Sent-ness - Part Three

By: Paul Novak on: 20.01.08

A new blog on Sentness

I am aware that there may be strangers to “Small Boat” reading these blogs and wondering what an actual “Sentness” time looks like. Let me tell you what happens, and I will be as honest as I dare. Like the portrait of Oliver Cromwell, “Warts and all!”.



On most Sundays, the crew of Small Boat paddle through BELLS - an acryonym for Blessing, Eating, Learning, Listening and Sentness. A different boater will be rostered on to lead each segment. At Sentness, the general idea is that the person will tell us what they do on the other six days - Monday to Saturday. The crew are then requested to reflect back to the individual how God is imaged in such activity. I find it takes a lot of work to listen carefully while someone casually talks about themselves. In fact, it probably takes more energy for the listener than the talker. It’s what a spiritual director has to do: pay close attention to the sounds of the words the person offers and find God in the minute gaps of silence between them.



As someone describes their daily activity - their job, hobbies, or the relationships that they foster during their week - I often find myself leaning forward and intensely listening, for this is where the imago dei is to be found; in the mundane, normal, ordinary-ness of the person's life. Activity that means nothing to the person but probably everything to God. How God must revel in watching his children copy him in their own dimension, in their own sphere of influence, in their own sand-pit, so to speak. And how his enemy must cringe to see it - smelling God’s scent on even the most minor activities humans undertake. The enemy’s battle is half won, I suppose, if he can make us ignorant of how much we image our maker.



Sometimes the throw away lines leap out and grab the listener. We had a child care worker casually mention, as she was explaining her work, “I set up an environment and model how to play in it.” What could be closer to the image of God? To point this out and watch their eyes moisten in response makes Sentness a highlight of our liturgy. But they aren’t all like this.



I remember when an IT worker began their Sentness by saying, “There is nothing really spiritual about my job.” When I heard this I almost screamed. I put on my Jedi cloak, picked up my light sabre and starting swinging madly at anything in my way. How can this person not see that designing and writing a computer program is just like creating a world, naming its inhabitants and declaring who shall be in charge of what? Meanwhile the dark emperor sits and cackles with that evil smile, whispering in my ear, “Yes, lash out with all your anger and hate, then join me by my side … it is your deessssstiny.” I end up biting my tongue. My fierce reaction will not assist the revelation that is needed here. The crew are left to provide encouraging comments on character - reflecting on how the person behaves rather than revealing to them how their activity reflects God in all his glory. But it has reduced a potential holy moment into a Myers Briggs therapy meeting.



Other times I am not so contained. A mother, holding her newborn, recently left her employment to look after the little one. Her Sentness was all about the employment she used to have, but she failed to look 30 centimetres down at the new born held in her arms and mention the role she is in now - the complete and utter support for another life. There was no mention of the imaging of the “parent God” right before our eyes. I couldn’t keep quiet but had to send her to literally and successfully be God to one person – her own daughter!



In the past there have been those with a strong, evangelical, protestant background who treat the time as a confession for their lack of “witnessing” at their work. My head drops in despair. They wanted to be sent by the crew to evangelise their work colleagues - the very guilt-laden orientation Sentness is trying to counteract. Instead of taping into the latent joy hidden in their mundane activity - something that might just attract people to living a truly human life before their maker - they either resent it or are embarrassed by its necessity.



Some have refrained from being sent by the community. Perhaps too embarrassed or too shy to speak in front of us all. Or perhaps just not seeing the relevance of their activities in the work of the church. It’s a loss for the entire crew. But for those who have the boldness to share their lives, there is always something that can be seen as the activity of a true human. Something that goes beyond the encouragement of a noteworthy quality in their character.



We have sent a dress maker to be just like God, who is the original tailor. We have sent a journalist to narrate lives so other people can enter into that world and be so moved as to act in their own. We offered to reframe a bank's credit checker activity as imaging God who is a shepherd. In this banker's case though, they were reining in the silliness of sheep when it comes to the crucial areas of finance. I was greatly chuffed to be able to send our resident theological teacher not to teach theology – which could be seen as the highest thing a Christian can achieve - but to send them simply to teach. To note that when they prepare course material they are like the Holy Spirit brooding on the primal waters of creation.



We have told an animator to pay attention to humans in the smallest detail, just like our Heavenly Father does. We've sent an IT trainer to be incarnate in a world that few rarely manage to enter, and to be like the Holy Spirit that comes along side for help. We've sent a draftsperson to start with a blank piece of paper and design and produce a space for the purpose of human inhabitation. We've recognised a medical researcher giving voice to the voiceless in our society and sent an environmental scientist to take courage in noticing the details of God’s good creation.



The list goes on, but I know that not all the community share my enthusiasm for the task. Some hear their Sentness comments as how the crew like them as a person. Others as encouragement to be more “sacred” in their “secular” occupations. But for some, and for me of course, Sentness is the awakening that the things they do are God-imaging and ought to be celebrated, right down to the smallest, normal, mundane, everyday-ness detail.

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