Sermon preached by the Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Revd Christopher Lowson, at the Chrism Eucharist on 31 March 2015 in Lincoln Cathedral, attended by more than 200 clergy from the Diocese of Lincoln. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? We stand towards the beginning of Holy Week, the most solemn time in the church’s year. We celebrated Palm Sunday in our respective parishes and in the cathedral. For me it was with the Christian community that meets in Grimsby Minster. Jesus, having set his face towards Jerusalem was welcomed into the city. This is the moment when Jesus turns away from the security of the country of Galilee, as scripture says, ‘…to set his face resolutely towards Jerusalem.’ This is a real change of direction in the life of Jesus: he is choosing to leave a country which he knows well and where he is well known, where he has felt secure, and where he has exercised a powerful and popular ministry of healing and preaching. He’s leaving all that to go to Jerusalem – in order to discover and follow his father’s will for him. It’s in the context of that radical change of direction in the life of Jesus, from the known to the unknown, from the poplar to the unpopular – that we should consider his challenging attitude to those who are thinking about following him. And, today, I want to think about two aspects of this which apply to all Christian disciples, but particularly to those of us who are called to be ordained Christian ministers. Because in the context of public Christian ministry we are called not only to take our own spiritual journey but also at the same time to lead others on theirs: mirroring, albeit in a necessarily broken and vulnerable way, the ministry of Jesus with his disciples. So, first, we are called to an external journey -­‐ often a life of sacrifice: of costly self-­‐giving and the leaving behind of everything familiar and comfortable. As Jesus says to the fishermen, Andrew and Peter, ‘“put down your nets and come follow me”. . . and as soon as they came to land they left everything and followed him’. And, secondly, we are called to an internal journey of discovery of what the love of God means for us, and our lives. I think often it is this second part of our calling which as pastors we can help others with. It is a pastoral gift to be able to help others on their own internal spiritual journey towards becoming children of God. And for those of us who are priests, our role as president at the Eucharist, minister of the sacrament, is an integral part of this role of helping people recognise their own call as disciples of Jesus. So, first, sacrifice. You know the passage in Luke chapter 9 in which three prospective disciples question Jesus: As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “[Lord,] let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” To him] Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plough and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” Jesus warns the first that to follow him means following a traveller who has nowhere to lay his head implying that securing hospitality for them may be a problem. The second and third questioners want to follow Jesus but have prior claims: one has to bury his father while the other has to say goodbye to his parents. In Judaism family loyalty is a matter of religious duty. But Jesus is seen to say ‘no’ to these previous attachments which call people back to the home they have left. He appears to be urgent and uncompromising in his challenge – the potential disciples have to decide where their priorities lie. To be freed to follow in Jesus’ work the disciple must be freed from past ties. For the sake of the kingdom a disciple must be prepared to sacrifice security, duty and affection. It’s challenging stuff – so challenging in fact that we politely say to ourselves that, though these words of Jesus may have significant at the time, they have no relevance for us. Jesus cannot be serious if he thinks we should leave everything to follow him – not in 2015 in the Diocese of Lincoln. The new pope has taken the name Francis to express the priorities of his ministry and if ever there was a person who responded literally to the teaching of Jesus it was Francis. A thirteenth century Italian nobleman he gave it all up to live the simplest possible life amongst the poor – he succeeded then in challenging his hearers and, if we reflect on his life now, in challenging us seriously and radically to explore what this central component in the teaching of Jesus should mean for us. His heavenly father called Jesus to leave the safety, familiarity and popularity of Galilee to go up to Jerusalem and face the unknown. Jesus called his disciples to forsake home, family duties and human relationships if they were seriously committed to the kingdom. Jesus calls each of his followers to put behind us the ways of the past and follow him afresh. First of all, simply and clearly, for some of us this teaching of Jesus is to be taken absolutely literally. The daughter of one of my clergy friends was so impressed when she heard Mother Theresa speak in London in the early 1990s, that after university she became a Roman Catholic and sought to enter Mother Theresa’s order. She now lives in Rome where she spends her long days caring for the poor and praying; the community gives her two saris a year and one bucket of water a day. She sees her natural family for a couple of days a year. So some of us are called to follow Jesus in setting our faces ‘resolutely towards Jerusalem’ and in a literal sense to sacrifice security, duty and affection. That’s not to say that the rest of us have not also made some sacrifice. I know this from meeting you and your families. All of us here know something about the cost of following Jesus. However, others of us (and this is probably the majority) are called to respond to the call of Jesus in another way. And this is my second point. The journey to Jerusalem, which Jesus begins in today’s gospel, is as a route which all his followers have to take. It doesn’t matter where we live. It is not a journey, which is plotted through a map; it is an inward journey that is plotted through our experience. For each of us it is journey to God in the footsteps of Christ. This is a journey in which leave behind the complacency of the past and embrace a new and radical adventure as a fellow explorer in God’s kingdom. How we undertake this interior journey will depend on our individual make-­‐up. For some of us it will be primarily intellectual – perhaps by re-­‐thinking some of the safe assumptions of the past, which we take for, granted. All human beings have a ‘mindset’ – a set of unspoken assumptions they use as the basic language of their thought. Some of us allow our mindset to remain unchallenged for many years. The opportunity of following Jesus into the kingdom may include re-­‐thinking some of those things we take for granted. What does the world really look like, what can my experience as a human being before God teaches us about his world and ourselves? It may be helpful to attend a Christian study course or discussion group or seek advice from the clergy about some reading. For others it may mean a spiritual change of gear – spending more time explicitly listening to God in prayer – finding new ways to pray and relate to him. Again, this may be something in which it would be good to seek advice from a priest or a Christian friend. Or again, it may by a renewed commitment to helping those in need poor, either in the local community or farther afield, by re-­‐considering the use of our time and money. These are not are soft or easy options for half-­‐hearted or second class Christians – but the ways open to thoughtful Christians to follow our Lord through an engagement with the world and the joys and woes and committed human relationships. All of us, in a way that suits our place and time are called to follow Jesus and to model that discipleship to the people we serve. Mother Teresa, who so inspired the daughter of my clergy friend, puts it like this and it is way that each one of us can apply to our life: • The fruit of silence is prayer. • The fruit of prayer is faith. • The fruit of faith is love. • The fruit of love is service. • The fruit of service is peace.