Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Fr. J. D. Ousley
9 September 2007Luke 14“Cost-Benefit Analysis”
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
This summer has been lively on Wall Street. Many mortgages seem so shaky that they are unlikely to be repaid. In the quaint idiom of the lenders, these loans are "subprime" — in other words, they were made to people who might not repay them!
Now among the many concerns raised by this financial crisis is the problem of buildings that were never completed. When the mortgage market was strong, developers could expect to be able to sell new buildings as soon as they were finished. So they rushed to get their buildings under construction.
Contracted poured foundations and started erecting walls, even though they hadn’t yet sold the houses or rented the offices they were building.
Such poor planning is hardly new. Humans have always had trouble preparing for the future. They have not wanted to admit that unexpected problems can arise.
In today's Gospel, Jesus uses hasty construction as an example of such poor planning. He says, "... which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish it, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'"
Over-ambitious contractors aren't unique to our time! Jesus wisely observed that these builders would not only lose the money they put into their projects but would also suffer the embarrassment of having everyone see how greedy they were!
So whenever we start something, we should be sure we can finish it.
As it happens, this summer, we tried to address problems in our church building and our Parish House. Some of these problems involved maintenance that had long been needed. Others were caused by damaging storms and floods.
In our parish, every time that we embark on such building projects we try to follow Christ's advice. Last spring, we had a fund-raiser to get seed money for the projects, and we always try to have funds in reserve in case we have to spend more than we budget. We never start, then, unless we have "counted the cost."
And, of course, Jesus intended this sort of prudence to be applied in other areas of life. For example, if I get involved in a friendship with someone who has a number of personal problems, I should be sure that I have extra time at my disposal so that I can be a reliable friend. Friendships, too, can have costs.
And Jesus uses his example of planning a tower to illustrate a third kind of cost. Even more weighty than construction and relationships are the demands of God's Kingdom.
Christ asks us for a commitment greater than the attachments we have to our possessions or to our friends. He says, "Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."
However, this point doesn't exactly come as news to the average church-goer! We have often been told that it is our "duty" to do something or other for the church. In the words of the title of a famous book of modern theology, we have heard a great deal about the "Cost of Discipleship." (Indeed, after I wrote the first draft of this sermon, I was attending another church on my vacation, and during the service, the preacher referred to this very book by the German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.)
So we Christians know that we will have to make some sacrifice in order to align our lives with the direction of the Holy Spirit. The problem is that when we look at religion, all we tend to notice are the sacrifices.
And this prospect gets dreary. Surely, we think, there is more to religion than this.
Granted, some Christians seem to take a grim pleasure in the burdens of their faith. They seem to think that if they feel miserable, they must be paying the price Jesus wants them to pay!
But, however devout as they are, such Christians fail to receive the "abundant life" Christ also promised to his followers. While they have worked hard to bear their crosses, they haven't been successful in finding "the joy of the Lord" that Jesus said would come to those who inherited God's Kingdom.
Now one way to escape such a dour view of religion is to look at the cost of discipleship in another way. We can try to see that, alongside the crosses of life may be found the joys of the Kingdom.
In other words, we should be like good managers. We should step back and do a "cost-benefit analysis."
If we need to build a tower, for example, the cost will be a lot of money as well as time and effort. The benefit is that once construction is finished, we will have an impressive tower that can be used to watch for forest fires or to fill with apartments for people who need a place to live.
(Notice that the actual process of construction can be fun even if it involves sacrifice — because the architect and the developer and the workers have the creative pleasure of putting up a spectacular building.)
So, too, a city planner considering whether to allow the construction of a larger-than-usual tower will ponder not only the costs of the building, and the additional pollution and traffic, but also the benefits to the city: higher tax revenue, more office space. The city planners may even weigh intangible benefits like the sense a new building gives that life is picking up and the city is growing and people should now be happy to live there.
As a long-time resident of New York, I'm always amazed at how we who live here can detect intuitively those periods when this city seems to be "on the way up." We may not be thinking of any specific yardstick like the city budget or the crime rate. We just feel a burst of energy and optimism — and we know that more people will want to come here to live and work because the city is doing well.
By the same token, when this intangible spirit of the city is heading downward, people can pick that up, too. Some years ago, a police commissioner in New York City, William Bratton, decided to fight what was then regarded as the relatively trivial problem of graffiti. What a difference this small improvement made. The graffiti was cleaned up, and this downward spiral was ended, and we felt better about our city, and we found the will to combat more serious crimes.
Here again, a great benefit resulted from a modest cost. And such analysis illuminates spiritual commitments that we are called to make.
"Counting the costs" in spiritual terms might include the sort of reflections that go through people's minds when they are on the edge of beginning a serious relationship. While such reflections aren't like city planning.
The same prudence Jesus recommends in his example of the tower also applies to personal commitments. As in the case of friendships, there is an emotional price to be paid whenever we are involved with other people. Christian ethics often focuses attention on such relationships precisely because the costs of failure can be so high.
On the other hand, some men and women become so wary of the price of relationships that they shy away entirely from them and miss their benefits.
And, of course, these political and personal issues ultimately reflect the deepest commitments we make: our commitments to God. This is the truly costly obligation Jesus refers to when he tells his story about building a tower.
Christ's words are especially worth pondering because so often we try to carry out our religious obligations without thinking much about them. We act automatically. As we hold a door open for someone struggling with packages, so we pray, and we go to church, and we try to love our neighbors and follow all the other practices of our religion.
It may be valuable, then, as we begin the fall "school year," to remember the cost of faith. Each of us can perform our own spiritual cost-benefit analysis. Are we disciplined in our religion? Are we investing what we need to in our inner lives?
Or maybe the cost is too high. Jesus gives us crosses to bear—but they shouldn't be so heavy that we can't pick them up!
Finally, at the same time, we do well to remember there are benefits that come from the life of faith that can't be calculated. As the Prayer of General Thanksgiving says, God gives us "all the blessings of this life," and God also gives us "the means of grace and the hope of glory."
Happily, these benefits always outweigh the cost of discipleship!
And now unto that same God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever, Amen.