she was still able to get something out of worship.  You see, every week there were flower arrangements placed throughout the worship space with flowers arranged in a very particular manner. 

In Japan there is a style of flower arranging called Ikebana.  In short, Ikebana is very different than Western flower arranging.  In the West we make a vase full and fairly symmetrical, and there is little meaning behind what we do outside of achieving a good aesthetic.  Ikebana, on the other hand, is minimal, asymmetrical, and has a great deal of meaning.  There are many different Ikebana schools around, but they all arrange with a purpose.  Many times that purpose is to show the relationship between man, heaven, and earth.  In many Christian circles they communicate the relationship we have with Jesus and the Father. 

So every week, Cindy didn't understand the words that were said, but she understood the message being delivered in flower arrangements.  They spoke of grace, forgiveness, and Jesus.  Imagine that...flowers communicating forgiveness.  As Christians we forget that when we forgive, we must communicate forgiveness with our whole self.  We can't just say "You're forgiven", it must be lived out.  We talked quite a bit on Sunday about how this works with our relationship with the individuals we encounter.  We must be as Jesus in Mark 2 where He ate with sinners...He showed them that all sin is gone and what is left is reconciliation and communion with Him. 

But how does this look for the church as a whole?  When you think about it, we are just one giant instrument of grace to the world (you know...a light in darkness, a city on the hill, etc.).  Seeing that our culture is leaving the church and seeking other gods, maybe we are not communicating grace and distributing grace as we have been called to do.  It seems that we are communicating something that former Christians have received as hate, apathy, legalism, or something else that is not of God.  Now, we could chalk it up to the world just being "the world", but I feel that the church is not communicating the grace of Jesus Christ in all that it does.  Rather, we've communicated something else.  Maybe we need to take a more careful look at the "little things" that we do (advertising, programs, worship, bulletins, art work, worship space, music, community service, mission, board meetings, how we talk to children...even flower arranging).  Maybe being the body of Christ means that every aspect of our body communicates the Gospel from our hands, to our feet, to our belly buttons.  We are all called to communicate the gospel in all that we do.  Maybe it's time for the church to do a little auditing on everthing that it does, because there may be some aspect of our ministries that does not communicate the Gospel.  

I know that if Ikebana has a role in showing one of our missionaries the Gospel, then maybe everything else I, and the church does can help point others to the cross. 

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