Sermon: Discipleship

Preacher:

Rachel Young

Date:

Sunday 7th September 2025

Venue:

Guildford Cathedral

Service:

Cathedral Eucharist

Prayer:

May I speak in the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen.

 

I wonder if any of you has been an apprentice?

The nearest I have ever been is when I learnt to play musical instruments. Lessons were always one-to-one with a teacher, and the best teachers were those who said, ‘copy me’.

Often, as an apprentice, you’re learning a practical skill, and the way that you learn it is by looking and listening, copying someone who has that skill – being by their side and being shown how to do it. You learn in the workplace, and may also take some time out to study alongside that.

Being a disciple of Jesus is, I suggest, a bit like doing an apprenticeship.

We heard almost all of the book of Philemon this morning, the letter which the Apostle Paul wrote to his friend Philemon on returning Philemon’s slave, Onisemus.

It is a very practical book, and one verse from it provides a link to our Gospel reading from Luke:

“I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective

when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ” (v. 6).

Paul wrote to Philemon as a fellow Christian, a beloved brother in Christ. He was relying on his compassion to take back the Onisemus, a slave which Philemon has sent to Paul to help him in prison. Whilst there, Onisemus had become a Christian and this fact had changed his status in Paul’s eyes. Onisemus was no longer just a slave; he also was a beloved brother in Christ.

Paul relied on Philemon’s compassion –

his behaviour as a Christian.

And it is to him that Paul says, “I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ” (v. 6). 

Paul prays for Philemon;

that his actions in sharing his faith will be effective in promoting the gospel.

In our reading from Luke’s gospel this morning, we heard Jesus speaking to the large crowds that were following him;

nd this passage is often headed in our Bibles

‘The Cost of Discipleship’. It doesn’t make easy reading.

Jesus gives the people four challenges.

His language is very sharp and to the point.

In fact, at other places in the gospels, we sometimes hear of would-be followers giving up because they can’t do what Jesus demanded of them.

First, he appears to say that in order to be a disciple they must love him more than their family – or ‘hate’ their family, as some translations put it.

Secondly, Jesus says that unless they carry their own cross and follow him, they cannot be his disciple.

Then Jesus gives his hearers two parables, two examples of weighing up the cost of something before embarking on it:

a builder building a tower; or a king going to war.

And then finally, he says that none of them can be a disciple unless they give up give up all their possessions.  

In saying that they must ‘hate’ their family, Jesus was using a Semitic exaggeration, that meant to ‘love less than’.

Love and hate in the ancient world was all about honour.

It reflected behaviour that honoured or dishonoured something, in this case, their family. And in that world, deciding to leave your family and follow an itinerant preacher would have brought dishonour to your family. And it would also be disobeying the commandment to honour your father and mother. 

In saying that his followers need to carry their own cross – and that would have been vividly realistic to his original hearers – he was saying that their personal safety should also come second.

And in giving away all they had, he was reminding them that possessions should not be important; that they should be willing to do without them.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and pastor at the time of the Second World War. He spoke out against the German Confessing church which supported Hitler and the Nazi Party, and eventually lost his life for that position.

In his book, ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ written in 1937, Bonhoeffer goes into various subjects to do with being a disciple; but at the very beginning he says this:

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

Of course, in his own life that was to be true.

It makes me think about the seriousness of Bonhoeffer’s position, in that time of war. The context he was living in demanded that he make a moral choice – stand up for what he believed to be right. The difficult times in which he lived were the back-drop for how his discipleship was lived out.

And the same was true for the first disciples of Jesus.

The context they lived in was serious, too – first century Palestine was in the Roman Empire,

at a very violent time in history.

Their world was politically unstable. They had to make a choice – whether to stand up for their faith in Jesus or to follow everybody else, who worshipped pagan idols and the Emperor.

What about the context in which we live?  

I think it’s true to say that many places in our world are politically unstable.

And in our own country there are challenges to the political status quo – especially from populism. President Trump has blazed a trail, making a success of offering unorthodox solutions or policies that appeal to the common person rather than according with traditional party ideologies; and we can see other movements like this gaining traction in other countries around the globe.

And then there are the nations at war, even in Europe. This feels very close to home. How should we respond, apart from praying for peace?

You may have heard the saying (wrongly) attributed to St. Francis of Assissi – “Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words”.

It is our behaviour, our actions, our demeanour in everyday life which will bear witness to the gospel, as well as our words:

what we do or don’t do – by our choices, by our lifestyle –

these point to our underlying beliefs

that people will see as they get to know us.

As Christians, we are asked to think seriously about all of this.

However, as Jesus points out, effective witnessing has its costs.

We can’t assume that our lives will be charmed

because we are Christians.

Although God brings us comfort, he also brings us challenges.

Do our behaviour, our actions, our demeanour,

and our words point towards God?

Can we seriously say that we are ‘carrying our cross’

as we follow Jesus?

We might have a problem with these demands.

We might consider them unreasonable.

But think – if we’re not exercising our response to them every day, what will happen when we find ourselves in an extreme situation, when we have to make a moral choice to stand up for our faith?

Perhaps, as we come to take communion this morning and bring ourselves to God once again, we could ask for help us in this task.

We can ask God to point out to us where we need to be challenged, what we need to change.

And then the work starts, in the changing of some of our ways; and our lifelong apprenticeship continues.

 

Amen.