Tomorrowland

The Land That Time Forgot

That’s what they should call Tomorrowland, because it stopped being about tomorrow a long time ago.  If you’ve been to Disneyland in the past ten years, you know what I mean.  Take Autopia for instance.  I used to love Autopia.  As a kid, it was one of the rides I always wanted to go on, but even then, it seemed kind of odd to be in Tomorrowland.  Now when Disneyland opened back in 1955, Autopia was cutting edge.  At the time, there was no such thing as an interstate highway system.[1]  Hard to believe but true.  People didn’t drive on multi-lane highways that stretched across the country.  This idea was so new to America that it made Autopia a natural fit in the land of the future.  Today it makes no sense.  In fact most of the rides in Tomorrowland make no sense. The monorail is an early predecessor of trams used in airports all over the world.  Submersible vehicles are used by both the military and private owners.  And the Orbitron is basically a carousel version of Space X.  Over the years, Tomorrowland has become more and more obsolete, and while they have added new attractions like Star Tours, they’ve also let many things become outdated or simply disappear.  The Peoplemover track lies empty and has for almost 30 years.  The Magic Eye Theater which once housed state-of-the-art movies in 3D with actual physical special effects is now completely empty.  And the Autopia?  It’s still driving cars on highways from 1955.

The problem is Tomorrowland stopped being about tomorrow.

Walt always wanted to keep this area on the cutting edge of innovation, to give guests a glimpse into the future.  But instead, you have gas-powered cars instead of solar cars, electric cars, or self-driving vehicles on the Autopia track.  It’s fun, but they drifted away from Walt’s vision because it was “good enough.”   People enjoyed it; they continued to make money from it; so they just stopped trying to make it better. But that is so short-sighted.  If we simply wait for a need to arise, then by the time we can fix it we are already too far behind.  Either someone else has met the need or we have to spend much more time, effort, and money to catch up.  “Good enough” shouldn’t be our standard.  Like Walt’s original vision for Tomorrowland, we need to constantly strive toward a better future, so we are prepared for what comes ahead.  The writer in Hebrews said it so well that’s what we are going to read from this morning.  If you have a Bible or a Bible app on your phone, find the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament, chapter 11 beginning with verse 8.  Hebrews 11:8. It is important to be future-oriented.  Looking forward keeps us focused on how we can make the world a better place.  It also keeps us from being complacent.  And it drives innovation and creativity.  When Walt Disney wanted to put in a Christmas parade at Disneyland, his financial advisors told him not to spend the money; that it would cost too much; that nobody would complain because they wouldn’t be expecting it and he said to them, “That’s just the point…We should do the parade precisely because no one’s expecting it. Our goal at Disneyland is to always give the people more than they expect. As long as we keep surprising them, they’ll keep coming back. But if they ever stop coming, it’ll cost us ten times that much to get them to come back.”[2]  Give people more than they expect.  Don’t just focus on what’s needed now, but plan ahead for the future.  And he was right.  Don’t settle for “good enough.”  Figure out how we can do it better, even when (and maybe especially when) it’s going good. 

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹ And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she^[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. – Hebrews 11:8-16

They were longing for a better country.

These forefathers of faith trusted in the vision that God had presented to them and did what they knew to be right.  And even though they never lived long enough to see it all come to fruition, they trusted that their efforts led them toward a brighter future.[3]  The Scripture says to us, “they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.” The things God promised to the people of Israel and by extension to all of us was not something they could tangibly touch or experience, but they honored God with their efforts even though they didn’t know how it would all work out and that pleased God.  God is future-oriented.  Think about it.  It was the same in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament.  God promised Abraham that his people would spread throughout the Earth and even though as long as Abraham lived he didn’t see it, that promise came true.  God promised Moses that he would lead his people to the promised land and even though Moses didn’t live to see it, that promise came true.  Jesus promised when he returned to Heaven, he would send the Holy Spirit to be with us and guides us, and that promise also came true.  God is always looking ahead to the future.  Jesus trained up his disciples because he knew one day he would no longer be there, and he wanted to be sure the movement would continue long after he was gone.  He pulled them aside and taught them.  He explained the parables to them, knowing that eventually the lessons would sink in.  And he had them do the work in the field. Jesus was constantly working toward a future he wouldn’t be alive to see. 

As a parent, that makes sense to me.

Since Emma was born, I wanted to help build a foundation to support her in life.  I want to support her dreams.  I want to support her hopes.  I want her to know she is loved.  And I hope to help her be grounded in faith.  I try to teach her the practical things that will help her out in day-to-day life.  And although I hope and pray I’m here for a long time to come, I certainly hope I leave this planet before she does and that when that time comes she has what she needs to have a long and happy life.  My actions now will hopefully lead to a brighter tomorrow. That’s why it is so important to keep striving to make things better. A better tomorrow. Human beings love the path of least resistance, so it’s tempting to stop when things are just the way we like it.  After all, most of have seen what happens when people mess with a good thing.  Sometimes it turns out disastrous.  Like New Coke.  That fear of failure prevents us from doing something amazing.  We tend to look at failure as a waste instead of a learning opportunity.  But failure is the greatest teacher there is.  It’s only when we refuse to learn from the past that we truly fail.  But when we succeed!  We can make an impact that lasts for generations. 

But what happens when we don’t?

What happens when we choose to stay still; when we choose the path of least resistance?  When we stop looking to the future, we start looking to the finish line instead.  We go into survival mode.  We constantly try to extend the time we have, and we give up on the future.  But that only delays the inevitable.  It’s like a sinking boat.  If we only concentrate on bailing out the water, we’ll stop from sinking for a while, but eventually the hole will get bigger and the water will overwhelm us.  But if we let in a little water while we fix the boat, we can keep going for untold distances into the future.  Keep focused on the future and always have hope for a brighter tomorrow.  Will we always get there?  Maybe not, but if we never try we surely won’t.   

Jesus was a futurist. 

Walt Disney was a futurist.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was a futurist.  Most of the great leaders and innovators of our nation and our world were futurists.  They were always looking ahead to what was possible and trying to work toward THAT.  How can we do anything different?  As Robert Kennedy once said (paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw), “Some people see things as they are and say why?  I dream things that never were and say, why not?”[4] What is your why not? What is something you have held back from daring to dream?  What is something you would like to accomplish but haven’t done so? Now ask yourself, why not? The Autopia is great.  But it’ll never be more than it is unless someone does the work to make it better.  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopia

[2] http://grumpymickey.com/tag/plussing-it/

[3] This section was inspired by Thom Rainer’s book Autopsy of A Deceased Church, Chapter 3.

[4] https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Robert-F-Kennedy-at-the-University-of-Kansas-March-18-1968.aspx