The Power of Appreciation. The messiah is one of us.

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Kimberly Green
5 years ago
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1 The Power of Appreciation. The messiah is one of us. The concept of a Messiah comes to us from Judaism. As the Hebrews struggled to become a nation, and even more, to maintain the nation, they longed for an ideal leader, a king who would rule the land with justice and mercy and lead all who lived there to prosperity and the good life. Kind of like we still hope for from our leaders. The word Messiah means anointed one. The Jews sometimes combined political and priestly power, as we are in danger of doing today. And they believed that this ideal ruler would be anointed by God, endowed with special gifts of wisdom and righteousness. He would be their savior, a leader who would save them from the aggressions of the countries surrounding them. Save them from themselves, from the greed that led to amassing great wealth for some while leaving the masses in poverty. From violence and addiction and all the things which afflict human beings. So, they would revere such a person. If they encountered someone who they thought was the Messiah, they would be in awe. They would respond with respect and deference, perhaps even bowing down. The point of our story this morning, is that our society, our organizations, our communities, our churches and synagogues and mosques would be transformed if we treated each other this way. Just as the village in the story was transformed and renewed. There is no more powerful factor to affect the quality of a community than how we treat each other. How we speak to and about each other, how we are affectionate with each other, how we assume good intentions on the part of one another, how we appreciate one another. I think our Regional Consultant was trying to tell us something like this when she told us in October that We are enough. What makes congregations wonderful, what makes them attractive, isn t the size of the budget or the building, but the quality of our relationships with one another. Are we always criticizing one another, or do we strive to appreciate one another?

2 Our congregations tend to be made up of well-educated and competent people who strive for excellence in all they do. And that s not a bad thing, if its handled carefully. One of the challenges of it is that excellence is usually achieved through continual critique. So, the shadow side, the danger of the pursuit of excellence is that we constantly criticize and miss the beauty and wonderfulness of what s going on around us. In the workplace, efficiency and excellence may be the highest values. But here, in a religious community, in a community striving to become a place where everyone is beloved, the highest values are not efficiency nor even excellence. Here the highest values are kindness and compassion and respect. It is a spiritual discipline to accept the world in its mutilated state, and yet never lose sight of its blessings. When I am frustrated with the way life is going, at home or at church and tempted to complain, can t find any blessings, I recall the words of Jane Kenyon, in her poem, Otherwise. She wrote: I got out of bed on two strong legs. I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach. I took the dog uphill to the birch wood. All morning I did the work I love. At noon I lay down with my mate. We ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks.

3 I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls and planned another day just like this day. But one day, I know, it will be otherwise. And because one day it will be otherwise, we cherish what we have now. We cherish this congregation, every one of you, for the gifts that you bring, and the gifts that you are.

4 Someone said there is a universal law that says, You get more of what you praise. I don t know who said it, but I try to live by it, because it has been true in my experience. In the 1970 s there was an artist named Nancy Cooperrider, who was married to David Cooperrider. David was studying organizational theory. He was a student at Case Western Reserve University and wanted to learn how to get organizations to change in a positive direction. He thought he d study Cleveland Clinic, but when he went there, he couldn t really find anything wrong. They seemed very successful at providing health care, the staff and patients seemed happy. So he went back to his adviser and asked for a more troubled organization to study. But his adviser said, No, go back to Cleveland Clinic and ask why they are so successful. He did, and influenced by his wife s artistic notion, that in every piece of art there is beauty, he came up with a concept of organizational change called Appreciative Inquiry. He came to believe that Instead of asking what s wrong, we should ask, what s right, what s going well? He believes that like art, every organization has beauty and is an expression of spirit. If we can uncover and focus on that beauty and that spirit, we can envision a future of where we want to be, and we will be more likely to succeed One of the psychological reasons is that if we focus on what we ve done well, it will give us confidence to build on what we have already done. And spiritually, it works, because it focusses on the blessings of life, it grounds us and centers us in gratitude. We create our reality by what we focus on, and how we speak about it. By focusing on what is going well, we are acknowledging the gifts of life, the blessings. If we can believe that one of us might be the Messiah, but we don t know which one, and we treat everyone here with reverence and respect and appreciation it will transform our congregation. We will become a happier, more

5 compassionate and more joyful group of people. That energy, of love and respect is what will attract new people.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT a sermon given by the Rev. Rosemary Lloyd Sunday, October 12, 2014 at the Foxborough Universalist Church

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT a sermon given by the Rev. Rosemary Lloyd Sunday, October 12, 2014 at the Foxborough Universalist Church Jane Kenyon was working on an anthology of collected poems when she died