SPIRITUAL REST

There is an ancient tradition in Christianity, as well as other faith communities, to take time out of our routines for resting in the Spirit. These have become known as "retreats". As the name suggests, it is a time to retreat temporarily from the business of the world and allow ourselves to reconnect with the holy one without the distractions of everyday living.

Such times are opportunities for us to reflect on ourselves in light of our relationships with others and most importantly our relationship with God. A time of retreat gives us pause to search the soul and gain self knowledge, perserver in prayer, and seek the wisdom that God desires to give us in every moment. Usually they consist of quiet reflection, scriptural reading and some manner of study.

Over the next 5 days I will be attending a directed retreat at St. Benedict's Monastary which will focus on "Praying with the Mystics". Through silence, directed group sessions with a spiritual counsellor, and ample time for prayer and reflection we will be practicing prayer in the way of mystics like Julian of Norwich, Theresa of Avila, Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day.

I won't be updating the Blog until this retreat is over, however, I will be texting "gems of wisdom" from the retreat to Sparling's Twitter page. If you'd like to know more about praying with the mystics - follow my retreat at www.twitter.com . You will need to sign in and follow sparlingonline@mts.net

Shalom

FAITH NEEDS INITIATIVE: Reflections on Blind Bartimaeus

The Gospel of Mark presents to us the story of Blind Bartimaeus - which we will read this upcoming Sunday to celebrate the 5th Sunday of Lent.

Here in the midst of a crowd following Jesus, Bartimaeus calls out "Son of David - Have mercy on me". He is immediately told by the crowds and the disciples to be "silent". Jesus is speaking with the crowds and he should not be disturbed by the likes of some blind beggar! This does not deter Bartimaeus one bit - he has heard of the Nazarene and by calling him "son of David" publicly recognizes him as Messiah.

The interesting piece of this Gospel story, however, is that it demonstrates quiet faith as not being enough. Bartimaeus has faith in Jesus - but it is his persistence that changes his life. His faith is not silenced into shyness by the crowds around him insisting he be quiet - rather, his faith is persistent. Blind Bartimaeus speaks up and acts up. As people persist in telling him to be silent the louder he gets. Finally Jesus heals him and we are told that he follows Jesus. This is the outcome of persistent active faith.

I wonder if we could place ourselves in this story today. How often is our faith silenced by the crowds around us? Do we take initiative with our faith? Do we act up and speak up? And when we move our faith out of shyness, do we actually follow Jesus as we are told Blind Bartimaeus did?

EMERGENT OR CONVERGENT?

There is a kind of "restlessness of spirit" among people these days, particularly within the Church and our interactions among others. From a sociological perspective some point to the changing age and words like "post-modern", "emergent", "post-liberal" or neocharismatic have been popularized. I suspect, however, that it is too early to guess what the movement of Spirit is doing but it is clear that something is emerging.

At Sparling we have been trying to express ourselves in the context of our motto, "Where God Speaks Your Language", and for us this has really been more of an exercise of allowing a CONVERGENCE of sorts. How this has played out for us is in the intentional focus on hopefulness in the post-modern expression of faith manifest in the emerging church while at the same time being faithful to conventional Christianity and the best it has to offer.

It may sound like we're simply blending the two in order to capitalize on the best of both convention and emergence, but we believe its more than that. It's an attempt to tell the ancient story with cultural relevance for today. Our convictions that form the basis of our Christian identity (so wonderfully expressed in "A New Creed") must be expressed in a way that ignites contemporary vision and leads us to missional action.

In short we have to ask the question: "how is the Great Commission" best understood and lived out in our contemporary context?"

"LET DOWN YOUR NETS"

Okay... so Jesus tells the disciples to do something out of the ordinary - to let down their nets over the side of the boat one more time (even though they've been fishing all night and caught nothing). They listen.......lo and behold.....a miraculous catch.

I guess its a challenge to think outside our ordinary way of doing things. The disciples have tried all the tricks, checked out the best spots on the lake and come up with nothing - Jesus goes against the perceived "normal" thing to do and asks them to try one more time. It pays off for them.

So....blogging and Sparling? I guess its an attempt to let down our nets....one more time. Few of us here are very familiar with blogging....twittering....facebooking....etc...BUT...time to let go of whats expected and let down our nets into these waters. LETS HOPE FOR A MIRACULOUS CATCH!