Strategic Planning

September 9, 2007
15th Sunday after Pentecost

Text: Luke 14:25-33

Preacher: The Rev. R. Bruce Todd

"Suppose you were on a nonstop flight to Asia,” says the motivational speaker, “and heard this announcement: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We’re traveling west across the Pacific Ocean. In a few hours, you will be able to look down and see land. When that happens, we are going to start looking for a big city with an airport. If we find one before our fuel runs out, we will land. Then we will figure out where we are and decide where we want to go next. In the meantime folks, just sit back and relax and enjoy your trip.’

“Would you have a relaxed flight? Wouldn’t it be better if somebody had planned ahead?” It has been said that the average American spends more time planning their vacation than they do planning their life. Jesus certainly believed we should have a plan for our lives. So on this occasion in today’s Gospel, he told his disciples: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”

Jesus is asking us to reflect on our lives and not simply react to our lives. There was a tragic story that came out of Portland Oregon back in 2004. Dianne, a 56-year-old bus driver
with many years of experience, pulled into the Sunset Transit Center shortly before noon. She was running six minutes late, and was eager to use the bathroom. After waiting impatiently for her passengers to disembark, Dianne hurried off the bus, leaving the engine in gear and running, with no parking brake engaged. She walked around to the front of the bus and reached in the driver’s window to pull the lever that closed the door. The bus is equipped with automatic brakes that keep it from moving as long as the doors are open. Once the doors shut, the brakes release after a one-and-a-half-second delay. As Dianne passed in front of the bus again, she suddenly found the 15-ton bus creeping slowly toward her. She could have jumped out of the way. Instead, witnesses watched her push against the bus with her arms outstretched, in an effort to stop it. The mass of a bus is more than 200 times the mass of an adult woman. The bus did indeed stop, eventually, due to circumstances other than Dianne’s efforts. Paramedics arrived within minutes to find Dianne dead beneath the bus. An investigation blamed the accident on “operator error.”

Now, if Dianne had stopped and thought it through, she would have known she could not stop this 15-ton bus with her own strength. The problem was, she didn’t think. She simply reacted to the situation. This is the difference between reflecting and reacting. Many people live this way. They do not plan their lives. They do not reflect on their purpose and the means they are taking to achieve that purpose. They simply react to events as they unfold. Living on the edge is what they might call it. For some of them, it is the edge of disaster. Failing to plan, the old adage goes, is planning to fail. But what about when you do plan and things don’t go the way they are planned?

Our Building Program had plans. It had Air Conditioning installed in the church by June 21st. We are still having problems with that. The Nursery School rooms were suppose to be finished by July 28th. They tell me they will definitely be finished by this coming Thursday. And the old Children’s Chapel was going to be ready by mid-July. Well I’m tired of waiting for that one, so we’re having Coffee hour in there beginning today!

So what do we do when things do not go according to plan? There is the story of a woman who underwent a very delicate form of brain surgery. In removing the tumor, the doctors were concerned that the slightest miscue could cause the loss of either her memory or her eyesight. So they asked the woman to choose which side of the brain tissue they’d enter with their scalpels. In other words, if she had to lose one of those senses, which would she prefer to lose? Wisely, she said, “Let me think about it overnight, and I’ll tell you tomorrow which sense is more important to me.” The next day she told the doctors, “If I had to lose either memory or sight, I would prefer to lose my memory.” When asked how she arrived at her decision, she calmly replied, “I’d rather see where I’m going than remember where I’ve been.”

God is in the business of Forgiveness. We receive forgiveness for what we’ve done. We do not receive forgiveness for what we are going to do. We should not plan to fail God. It’s the old “Today is the first day of the rest of your life!” And God wants us to be about “Strategic Planning”. That’s what Jesus is talking about. Stop worrying about what has happened, and use your energy to plan for what is going to happen.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Too often it is human nature to just jump in without counting the cost.

That’s probably why so many Americans have huge Credit Card debts. But it happens in so many areas. There are many people who were in the Military Reserves because they enjoyed the extra income for only reporting for duty one weekend a month. Then came the time when they were required to report for Active Duty. Many of them have not counted the cost of their commitment. How many homes are now being repossessed because all of those people signing up for that Variable Rate Mortgage did not plan for the time when the rates would go up?
And Hospitals are always facing the situation of the person who comes to the Emergency Room with no health insurance, because they never planned to get sick.

And this also carries over to the Church. Today Mike & Nicole are having their son Dylan Baptized. They seem to be typical parents, but many parents don’t really count the cost involved in having their child Baptized. They promise to: See to their instruction in the Christian faith? That means bringing them to Sunday School, Catechism Class, Vacation Bible School, telling them what Christmas and Easter are really about. They also promise to bring them to the services of God’s house! That means all the time. On the sunny Sundays and the rainy ones. Even on those Sundays when you want to sleep in. And how many Brides and Grooms really knew what the cost was going to be when they stood in front of the Altar saying those Wedding Vows? I guess if we really totally planned for these events in our lives we’d never do any of them. But we plan the best we can and when plans do not go according to plan we call on God for strength or we can give up!

There is a poem I read this week - it goes like this:
Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl. One was a wise and cheery soul;
The other one took a gloomy view And bade his friend a sad adieu.
Said the other frog with a merry grin, “I can’t get out, but I won’t give in!

I’ll swim around till my strength is spent, Then I will die all the more content.”
And as he swam, forever it seemed, His struggling began to churn the cream
Until on top of pure butter he stopped And out of the bowl he quickly hopped.

The moral, you ask? Oh it’s easily found: If you can’t get out, just keep swimming around.

Our little frog teaches us an important lesson. There is no shame in failure. The shame comes in quitting. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ We may plan to live our life one way. However, at the end we may look back and notice it was not at all like we planned it to be. But, we finished it!

Jesus is telling us that there is a cost to being his disciple. And although we say we are willing to pay the price, very few of us really are. But, like with Dylan Michael Bell, we have been Baptized and received a promise. A promise that, although we are not willing to pay the price to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ was willing to pay the price for us to become a child of God. Amen