Several weeks ago I was walking down the street in New York, doing something that often annoys me when I see other people doing it. I was talking on my cell phone. The phone was in a pocket and the earplug device was in my ear. To everyone around me, it must have appeared that I was talking out into the air. When I finished my conversation, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and looked into the eyes of a woman who was about thirty-five years old. I immediately apologized, "I don't like it when I have to listen to other people's conversations. I'm sorry I interfered with your space." "No, that's not why I stopped you," she said. "I stopped you because I liked the way you concluded your conversation. You said, 'Bless you. Bless you.' We need to bless one another more. And so thank you for saying that." I looked at her and I said, "Bless you." And she said to me, "Bless you, sir," and we went off in our separate directions. That was a serendipitous moment of grace. It might have lasted only thirty seconds, but in that small bit of time, I experienced the power of blessing. Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen is a physician who specializes in cancer. She is also a wonderful storyteller and author of the book, My Grandfather's Blessings. In the book, she writes about her grandfather's influence on her. He was a rabbi, a man immersed in the Kabbalah, the mystical teachings of Judaism. Although he died when she was only about six years of age, she remembers the lessons he taught her. Here is what he told her about the beauty and power of blessing:              When you bless someone, you repair the world. What an extraordinary phrase! He also told her that ancient Jewish teachings say that soon after the world was formed, the holy was broken up and scattered into many God- sparks that were spread around the universe. Everyone and everything contains a God- spark. That spark contains the love and the goodness of God, and it is present in us. Wherever we go, that God-spark can reveal itself to us when we use our capacity to bless. And when we do bless one another and bless life, we really do repair the world. We also see the power of blessing in the Bible. In fact, the Bible is a book of blessings. The word "blessing" appears on almost every page. God is always blessing someone, or somebody is blessing somebody else. Jesus, most extraordinarily, blessed the world and repaired it when He blessed the little children: Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. He picked the children up in his arms and He put his hands on them and He blessed them. And when Jesus blessed the little children, Jesus blessed the world. Dorothy Booker, who is the chairperson of our Board of Elders and Deacons, recently told me a story that was very moving and meaningful to her. Dorothy works at New York University and she experiences the stresses and strains and trials present in all jobs. Once, when she was experiencing a particularly stressful period, she got an idea to help herself. She called the mother of her two-and-a-half-year-old godchild, and said, "Would you lend him to me for two days?" Can you imagine somebody who is under stress wanting to spend time with a toddler? But Dorothy and the boy spent two wonderful days together, then she delivered him back to his mother. I said, "Dorothy, what were you looking for? How did it go?"   "Arthur, I needed something simple," she explained. "I needed a relationship that didn't have many levels. I needed some love. I needed to get centered. I found that with that little boy. I got into his world. I learned what Jesus meant when He said, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for this is the kingdom of heaven.' Jesus must have felt blessed as He was blessing." And so that is the power of blessing. We never think about blessing God. Perhaps we don't think that God needs blessings because God is the giver of blessings. Yet in the 103rd Psalm, the Psalmist tells us something different:  Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all God's benefits, who forgives you for your iniquities, who heals you of your diseases, who lifts you up out of the pit... who gives His goodness for all the days of your life. Blessings are powerful, but I daresay that many, if not most of us, are not open to the idea. We are just too occupied with the small troubles and concerns that confront us every day. What can we do about this problem? How do we open our minds so we can give and receive blessings, remembering that blessings are within us because that God-spark is present in us too? In her book, Dr. Remen offers some inspirational advice on this problem. She writes: "I believe we have blessings that are surrounding us continuously, sometimes following us for years. I liken it to airplanes stacked up in a holding pattern over an airport, waiting for a time and a place to land." We need to let those blessings happen in our lives. Yet Dr. Remen also observes that we often must experience some kind of catastrophe, like a major illness or a great loss, before we can open our minds and say, "All this, the debris of life, is gone. Now I can be open to receive blessings."  She tells the story of one of her patients, a woman named May Thomas. When May was an elderly woman, her whole body became riddled with cancer. May had experienced a difficult life. She had raised seven children, and several grandchildren on top of that. She supported them by cleaning other people's houses.   When May became sick, Rachel would call her every few days to say, "May, this is Rachel. How are you doing?"  And May would always reply, "I'm blessed, sister. I'm blessed." The night before May died, Rachel called her again. Since May was too weak to come to the phone, a member of her family brought the phone to her and put it into her hand.  "Hi May, this is Rachel. How are you doing?"  There was a long, long pause. Rachel heard some muffled sounds, as if there was an effort being made to speak.  And finally, through cancerous lungs, May spouted the words, "I'm blessed, sister, I'm blessed." Blessings abound. We need to be open to receive them. I know that you, as I, are very troubled about the world in which we're living. We would think that in this day and age, we would be surrounded by more wisdom, more patience, more understanding. Yet there's so much meanness, cruelty, harshness and punishment in the world. I couldn't believe my eyes the other night. I was watching the news on television and saw adults, who said they were Protestants, taunting and making life difficult for little Catholic children as they walked to school in Ireland. I couldn't believe it. Doing this to anyone is wrong, let alone to child! It's the curse of our humanity. And then in Israel, between the Israelis and the Palestinians. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth! If you kill me, I'm going to kill some of yours! Back and forth, back and forth. When does the hatred stop, turn to blessing? When does the God-spark begin to take over?  But we're hardly any better in this country. One of the symbols of our craziness is road rage. We've all experienced it, and we've all felt it. Unimportant stuff causes us to go crazy. And we seem to have a national obsession with judgment and condemnation and revenge and punishment. If you've listened to talk radio, you know the meanness that exists in the hearts of so many people in this country.   What can we do about it? Imagine this. I wonder what would happen if everybody in this church, and all persons listening on the radio, and all those watching on television, would spend the next twenty-four hours of their lives letting every encounter with every other human become a blessing. No matter how difficult those encounters, we'd bless other people and repair them. At the end of that twenty-four-hour period, we would feel so much better about ourselves because we would have loved ourselves as God loves us. And there's something else too. We would have touched other lives. You never know how deeply you can touch other lives through blessing. We are always in a position to do that. There's a group of people that I know who do bless other people constantly. I don't know them intimately, I've never gotten together with them as a group, but they're extraordinary and they give thousands and thousands of blessings every day. And I'm not exaggerating. They do it on the job, and I believe they also do it when they leave the job.   Do you know who these people are? They are the toll collectors on the New Hampshire Turnpike. I kid you not! If you've ever traveled that road, you know that they are the kindest, loveliest human beings. I love paying that one-dollar toll on the New Hampshire Turnpike. They always have a kind word for you: "Hi, how are you today? Are you feeling good? Have a good trip? Have a nice day! Bless you!"   They always have something good to say to you, and their blessings have a ripple effect. That is the power of the blessing, and it's the easiest thing in the world to do.   I conclude by referring to a lovely lady, a member of this church for more than forty years. Georgina Delventhal was her name. She died recently. Over the years, she and her husband Warren became very dear friends of mine. Everyone who knew Georgina described her as a woman who was very gentle, very soft, very non-judgmental, very understanding and very patient. Just a few days ago, Warren told me that he had looked through her wallet after she passed away. In it, he found some sayings that brought him to tears, because her philosophy of life was found in them: Criticism should be like rain, gentle enough to do good but not destroy roots. If there's any kindness I can show, let me show it, for I shall see this day only once. What you do with what you have makes you who you are. The last thing that he found in her wallet was a quote from our church newsletter. It's a phrase often quoted by our Bible scholar, Sister Carol Perry:     You may be the only Christ a person will ever see. Bless you! Bless you! Be a blessing, because indeed you may be the only Christ a person will ever see. Let us pray. We are blessed, God, and we thank you for Your blessings. Lord, help us to be open to receive them. Let them live in us and through us, so that as we receive, we give and become a blessing. Lord, may we have the privilege of working to repair the world. Amen.