If "words are the bugles of social change" it is time for the church to trumpet a different tune than "planning" and "programming." Today's church is called to rediscover the spirited discipline (i.e., "walking stick") of preparedness.
In 1989 President Bush challenged the community of public educators to join with him in rescuing our failing system of teaching our children. By 1991 neither the national governing bodies, nor the local educators had yet agreed on what kinds of measurements (tests, programs, numbers) they should use to begin investigating what was wrong with the system. That's not getting stuck in the starting blocks, that's getting stuck in the driveway before even leaving for the competition.
"Long-range planning" is in vogue today as it has never been before. More companies and schools and agencies and churches know what they are going to be doing five years from now better than they know what they are doing next week. Part of this love-affair with planning comes from our arrogant confidence in the surety of our own futures. Of course we will still be here, plodding along just the same, years from now. Thus we'd better figure out what we will do with all this time. Besides such cock-sureness is our conviction that we can know and control all possible contingencies. In our thorough, systematic, scientific way we analyze and categorize and anesthetize all the data we can gather. Using all our modern tools we build the future in our own image.
But an equally large part of our love of long-range planning is that it lets us avoid the messy, unpredictable present. The present is full of pipes that freeze and burst on Saturday night, children with earaches on Christmas Eve, loved ones overseas in dangerous territory, and cholesterol counts that won't go down. The fear of the unknown close at hand drives us to seek shelter in the unknown which is so distant that it is comfortably blurred. Faced with the present we prefer to call a meeting and retreat to our conference rooms.
Faced with his present, King David sought out God's presence and "sat before the Lord." David had every reason to stay outside, celebrating his successes both realized and promised. But instead of investing all his energies devising strategies for his future, David focused on his present need to sit before the Lord in prayer. This time of reflection, praise, humility, and gratitude experienced in the presence of God is what prepares David for his future.
Jesus' mandate to his disciples is to travel lightly and keep moving. Nowhere do we see him sitting down with the twelve and a map, or a snakebite kit, or a store of provisions, or a feasibility study, or a specific set of "goals,""strategies" and "objectives." Jesus gives the disciples (at times as confused and uncomprehending a lot as ever there has been) only what they need most: a mission and the authority to carry it out. All he recommends they take in addition to this is a walking stick a personal goad to keep them moving when the terrain gets rough or when they get weary.
Today the church would never dream of starting on such a significant journey without what we now envision as "adequate provisions." Yet for all our carefully considered plans, it is doubtful that we are ever as prepared as either David or the disciples for what the future may offer. David was prepared through his willingness to sit before the Lord in prayer. The disciples were prepared through their certainty that they went out with the matchless authority of Jesus.
Does the church have confidence in that authority or in that power of humble prayers? Does the church, in fact, even remember that it is called to embody a mission, not just live out a survival plan?
Rabbinic tradition divides its teachings into two distinct areas. Both are necessary to the continued life and health of the faith. The Haggadah refers to the body of narrative or devotional materials which communicate God's heart to the believer. The Halakkah encompasses all God's requirements, the laws, for living an obedient life of faith. It literally means "walking," and refers to Exodus 18:20, "You shall teach them the statutes and the decisions and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do." David, sitting prayerfully before his God, represents the Haggadah portion of this week's texts. Strength and endurance is available to us through prayer. The disciples boldly setting out on their mission embody the spirit of Halakkah, for they know the way in which they must walk and what they must do." Jesus has sent them on their mission and has entrusted them with his authority. Now it is their responsibility to get out on the road.