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"If one of you is planning to build a tower,
he sits down first and figures out what it will cost,
to see if he has enough money to finish the job.
If he doesn't, he will not be able to finish the tower
after laying the foundation,
and all who see what has happened
will make fun of him.
'This man began to build,
but can't finish the job', they will say." --Luke 14:28-30

Last week, Lonnie Yoder spoke on the gift discernment process
in which we identify in each other
gifts which God has provided
for the purpose of carrying out our mission as His people.

Of course, as those on the gift discernment committee know,
identifying those gifts is only half of the task.

Once a person has been identified as having the gifts
for a particular job to be done within the congregation,
the committee approaches the individual
to check out their perceptions with him or her,
and seek the person's agreement to serve.

In many cases, this agreement is hard to get
--perhaps because of humility or lack of confidence
on the part of the person asked to serve--
--perhaps the person doesn't discern those gifts in himself or herself--
--or perhaps there is an unwillingness to spend the time and effort.

When the worship commission asked me to speak on this theme,
I certainly had many of these feelings.
I don't see myself as a public speaker at all!
I'm terrified standing up here.
And I'm convinced that there are lots of you
who have more to say than I,
and are better able to say it.
And it does take effort on my part--
every time I've agreed to speak,
I dread it for weeks in advance,
and fret and worry over it
without many tangible results,
and then end up working on my sermon very late Saturday night.

When they called me to ask me to speak,
I wanted to think of an excuse to refuse,
but I always have a hard time saying "no" to anyone.
I have trouble cutting off a telephone salesman
making his pitch for storm windows, or siding.
So here I am,
speaking about responding to the call to exercise
whatever gifts God has given us,
because I lack assertiveness.
The irony of that really hit me
when I had to prepare this sermon.

m m m m m m m m

The scripture text which I selected,
Christ's parable about the builder of the tower,
is one I've spoken on before, about 5 years ago.

It is one that seems relevant to the issue
of how we should respond if called upon
in this gift discernment process.

Perhaps because of my training as an industrial engineer,
this parable about counting the cost of building a tower
always appeals to me.

Industrial engineering is harder to define
than other fields of engineering,
like electrical engineering or chemical engineering.

Basically, the industrial engineer is responsible
for the efficient use of labor, materials, energy, and money,
and must be aware of all the costs of completing a project.

He must be aware of not only the costs,
but the times at which the payments of the costs are due.
Things like cash flow, the "time value of money", and so on.
So this parable seems to speak especially to the industrial engineer:

"If one of you is planning to build a tower,
he sits down first
and figure out what it will cost,
to see if he has enough money
to finish the job.
If he doesn't,
he will not be able to finish the tower
after laying the foundation,
and all who see what has happened
will make fun of him.
'This man began to build,
but can't finish the job',
they will say."

During my visit to Taiwan back in 1983,
I saw several times the results of poor planning--
building sites in which the foundation had been prepared,
or even the outer shell of the building completed,
but then deserted and overgrown with vines and weeds.

Sometimes there is a large billboard sign at the building site,
picturing what the builder had envisioned.

The contrast between his magnificent vision
on the billboard,
and the dreary reality before me
was very striking,
and only increases the shame and ridicule
that the builder must feel.

Furthermore,
the builder is not only left with a useless, half-finished tower,
not only ridiculed,
but is poorer than when he began,
having spent what little he had...
left penniless.

How much better for him
to have not begun his project!

Yes, Jesus' advice can be strongly endorsed
by an industrial engineer.

I first preached a sermon on this scripture passage
about 16 years ago
in which I said that
Jesus, in this parable, is telling us
that before committing ourselves to follow him,
we must count the cost...
know what we're getting into.

As I saw it then,
an update of the parable,
more relevant to us,
who don't build many towers,
would be something like this:

If one of you is planning to lose weight,
he sits down first and figures out
what he will have to give up,
and whether he really wants to lose weight
badly enough to deprive himself
of his favorite foods.
If he doesn't,
he will soon give in
and satisfy his cravings
and all who see what happened
will make fun of him.
"This fellow began a diet,
but can't stick to it,"
they will say.

It may sound harsh,
but they will say that
the dieter doesn't really want to lose weight
so badly after all--
that all who are overweight
really choose to be.
That they would rather be miserable
with their excess weight
than deny themselves.

The overweight person must simply weigh
the cost and the benefit,
choose his priority,
and stick to his decision,
they will say.

Likewise, the half-hearted Christian misses out
on the joy which Christ offers...
but he misses out on many pagan pleasures as well!
... like the half-hearted dieter
who's always "sort of" on a diet,
enough so that he's missing out on the pleasure of eating,
but not enough that he can actually lose weight.

This parable of the tower
has some good, "common-sense" advice.

But biblical truths are seldom
"common-sense" truths.

They are usually very contrary
to what our common sense tells us.

Things like loving our enemies,
and not being anxious about tomorrow.

Paul wrote,
"For what seems to be God's foolishness
is wiser than human wisdom..." (I. Cor. 1:25)
that is, common sense.

We must beware
if our understanding of a biblical teaching
seems merely to be human wisdom, "common sense"--
we may be overlooking the divine wisdom
which it contains!

While as an industrial engineer
I find myself in agreement
with what seems at first to be
the message of this parable,
there is also something troubling about it.
Is our understanding of this parable
consistent with the rest of Jesus' teaching
and with our Christian experience?

Does Jesus tell us not to risk failure?
Would he advise us to do nothing,
if we don't think we can build better
than an average tower?

I used the analogy of the dieter,
because I've had a weight problem myself.
I weight 25 pounds more than when first married,
and as a teenager, I was 2 inches shorter
but about 15 pounds heavier than I am today.

As a teen,
I felt trapped by my weight problem.
I didn't need to hear
"Eat and you'll gain,
deny yourself and you'll lose weight".
What I needed was not to hear "law",
but a word of "grace".

To be told to count the cost and lose weight
or to quit trying
wouldn't have been very helpful to me then.
And I now believe that
my earlier use of this parable is off-base as well.

I read that after Jesus told his followers
these two parables,
he said,

"In the same way,
none of you can be my disciple
unless he gives up everything he has."
(Luke 14:33)

I am bothered
if we understand this
as advice to be too coldly calculating of the costs,
to take the attitude of
"What's in it for me?"

Certainly we cannot be advised
to shop around for a god
which can offer us the most,
to maximize benefits
while minimizing the costs!

Let me use another example.
I am a teacher as well as an industrial engineer.

I agree that a student should be aware
of the demands of a course
before he enrolls.

He should not enroll
and later discover
that he has not the prerequisites,
or cannot fulfill the demands on his time.

It is wiser to count the cost
and decide not to enroll
rather than to enroll blindly
and then to fail the course.

An yet,
when a student who has enrolled in my course
approaches me,
and he asks me,
"What must I do to pass this course?"
I feel a disappointment in him.

I am pleased with students
who are genuinely interested in the subject,
and are motivated by their interest
and by their love of knowledge
to study willingly,
not begrudgingly.

Likewise,
we must pay the cost
that God demands of us
willingly, not begrudgingly,
whatever that cost may be.

A rich man once came to Jesus,
asking what he must do to gain eternal life...
asking the cost.
And he was told to first give away his possessions,
so that he might follow Jesus.

He had asked,
and when he learned the cost,
weighed it in his mind,
and sadly turned away.
This incident has been discussed a lot.
Are we also to give all we possess to the poor,
in order to follow Jesus?
... a troubling thought if we have many possessions!

Inevitably, any discussion of this story
of the rich young man
results in a more "common-sense" conclusion
such as:
"The man was too attached to his possessions.
He was possessed by his possessions.
His problem was in his attitude.
Only if we are also too attached to our possessions
does this advice apply to us also--
only then must we too give up our possessions."

And you can almost hear everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
We surely are not so attached as that,
and need not, like the rich young man,
give up our possessions after all!

I am reminded of the novel, Catch-22,
which tells the story of an air squadron
during World War Two in Europe.

One of the pilots, named Orr,
is suffering from stress and fatigue
after many combat missions,
and his mind is nearing the breaking point.

His friend approaches the base doctor
to ask that Orr be relieved of his duties.

Let me read a portion of the dialogue which follows:

Friend: "Can't you ground someone who's crazy?"

Doctor: "Oh, sure. I have to.
There's a rule saying I have to ground anyone who's crazy."

F: "Is Orr crazy?"

Dr: "He sure is."

F: "Can you ground him?"

Dr: "I sure can.
But first he has to ask me to.
That's part of the rule."

F: "Then why doesn't he ask you to?"

Dr: "Because he's crazy!
He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions
after all the close calls he's had.
Sure, I can ground Orr.
But first he ask to ask me to."

F: "That's all he has to do to be grounded?"

Dr: "That's all. Let him ask me."

F: "And then you can ground him?"

Dr: "No, then I can't ground him."

F: "You mean there's a catch?"

Dr: "Sure, there's a catch.
Catch-22.
Anyone who wants to get out of combat isn't really crazy."

This advice of Jesus to the rich young man
is rather like a Catch-22.
We are required to rid ourselves of our possessions
only if we are too attached to them.

But if we seize upon this "loophole"
in order to keep our possessions,
it clearly indicates that
we are in fact too attached to them!

What cost are we required to pay?
Are we afraid that something costly
may be demanded of us?
Then we are not really prepared to be his disciple.

After the rich young man walked away,
Peter says to Jesus,
uneasily, I suspect,
"Lord, we have left all we had to follow you..." (Luke 18:28)

We, like Peter,
easily recall all we have given up for Him.
And we get anxious
and start worrying about what else
is going to be asked of us.

And since the things we have done for Christ,
or what we are threatened with having to do,
are in general viewed as gloomy and difficult,
Christianity is for us something
gloomy and difficult.

And because we don't want to have any more to do
than we have done already,
we don't want to know any more of Christianity
than we know already,
which is, as far as we're concerned,
quite enough, thank you.

But Christianity does not lie in the
gloomy, insignificant things
we do for Christ.
That is natural religion.

Christianity is super natural.
It speaks to us of the wonderful things,
the incredible works that God,
in generosity and love,
has done for us.

We can never have enough of such a religion.
We can never tire of learning about it
and of meditating on it.
True Christianity is a religion of joy and wonder
and never-ending thanksgiving
for all that God does for us.

Paul was able to write,

"For His sake I have thrown everything away;
I consider it all as mere garbage,
so that I may gain Christ."
(Phillipians 3:8)

Having experienced Christ,
he has learned that what he earlier valued
is, in reality, mere "garbage".

And, on the other hand, he wrote:

"Whoever does not have the spirit
cannot receive the gifts
that come from God's spirit.
Such a person really does not understand them;
they are nonsense to him,
because their value can be judged
only on a spiritual basis.
Whoever has the spirit, however,
is able to judge the value of everything."
(I Corinthians 2:14,15)

On what basis, then,
can we count the true costs (and benefits)
of following Christ
until we have already become His disciples?

After we have fellowship with Christ,
and have become his disciples,
our values are turned upside-down.
What we once valued,
we will see as garbage
fit only to be thrown away.
And we will realize the value of God's gifts,
which we once could not understand
and saw as nonsense.

And yet this parable about the tower
seems to imply that we are to count the cost
before we are given this new perspective!
This seems to me to be a paradox.

It is surely "common sense"
for the builder to count the cost
of building his tower.
But if the Christian, by analogy, is the builder,
let us carry the analogy further.

Suppose that the builder lives in a kingdom
whose last remaining days are few,
and with it, its currency,
because a new kingdom is about to overthrow it,
to replace it.
Knowing that his money is soon to be worthless
changes the situation entirely.
It "throws off" all of his previous calculations.

I don't mean to imply that
the costs to be considered
consist only of our possessions.

In the final analysis,
the cost of following Christ is our lives.
And we can't avoid paying that cost,
whether or not we follow Christ--
the only question is how we spend it.
As the writer of Ecclesiastes put it,
"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb,
and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor
that he can carry in his hand."
(Ecclesiastes 5:15)

It is as though we are given our portion of life
in our outstretched hands,
and life is like fine sand,
trickling through our fingers.
The harder we try to hold on to it,
the more it trickles out.
"For whoever wants to save is life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for me
will find it." (Matthew 16:25)
Eventually, despite all our best efforts,
the last grains trickle out.

When we count the cost,
we mustn't fool ourselves
into thinking that we have the option
to somehow ultimately avoid paying the cost.
We cannot avoid the payment of this cost.
We can only choose to what or to whom
we pay it.
We cannot hold on to it...
we can save it only by laying it down.

I have still another problem with my original interpretation
of the parable of the tower:
Notice that the builder in the parable
doesn't worry about whether he wants
to spend his money on the tower--
the questions is, rather,
whether he has the resources!

We, on the other hand,
cannot very well count the cost of following Jesus,
because we cannot assess
what cost we are able to pay--
nor in many cases,
what cost we will be required to pay.

It is not a matter of deciding
how much willpower we have.
It is not like deciding
that we have enough willpower to give up smoking,
or to go on a diet to lose that extra weight
that we've accumulated during the holiday season.

For we must not merely depend upon our own strength,
but upon the grace f God,
which enables us to pay the cost of discipleship.
Left on our own,
we will surely fail,
but God provides us with the resources we lack.

Unlike the builder in the parable,
the question for us is not
whether we have the resources to be a disciple.

If Christ lives in us,
so that our will is made to conform to his,
then we need not strain to bend our will,
to exert our willpower.

You may not believe this,
but I took a seminary course in preaching once.
We were taught that our sermons were to have an introduction,
three main points, and a conclusion.

Dr. Buttrick, my teacher,
would have been merciless
in grading this one.
I'm sure it's not clear
what my main points are,
let alone whether there are three.
So let me try to summarize here
what I've tried to say:

The parable of the builder of the tower,
like all of the parables which Jesus told,
contains an element of "common sense".

But I have problems with the obvious interpretation
which sees it as a warning
to take seriously the cost of following Christ
before we make a commitment.

1. The warning doesn't include a "word of grace"
for those of us who are "slaves of sin",
feeling trapped in our circumstances.

2. It is encouraging us to be cost-conscious,
focusing on what we do,
rather than focusing on God's gifts to us.

3. It ignores the fact that
our value system before experiencing God's Spirit
will be completely reversed
after experiencing His Spirit in our lives.

4. We can't really avoid paying the cost
which is, ultimately, our life.

5. For the builder in the parable,
it is not a question of being willing to pay the cost,
but of being able.

m m m m m m m m

What purpose then did Jesus have in telling this parable
and the one which follows?
In verse 33, he says,
"Likewise..." (KJV), or
"In the same way...." (NIV)
"any of you who does not give up everything he has
cannot be my disciple."

But the RSV translates the phrase,
not "Likewise...",
but "Therefore...".
And I think that this one word made a big difference
in the interpretation of the parables.

I believe now that Jesus is saying here
that it is He who is counting the costs,
instead of advising us to count the costs.

At the time he tells these parables,
Jesus has been teaching and preaching
about the Kingdom of God
for perhaps two years.

His message has created many enemies for him--
not only among the Pharisees and religious leaders,
but political enemies as well.

Herod has already jailed and later beheaded
John the Baptist.
Now he has heard reports about Jesus,
and "wants to talk with him",
according to Luke 9:9.

(We may safely assume, I think,
that Herod did not have in mind
a friendly chat about theology
over a cup of coffee!
Interrogation in a police state
is an entirely different kind of encounter!)

The situation in Galilee,
which Herod rules,
becomes so dangerous for Jesus
that he leaves,
going north to Lebanon.

Now, up to this point of his ministry,
according to Luke,
Jesus has not revealed his identity
as Son of God, or Messiah.

It is my own belief that,
without denying the divine nature of Jesus,
as a man he had human limitations.

I believe that during his ministry,
during the many hours spent in prayer,
his own understanding of his identity,
the significance of his ministry,
and his future death and resurrection
were formed and developed.

This understanding began
at the time of his baptism,
and the form that his ministry would take
was revealed to him
during his period of temptation in the wilderness.

His understanding of himself and his ministry
continued to develop,
and there, in Lebanon, became very clear to him.

He retreated into Lebanon, hiding from Herod...
concerned not so much with the threat to himself,
but with the threat this made to his ministry.

Was his ministry,
in which he had devoted so much time and effort, his very self,
going to be a failure,
the disciples scattered,
and his vision of the Kingdom of God
never to be,
destroyed by Herod?

He must have agonized over these questions
during his days in Lebanon,
days spent in meditation and prayer.
He must have, at this time,
like the builder in the parable,
"counted the cost" of building the "tower".
Not so much the cost to him, personally,
but whether he had the resources around him
to complete the building...
whether the community he had gathered
would be able to withstand future events.

Because we have already read
how this story ends,
we easily overlook the drama of this moment.
But let us try to imagine ourselves
there in Lebanon with Jesus.

Was his ministry to end in failure after all?
Or, in the image of the second parable,
would his smaller army be able to prevail
over the larger army which was rapidly approaching...
the "powers and principalities" of this world?

Christ was without sin,
but that is without merit,
unless there was the possibility of sinning.
Likewise, Christ conquered evil,
but that victory is cheapened
if there was not the possibility of failure.

As was the case later in Gethsemane,
Jesus agonized over the situation.
And there, in Lebanon,
is a turning point in his ministry...
There is the mountain-top experience
which we call the Transfiguration.
And for the first time
he is confessed as Messiah by human lips.
Jesus had spent a couple of years
proclaiming God's Kingdom,
but not his own Messiahship.
Peter is not just parroting back
what Jesus had taught him,
when he said, "You are the Messiah..."

Jesus tells Peter that
"...flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,
but the Spirit of God." (Matthew 16:17)
... the Spirit that had revealed it to Jesus also.

And then Jesus began to teach them
what his Messiahship would bring...
about his future suffering and his resurrection.

Jesus has counted the cost of building the tower,
and evaluated the resources required
to complete the building of God's Kingdom.
The costs are indeed very high--
"Therefore," he says,
"none of you can be my disciple
unless he gives up everything he has."
(Luke 14:33)

And from this point,
he begins his journey to Jerusalem,
passing secretly through Galilee,
to confront the powers of evil,
prepared to suffer and to die.

Far more importantly
than facing suffering and death, however,
he is going to risk the failure of
his mission in the world.

Warned again about Herod's seeking to find him,
Jesus replies:

"Tell that fox: 'I am driving out demons
and performing cures
today and tomorrow,
and on the third day
I shall finish my work.'
Yet I must be on my way
today, tomorrow, and the next day...
It is not right for a prophet
to be killed anywhere
except in Jerusalem."
(Luke 13:31,32)

Once, on his way to Jerusalem,
we are told in this chapter of Luke's gospel
that large crowds began to follow him.
And he turned
and told them these two parables,
of the builder of the tower and of the king preparing for battle.
He said, in effect,
"What are you following me for?
I am in this world to build.
I am in this world to do battle.
You are no good to me
Unless you are of the right quality.
I do not want followers coming after me
for their own sake.
I want those committed to me and to my mission.
It is quality I seek, not quantity...
disciples on whom I can depend."

"Therefore, none of you can be my disciple
unless he gives up everything he has."
(Luke 14:33)

Following Jesus will be costly,
but costly in the currency of the old kingdom,
which is passing away,
which is, after all,
mere garbage to be thrown away, as Paul said,
not even to be compared
with the gifts we receive in exchange
as members of God's new Kingdom.

Let's not cling to the currency of the old kingdom,
and be left on the outside of His new Kingdom.
Are we hesitating, counting the cost?
Or,
can Christ count on us to help build His new Kingdom?

Prayer

Lord, following you appears costly--
frighteningly costly.
But, we cannot turn away.
As your first disciples said,
"Lord, to whom would we go?
You have the words that give eternal life!"
As your disciples,
we want to learn from you.
Teach us the true worthlessness of what we must give up,
and the true value of your gifts,
so that we may pay the costs gladly,
without counting them or hesitating,
in order to become members of your Kingdom.

Amen!

Go to Dennis Bricker's home page.

dennis-bricker@uiowa.edu