In our Gospel readings over the past few Sundays we’ve heard some quite radical things from Jesus, things which turn our usual understanding of him and of the way things should be completely upside down. We could lump these sayings together under a heading of ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ because it’s quite clear that what Jesus is doing through these radical teachings is trying to convey to us just what is demanded of us if we want to be his disciples. He’s trying to tell us just how counter intuitive and counter cultural his disciples must be, and just how hard it not only can be but will be to follow him.
This morning’s Gospel not only follows in the same vein but seems to sum up what we’ve been hearing over the past few Sundays. This morning we’ve heard Jesus say that we unless we hate our families and even our own lives we can’t be his disciples. He warns to consider the cost of discipleship before we take up our cross and begin to follow him. He likens discipleship to fighting a war when we’re outnumbered 2 to 1. And all this, both over the past few weeks and today, has been building up to Jesus’ final words from this morning’s Gospel;
“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
The cost of discipleship then, is everything. If we want to be true disciples of Christ, true Christians in other words, our love of Jesus and our loyalty to him must be greater than our love and loyalty to everyone and everything else. That doesn’t mean to say that we can’t have a life, that we can’t have hobbies and interests and enjoy ourselves, but it does mean that the way we live our lives must always be in keeping with the teaching and example of Jesus Christ.
The cost of discipleship then is, or at least can be, very high and so to be a true disciple of Christ, a true Christian, takes hard work and discipline. But that seems to be a great problem for most people. Most people, it seems, want to call themselves Christians but don’t want to pay the cost of discipleship. And I think Church attendances bear that out.
I don’t know how many people in this country claim to be Christians now, but at the last census, in 2021, it was 46%, about 32 million. So in 2021 there were 32 million people in this country who said that they are Christians. Well that’s only 4 years ago so think back; where were they all then? Look around you this morning, where are they all now?
Of course the Church of England isn’t the only denomination of the Church in this country, and it isn’t even the biggest denomination in this country now, that’s the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, and even though Church of England attendances have risen in recent years, and apparently they have, there are still vast numbers of people in this country who say that they’re disciples of Christ and yet can’t meet even that most simple of requirements for a Christian and come to church.
I’m sure we’ve all met members though of the ‘You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian’ brigade. And they’re a prime example of those who want to call themselves Christians but don’t want to pay the cost of discipleship. If you think about the statement, “You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian” it implies an understanding of what you do have to do in order to be a Christian. But have any of you ever asked anyone who’s said that to you, what? What is it that you do have to do in order to be a Christian? I have, quite often, and the answer I’ve almost invariably got is some vague talk about being ‘good’ and living a ‘good life’.
But what does it mean to be ‘good’ and live a ‘good life’? Well, for a true disciple of Christ, it means to live following the teaching and example of Christ. But when I’ve asked people who say they don’t need to go to church to be a Christian what they mean by ‘good’ the answer has, again almost invariably, been about their own ideas of goodness and what it means to live a good life, which, in fact, is the way they already are and the life they’re already living because hardly anyone ever believes that they’re bad and live a bad life do they? And so people say that they’re Christians without any mention of Jesus Christ’s teachings and example. But where is the discipline in simply doing what we want to do rather than following Christ’s example? What cost is involved in living as we choose to live rather than living as Christ taught us to live by both word and deed? It’s simply wanting Easter without Good Friday because what’s glaringly absent from this way of thinking is the cross that Jesus says we all have to take up and carry if we want to follow him.
So what can we say to those who think they can be Christians without coming to church? Well, first of all, that they’re completely wrong. In fact they couldn’t be more wrong if they tried. The Gospels tell us quite explicitly that Jesus himself called the Church into being. When Peter confessed his belief in Jesus as Christ and Son of God, Jesus replied,
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Why did Jesus do this? If, as so many people think and say, the Church is unnecessary, why did Jesus bother to call the Church into being at all? He clearly thought it was and is necessary. So when people say that you don’t need the Church, far from submitting to Christ, what they’re really doing is saying that he was wrong and that they know better than him.
Also, to be a Christian is to follow not only the teaching of Christ but his example too. And Christ’s example was to join the faithful in public prayer and worship every Sabbath; the Gospels say this quite explicitly too;
‘And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day….’
And if it was Jesus’ custom to be in the synagogue every Sabbath day, it should be his disciple’s custom to be in church every Sabbath day too.
So the undeniable answer from Jesus, as found in scripture, to those who say you don’t have to go to Church to be a Christan is that the Church is necessary for Christians and to be a Christian it’s necessary for us to go to church.
But even so, there are people, many people in fact, who wouldn’t really deny this and yet still won’t come to church because of the un-Christian behaviour of those who do go to church. We know this is a problem because we probably lose more people from the Church for this reason than for anything to do with matters of faith. People can be very badly treated by members of the Church. People can become so sick and tired of what they see as the hypocrisy of some Church members that they want nothing more to do with the Church. People leave the Church because of what they see as the worldly behaviour of some Church members, or of the Church as an institution. We lose people for all these reasons, and these things can lead people to say that they stopped coming to church because they simply weren’t getting anything out of it. Then they often join the ‘You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian’ brigade. So what do we say to them?
Let me start by saying that, first and foremost, people need to remember, or perhaps to realise, why we come to church. Of course we come to church to receive; we come to receive the Word of Life and the Bread of Life, to meet the Lord in Word and Sacrament. But primarily we don’t come to church to receive from God, we come to give to God, we come to offer our thanks, our praise and our worship to God for all he’s already given us, most especially through the teaching and example and the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. What we do in church is our response to God’s infinite love for us. So why should what anybody else does stop us from doing that? What difference should what other people do make to our personal response to God’s love for us? We might find what other people do very annoying, even hurtful at times, but didn’t Jesus experience the very same things during his time on earth? He didn’t give up and neither should we. It’s the Way of the Cross, the cost of discipleship and our love of Jesus and loyalty to him must be strong enough to keep us going in spite of these things.
I want to finish with a story I read a few days ago that I think we might all take to heart. It concerns a woman who told her parish priest that she was leaving the Church because she was sick of seeing people using their mobile phones and hearing them talk and gossip during services and even sleeping during the sermon. The priest asked if, before she left, she’d come again the following Sunday, fill a glass of water almost to the brim and during the sermon walk round the church holding the glass and try not to spill any of the water. So the following Sunday she did what he asked, and she manged to do it without spilling a drop of water. Later the priest asked how many people she’d seen using their phones, heard talking or noticed had fallen asleep while she’d been carrying the glass round church,. The woman said she hadn’t seen any because she’d been concentrating so hard on what she’d been doing. So the priest said,
If you focus as hard on God when you’re in church, as you did on not spilling the water from the glass, perhaps what other people are doing won’t be so noticeable then either.
Amen.
The Propers for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 7th September 2025
Entrance Antiphon
You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right;
treat your servant in accord with your merciful love.
The Collect
O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption,
look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters,
that those who believe in Christ
may receive true freedom
and an everlasting inheritance.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Wisdom 9:13-18
Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17
Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Luke 14:25-33
Prayer after Communion
Grant that your faithful, O Lord,
whom you nourish and endow with life
through the food of your Word and heavenly Sacrament,
may so benefit from your beloved Son’s great gifts
that we may merit an eternal share in his life.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 