A WHOLE NEW ERA

a sermon preached by the Rev Dr Tim W Jensen
at the First Religious Society in Carlisle, Massachusetts
Sunday January 7th, 2007

“Why is it we can remember the tiniest detail that has happened to us, and not remember how many times we have told it to the same person?” -- François de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)


I wanted to start out the New Year with something truly hilarious, but this was the best I could come up with:

THE TOP FIVE NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS FOR DOGS

• I will try to understand that the cat is from Venus and I am from Mars.

• I will take more time from my busy schedule to stop and smell the hydrants.

• I will always scoot before licking.

• I will grow opposable thumbs; break into the pantry; and decide for MYSELF how much food is too much.

• I will NOT chase the ball until I see it LEAVE HIS HAND....


I’m just a little curious, but how many of you have stopped recently to take a peek at the “Wall of Reverends” opposite the elevator outside my office? I don’t know whether you’ve ever really looked closely at the portraits there, but I see them almost every day. It may just be my imagination, or perhaps something about the way the pictures are hung, or even just simply that the whole building leans a little to the west, but it appears (to me, at least) that there is actually a small “stairstep” progressing from Woody’s portrait up to mine (or from mine down to Woody’s...depending upon which direction you start from).

Even more intriguing to me is the way that each of us appears to have been photographed in our “natural habitat.” Woody in his study, standing in front of the bookcase, looking appropriately erudite. Diane is standing out in front of the church, her robe draped over her arm, as if she is waiting to greet someone at the front door. Marguerite is standing right back there in front of the pipe organ, smiling and wearing the flaming chalice stole I assume she was given when she was designated Minister of Music, while my portrait was taken right down here in front of the pulpit, and shows me gesticulating wildly with my hands as if I were trying eagerly to communicate something truly wise and profound (or at least something profoundly obscure and confusing).

But the one small “detail” that always seems to give me pause, is when I take a moment to read the little metal plaques beneath our portraits, and am reminded once again that Woody began his ministry here at FRS in 1977 (which was the start of my Senior year of college at the University of Washington, and likewise the year I decided to apply to Divinity School instead of Law School); and that he retired from this pulpit in 2001 (which was the same year I finished my PhD at the University of Oregon).

Not having been here to witness it all myself, I can only imagine the kinds of changes that took place in this community during that almost quarter-century of parish ministry. But I do know that in my own life, during that same period of time, I finished my bachelor’s degree and earned three Masters degrees in addition to that PhD, was married (although not quite yet divorced by 2001), helped raise two stepchildren to the threshold of adulthood; gained nearly 100 pounds (and lost most of my once long, flowing, blond Viking hair); outlived four dogs, two cats, and countless other fish, birds, gerbils, hamsters, and other domestic rodents; lived on both coasts, plus deep in the heart of Texas and briefly overseas in the Scandinavian birthplace of my ancestors; and experienced (literally) half-a-lifetime’s worth of other “details” which I’m sure some of you have heard me talk about many times before, and which I won’t bother to bore you with now.

But as I said a moment ago, I can only imagine what kinds of comparable changes must have taken place here at FRS during that same period of time. Some of you though, I know, did experience personally all or most of that quarter-century of change; and in the three-and-a-half years that I’ve lived in here in Carlisle now, I’ve had a chance to listen to some of your stories, and learn a few of the details myself. I know, for example, that the most dramatic change which took place during that time was the construction of the “New Addition” (now more than a decade ago), along with the capital campaign which allowed that construction to take place, and the receipt of several significant bequests which made it possible to complete the project and even include an elevator large enough to accommodate a full-length casket (bequests which, thanks to Hal Sauer, are now appropriately commemorated on a plaque in the Addition stairwell). The pipe organ, the piano, and the harpsichord were also all new within that time frame, not to mention all of the births and deaths, the weddings, christenings and funerals, and the people who joined the church, and the people who (for whatever reason) left it during Woody’s tenure here.

But the one detail I hear over and over and over again is that as much as FRS has changed since 1977, the town of Carlisle itself has changed even more....

I have two favorite quotations regarding change. The first is once again from François de la Rochefoucauld, the 17th century French author I quoted at the beginning of the service. “The only thing constant in life is change.” The second is also from a Frenchman, this time the 19th century essayist and critic Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, who is responsible for that familiar and often-repeated aphorism “the more things change, the more they remain the same.” And somewhere in the shadows between these two glimpses of an ever-changing, never-changing world exists an immutable Truth about the nature of Reality itself, which, like the speed and location of an electron, shifts and changes simply as the result of our own attempts to pin it down.

The beginning of a New Year is likewise a time when the idea of change is naturally on our minds. Even if it is something as simple as remembering to write a seven instead of a six when we date the checks to pay our post-holiday bills, a particular sensitivity to change is all around us this time of year. Culturally, this is the season when we are encouraged to reflect upon our lives, and then to resolve to make the changes necessary to improve ourselves. And yet the one inescapable insight which inevitably emerges as the years come and go, is that even for those who are stubbornly resolved NEVER to change, the world still changes all around us whether we like it or not. The decision to avoid change, to continue simply doing things the same old way they have always been done, is in effect a decision to watch the world change without us, all the while falling further and further behind the times.

I also imagine that many people here today are aware of the importance of making “SMART” resolutions: of setting goals which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant (or perhaps simply Realistic) and, of course, Timely. Yet often times even the smartest of us have a difficult time achieving and maintaining our resolve to change, because we are literally of two minds about it. Our rational, logical mind may well see the wisdom and the advantages of change, and then attempt to muster all of the discipline and willpower at its command in order to take control of our lives and impose its Will upon our habitual behaviors.

But human beings are not, by nature, rational, logical creatures. We are rather (at least according to Jonathan Swift) only creatures CAPABLE of reason, and logic. There is also a more emotional, “animal-like” portion of our brains, and that half of our mind often has a very different set of priorities from the other.

The animal mind basically analyzes its environment in terms of some very simple dichotomies. Is it strange, or is it familiar? Is it painful, or is it pleasurable? Is it safe, or is it scary? Is it comfortable and routine, or difficult and confusing? Given a choice, our animal brains will always choose safe, comfortable, familiar and pleasant over difficult, unfamiliar, frightening and painful. Because, let’s face it, as far as the animal half of our brain is concerned, this is not rocket science. It’s just the path of least resistance -- surviving from one day to the next with as little effort as possible.

Conventional Wisdom has often said that the failure to achieve the change one aspires to is the result of a weakness of will. But eventually some people realized that it might actually be a lot easier to accomplish change successfully if both parts of our brains were working together. One of the manifestations of this insight is a discipline known as “Appreciative Inquiry,” which basically attempts to replace a model of change based on criticizing things you don’t like and attempting, by force of will, to transform them into something different, with one that seeks out things of positive worth and value and then builds upon them in order to create something better than it was before.

Sounds simple and logical, doesn’t it? The basic building blocks of Appreciative Inquiry are something called “The Four D’s” -- Discovery, Dreaming, Designing and Destiny (which used to be called “Delivery” until somebody realized that truly transformative change is actually a lot more dynamic than simply dropping off a package).

Discovery is about exploring and identifying core areas of Strength, Competency and Accomplishment: things that an individual, or an organization, truly do well and have been successful doing in the past. This phase is much more rigorous, however, than mere wishful thinking or the power of a positive attitude. It involves a truly appreciative, yet rigorous and systematic examination of values, accomplishments, strengths and resources in order to “discover and disclose positive capacity,” and to create an understanding of how those capabilities might be used to move forward.

The task of Dreaming is to “kindle the imagination,” to envision a changed future that is grounded in a vivid sense of what might be rather than a negative feeling that something is wrong. Its focus is on future potential rather than past shortcomings. Design incorporates these insights into a plan or an intentional process for making our Dreams come true. The final “D” -- Destiny -- reflects the experience that once this process is put into place, the actual change itself often begins to seem like an inevitable progression, rather than a difficult challenge to overcome. The Dream takes on a momentum all its own, because the Design has been build around one’s newly Discovered strengths, rather than merely an attempt to overcome one’s shortcomings by strength of will alone.

The Dream itself, I might add, needs to be more than just a fantasy, or wishful thinking. It truly does need to embody a Vision: something that we can imagine as clearly and vividly and tangibly as if it were right before our very eyes. And likewise, the pathway we design to take us there needs to be as familiar, comfortable, safe, pleasant and routine as we can possibly make it. By building upon the things we know and do well, we practice and improve our basic competencies so that, through repetition and rehearsal, the overall quality of our performance dramatically improves as well. And thus we change...not by becoming different than we are, but by becoming better than we were.

The techniques of Appreciative Inquiry were originally developed as a method for managing change in organizations, but the principles work just as well for individuals who desire to change their own lives. By closely examining who we truly are, in order to Discover what we do well, where we have been successful in the past and the future direction in which our passion calls us; by Dreaming and Imagining what it might look like if we actually fulfilled our unrealized potential; by Designing a “smart” plan to take us to that place, and then taking the necessary steps to fulfill that Destiny, we are capable of changing not only ourselves, but also the world in which we live, in very significant and dramatic ways.

Likewise, next month here at FRS we will begin a similar process for our entire congregation, as we prepare to celebrate our 250th anniversary of service to this community, and envision new ways of fulfilling our mission and our ministry here in Carlisle into the foreseeable future, and beyond. As you may have already seen or heard, on February 10th you are all invited to an all-church “Visioning Event,” during which we will begin to share our Dreams for the future of FRS, and likewise begin the process of Discovering the Resources and Designing the Plan that will allow us to fulfill that Destiny. I hope all of you will plan to attend, and that you will encourage all of your friends here at church to attend as well.

I’ve saved my favorite maxim regarding change for the last. Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi once said: “Be the change you want to see.” The original quotation continues “...in the world,” but you don’t generally see that part quoted any more, because the shorter maxim is actually more powerful. “Be the change you want to see” -- not just in the world, but in yourself, in your relationships, in your career, in your spiritual life and religious faith, in everything you do. And when you do, you will surprise yourself, with the potential you discover there....