9.23.07 The Power of Agreement
WESTMINSTER PULPIT
The Rev. Dr. David Thompson
September 23, 2007 “The Power of Agreement”
Text: “Truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.” From St John’s Gospel: “If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you may ask what you will and you shall get it.”
There is great power in agreement. Alan Cohen in his book Dare to be Yourself, tells a story of the power of agreement. He had decided to experiment personally with the power of agreement with his assistant Noel who is his agreement partner. The printer on his computer needed repair. The repairmen told him that they would have to replace the entire cartridge assembly in order to repair the printer, at a cost of $700 plus labor. Cohen was aghast for the cost for the entire laser printer was only $1600.
Cohen turned to his assistant Noel who is a partner in highest possibility thinking with him. He turned to Noel and asked her, “Do you agree that we can get this fixed for a cheaper price?” She quickly replied “Of course I do!” They shook hands on it. He called another repairman who gave him the same story except that he would only charge him the wholesale price of $450 plus labor.
Again Alan turned to Noel and asked “Do you agree that I can get this machine fixed perfectly and easily for a fraction of that cost?” “Certainly!” she replied.
Cohen made one more call. This repairman said that he knew someone who could replace the small broken part without replacing the cartridge. Cohen called him and the man said, “Sure I do that all the time.” Cohen turned to Noel and said “I think we have our man!” The repairman came out to Cohen’s home and sat down with a screw driver and replaced the defective part all in about half an hour. The bill? $88.00!
There is a phrase repeated often in the Book of Acts that we can find in the King James Version, it translates two Greek words with the phrase “With one accord”, which means agreement, or of being of like mind.
I am going to quote them all, so that we can see how they are indicative of the early state of the Christian Church. It is a church that knows the power of agreement and because of that it is a growing church. Here they are:
v “They all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication”
v “Now when the Day of Pentecost had come they were all of one accord in one place”
v “So continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart…and God added daily to the church…
v When Peter and John were let go they went to their own companions and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them and when the companions heard that they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, “You are God who made Heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.”
v Acts 5:12 speaks of continuing power in the church in the following words: “And through the hands of the Apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people, and they were all of one accord in Solomon’s porch…and believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of men and women…”
This is the power of positive agreement! The Book of Acts also records the power of negative agreement.
The stoning of Stephen was done by a crowd of one accord. Acts 18 records the Jews rising up “with one accord” against St. Paul. In Ephesus, in the Silversmith’s riot, the people rise up against St. Paul “with one accord”.
So negative agreement is also powerful, the common power between the positive and negative agreement is the neutral ability we human beings have to come to like-mindedness. This ability can go either way.
Stewart Levine, the founder of Resolutionworks, has a book called Getting to Resolution. In that book he talks about common perceptions around agreements. Most of us view agreements as the result of long and difficult negotiations and our focus goes to protect ourselves from the “what if’s” of a situation. Then he makes a very profound statement: “There is an important distinction between agreements for results and agreements for protection which are negotiated from an adversarial perspective. The adversarial perspective shifts the focus away from what we want to create, to what can go wrong. They foster an adversarial climate in new relationships, when you really desire collaboration and joint vision. Then he says something even more profound: “Protective agreements have diminishing value in our complex transactional milieu.”
What are the characteristics of agreement for results?
Agreement for results resolves conflicts, inspires joint ventures, and allows for teamwork and shared vision. Productivity goes up because the work becomes primary and the focus is not on “politics”.
Positive agreement inspires creativity and innovation because the energy of the organization is not lost in hostility. We can concentrate on our goals rather than the “chatter” in our organization. Positive agreement handles diversity issues because differences have to be acknowledged in the crafting of agreements. Individual concerns are expressed and heard, people are legitimized and groups get the benefit of individual genius. Positive agreement for results elevates mood and attitude making us willing players and happier people. Positive agreement for result is the best strategy for avoiding conflict.
Do we use the power of positive agreement for results in the church of Jesus Christ? In one church they had a need for a fax machine. Someone kindly donated one. One well meaning elder smelling a rat in process, because the Session had not authorized the purchase said. “Did the Session authorize the purchase?” The answer was no. Warming to his task he said: “How much did it cost?” “Twelve hundred dollars” was the answer. “$1200! Where is the money to come from?” He asked. “It was donated to the church.” Came the answer.” Sensing that he was losing his momentum he suddenly said “And how much did it cost to install and how much does it cost to run?” The answers came back that there was no cost to install and only paper cost to run because it was attached to the telephone line on a spare jack. The only question was whether The Session would accept the gift or not.
Two things to note here: There were agreements for protection in that system and the well meaning elder was conscious of that, but there was no similar positive agreement in that church for results. A positive agreement for results might have decided that the church needed to strain every effort to grow the church and to be the most effective organization it could be. The mission of the church would be primary, not the politics of protective adversarial process. The gift did not actually violate the agreements for protection; it just didn’t fit because it was a spontaneous gift. If however there had also been an agreement for positive results between everyone on the Session, the Session could have celebrated a leap forward with this new tool for the organization’s effectiveness. Instead the fax machine landed with a dull thud and there was no gratitude. And lack of gratitude did what it always does; it dried up further acts of generosity.
At Westminster we recently conducted a survey which reflected our diversity as a congregation. It is wonderful that our bulletin states that we are “deliberately diverse”, but what does that actually mean when people in a congregation are very different from each other and want very different things from their church and from their pastor?
It can mean that we are not in agreement and if that is the case we will not be able to emulate the early church. Yet they were very diverse as well. So how did they pull off their unity amidst their diversity? By following the teachings of Jesus on agreement!
Our whole society and world is now too complex to try to solve everything through protective agreements. There is a better way. In positive agreements for results, a common vision can be indentified and every action that moves that vision forwards can be celebrated. This allows for the creativity and innovation that every successful organization needs at its heart. It respects the contributions of individual genius.
The teaching of Jesus is about the power of positive agreement. St. John’s Gospel, because it is written so much later than the Gospel of Matthew, is sometimes an early church commentary on a saying of Jesus. It is so in this case. At first blush Christ’s saying seems not to be very careful. “Truly I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.” That seems to be a blank check but there are safeguards even in the first saying. It is in the phrase, “gathered in the name of Jesus.” St John’s Gospel makes it clear that if we remain in Jesus and his words remain in us we can ask what we will. Thus if we are centered on the teaching of Jesus about loving God self and neighbor, where two people are in agreement Jesus will also be present.
The teaching here for us is this: There is a great power in agreement. But agreement can be a two edged sword, either positive or negative in terms of its effects. Agreement can be crafted in an adversarial context. However that shifts the focus from what we want to create to what can go wrong. Our world is very complex, so agreements for protection become ever more difficult to craft and less useful because of the times we live in. So what page is Jesus on? He is advocating here the power of positive agreement for results because as they say in sales, there is an “ask”, a request, a desired result.
But added to the positive power of agreement for results is a higher agreement because the context for this saying is a context of prayer. There is the “God factor” in this higher agreement. And the amazing promise attached to this saying is that if we agree on something with an agreement partner and it is also in the spirit of Jesus, Jesus himself promises to be with those partners. The promise under these conditions is this: “if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven”. This is an amazing higher positive agreement for results.
One thing that I note with the teaching of Jesus is that it always works from the individual level right up to our very complex world society.
In a church where I once served I was counseling a young father who was intent on committing suicide. As he sat across my desk from me he told me the sad story of his life: alcoholism, disappointment in marriage, loss of his father and family home and a strong desire to end it all. In fact he took out of his pocket the bullet he intended to use to kill himself and showed it to me. I told him about Jesus and took him to the stained glass window in the church which was the famous painting by Hollman Hunt, of Jesus standing outside the door knocking. The door famously has no handle on the outside and the outside is overgrown with thorns. Christ is simply standing outside saying, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and sup with him.” I spoke to this tortured soul about opening the door of his life to Jesus. We returned to my office and he committed his life to Jesus. He then reached into his pocket and said to me, “I don’t need this anymore and handed me the bullet. I told him it would become one of my most treasured possessions. We made an agreement that he would never again seek to take his own life. We also agreed that he would faithfully attend AA and shook hands on that.
He returned to church on a regular basis and from time to time I would see him standing in front of the stained glass window. The last time I saw him was on Christmas Eve. The church was full and we were of one accord singing about peace on earth, and there he was sitting with his family with joy and peace all over his face. The teaching of Jesus works on the individual level when two agree in His name.
What about the world level? What our world so desperately needs is the power of positive agreement. In the diversity of the interfaith world in Sacramento we have agreed to disagree. We have agreed not to proselytize at Interfaith events. Instead we have agreed to respect each other’s beliefs. We have agreed to cooperate together whenever we can on social issues. We have agreed to mutual hospitality and we have a bonus. We now not only tolerate each other, we have moved to acceptance and have become kind to each other and have become very good friends. From Scientologists to Moonies, from Muslims to Jews, from Adventists to Latter Day Saints, from Protestants to Catholics we have the Power of Positive Agreement at work whenever we collaborate. Sacramento is now the most integrated city in the United States according to Time Magazine. This is no accident. It is the Power of Positive Agreement for results. Here in Sacramento we have also agreed not to tolerate hate-crimes against any community and Westminster stands in the forefront of that movement and I am so proud of you for that. God bless you for that!
This is precisely what the world needs. It is full of disagreements, hostility, protective adversarial agreements, negative agreements that are unjust and out of those negative unjust agreements comes the violence of the modern world including terrorism and our response of endless war.
Jesus would have us solve all that by our choosing the power of positive agreements for results, in His Spirit. And the Spirit of Jesus is uncompromising on one point: The love of the enemy. We cannot have an agreement where Jesus is present unless we include the love of the enemy. God will not give us what we want or ask for if it offends the Spirit of Jesus. That is the key to our personal lives and the whole world. There is immense power released in positive agreements for results that honor the Spirit and teachings of Jesus. For we are not alone in this Universe: In fact God acts! The world changes. The Kingdom of God comes. The Angels sing. There is peace over all the earth and goodwill amongst human beings!
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