Sermon illustration
Japanese Art Finds Beauty in Imperfection
According to Japanese legend, a young man named Sen no
Rikyu sought to learn the elaborate set of customs known as the "Way of
Tea." He went to tea master Takeno Joo, who tested the younger man by
asking him to tend the garden. Rikyu cleaned up debris and raked the
ground until it was perfect, and the garden immaculate. Before
presenting his work to the master, he shook a cherry tree, causing a few
flowers to fall onto the ground. To this day, the Japanese revere Rikyu
as one who understood to his very core wabi-sabi. Emerging in the
fifteenth century as a reaction to the prevailing aesthetic of
lavishness, ornamentation, and rich materials, wabi-sabi is the art of
finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in earthiness, of revering
authenticity above all.
When a white pottery bowl breaks, for example, one might
glue it back together with white lacquer to disguise the breaks, making
it look as new and complete as possible. But in the East the bowl might
be glued back together with lacquer sprinkled with gold to highlight
the cracks and imperfections. Japanese culture sees the aesthetic value
of imperfection in wabi-sabi just as much as the Greeks valued
perfection in their art. Wabi-sabi is seen as beautiful because it is
imperfect and broken. The gospel is like spiritual wabi-sabi. It is the
story of how God redeems imperfect, broken people and uses them to bless
a fractured world.
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