Central United Methodist Church (Arlington, Virginia) Sermon Podcast
An audio podcast of the weekly message preached at Central United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia. You're invited to join us online for worship on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Visit us on the web at cumcballston.org to learn how to join us for worship via zoom or facebook live. You're invited to join our congregation where we worship God, serve others, and embrace all.
Central United Methodist Church (Arlington, Virginia) Sermon Podcast
Costly Discipleship
Costly Discipleship: A Journey of Justice — From the River to the Mountain
Scripture: Mark 1:14–20 (CEB)
In Costly Discipleship, our journey of justice brings us back to the water—this time to the seashore—where Jesus calls ordinary people to leave their nets and follow him into an unknown future. With a simple, disruptive invitation—“Follow me”—Jesus reveals that discipleship is never abstract. It always asks something real of us.
This sermon reflects on the radical immediacy of the call in Mark’s Gospel and what it means to leave behind the “nets” that offer us security, comfort, or silence. Drawing on the life and witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we confront the difference between cheap grace and costly grace—between claiming faith as private belief and living it as public, embodied obedience.
Bonhoeffer’s refusal to remain safely removed from suffering challenges us to reconsider where discipleship leads. His insistence that “the church is only the church when it exists for others” presses against any temptation to retreat into personal piety while injustice persists. Following Jesus, this sermon reminds us, inevitably draws us toward the vulnerable and into the work of resisting evil, injustice, and oppression.
Rooted in our baptismal vows and attentive to the realities of our own moment, Costly Discipleship invites us to listen for Jesus’ call today. What are we being asked to leave behind? What next faithful step is Christ placing before us? And how might costly obedience lead not to loss, but to deeper meaning, courage, and hope as we continue our journey—from the river to the mountain.
🌀 Reflection Questions:
- What “nets” in your life might God be asking you to leave behind so you can follow Jesus more faithfully?
- How does Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s example challenge your understanding of discipleship and public witness?
- In what concrete way this week can you move from private piety to costly obedience in service to others?
✨ Listen as we reflect on the call to follow, the cost of discipleship, and the grace that meets us when we dare to set our nets down and walk with Jesus into the world God so deeply loves.