‘Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple’ (Luke 14: 27) … Jesus takes the Cross upon his shoulders, Station 2, the Stations of the Cross in the Church of the Annunciation, Marble Arch, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent. Later this evening, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.
I have been awake most of the night watching results come in with the BBC coverage of the mid-term elections in the US. Now, before today begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
‘Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple’ (Luke 14: 27) … the reredos by Sir Ninian Comper above the altar in the south aisle in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Luke 14: 25-33 (NRSVA):
25 Now large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26 ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.’
Dietrich Bonhoeffer distinguishes between cheap grace and costly grace, and reminds us of the ‘Cost of Discipleship’
Today’s reflection:
This week began with celebrating All Saints’ Day (1 November) and commemorating
All Souls’ Day (2 November). At the All Saints’ Day Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, on Sunday morning, the Offertory Hymn we sang was ‘Rejoice in God’s saints, today and all days!’ by the Revd Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000). In verse 3, we sang:
Rejoice in those saints, unpraised and unknown,
who bear someone’s cross, or shoulder their own:
they share our complaining, our comforts, our cares:
what patience in caring, what courage, is theirs!
What does it mean to ‘bear someone’s cross’ or to shoulder our own cross in life?
In the various editions of the NRSV translations of the Bible, the heading or sub-heading for the passage that is today’s Gospel reading (Luke 14: 25-33) at the Eucharist is ‘The Cost of Discipleship’.
The Cost of Discipleship is the title of one of the best-known books by the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed on 9 April 1945, in a German concentration camp before even reaching the age of 40, and just weeks before the end of World War II.
This youthful pastor was one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, and he is widely regarded as a modern saint and martyr. His statue by the sculptor Tim Crawley above the West Door of Westminster Abbey places him among the 10 martyrs of the 20th century.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on 4 February 1906 in Wroclaw (formerly Breslau), now in Poland, and grew up in a comfortable professional German home, where his family was nominally Lutheran. When he was 13, he decided to study for ordination.
He studied at the University of Berlin, at the age of 18 visited Rome, and studied at Union Theological Seminary, New York (1930-1931).
Following the rise of the Nazis in 1933, Bonhoeffer saw Nazism as a counter-religion and a danger to Christianity. In October 1933, he became the pastor of two German-speaking parishes in the London area, and began his friendship with Bishop George Bell of Chichester.
On his return to Germany, Bonhoeffer ran the seminary of the Confessing Church at Finkenwalde, which was shut down by the police in 1937. He went to New York in 1939 but chose to return to Germany, aware of the cost of discipleship that lay before him and fearing a Nazi victory would destroy Christian civilisation. For Bonhoeffer, true discipleship now demanded political resistance against the criminal state.
He was arrested in March 1943 and survived as a prisoner until he was executed on 9 April 1945.
For my generation, Bonhoeffer was one of the most influential theologians on our reading lists. We drew endlessly on such books as
The Cost of Discipleship, as well as
No Rusty Swords and
Ethics. We bandied around phrases such as ‘religionless Christianity’ and the ‘man for others,’ perhaps without fully grasping their meaning and implications.
We were quick to dismiss any church activity we deemed unfashionable as purveying ‘cheap grace.’ And we saw Bonhoeffer as a role model for our resistance to racism and apartheid, nuclear weapons and modern warfare, and even the very political and economic foundations of capitalist societies.
Like all great theologians, like all great thinkers, philosophers and writers who are now dead, it was easy to quote him and to use him for our own ends: he could hardly answer back and say ‘I have been misunderstood’, ‘you have misquoted me’ or ‘you have quoted me out of context.’
Bonhoeffer has been claimed in recent years, on the one hand, by so-called ‘conservative evangelicals,’ who are happy with his theological method but unwilling to take his radical discipleship to the point of challenging social and corporate sin in our society; and, on the other hand, by radical reformers who would tear down all our received wisdom and traditions in their vain attempts to construct their own brand of ‘religionless Christianity.’
Unhappily, in recent years, theological rigour has gone out of fashion in many centres of learning. Where once students were happy to explore how faith could find understanding, many have slipped into the cold comfort of position-taking, relying on their own protestations of faith instead of rising to the challenge of new thinking and exploration. Theologians are no longer great names; even among the general public today, people are less likely to take their questions about faith and belief from the theological giants of the last century, such as Bultmann, Barth and Bonhoeffer to Küng, Kasper and Moltmann, and more likely to be detracted by the silly, peripheral questions about truth and religion raised by Dan Browne in his
Da Vinci Code, on the one hand, or Richard Dawkins in his
The God Delusion on the other.
So, over 80 years after his death and 120 years after he was born, we might reflect today on who Bonhoeffer was, and why his writings and thoughts continue to have relevance for us in our society today.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer had the potential to become a great musician or poet and playwright. Instead, he studied theology in Tubingen, Rome and Berlin, travelled through Rome and North Africa, and later spent time in Barcelona, New York, Cuba, Mexico and London, giving him an experience of the world church that would make a leading contributor to the foundation of the modern ecumenical movement.
He was still in his 20s when Hitler came to power. In a radio address two days after Hitler assumed office in 1933, Bonhoeffer warned against the idolatry of the ‘Fuhrer’ principle. He went on to become involved in the Pastors’ Emergency League, was closely associated with those who signed the Barmen Declaration, helped to form the Confessing Church, and, outside Germany, became a close friend of the saintly Anglican bishop, George Bell.
The Barmen Declaration declared that the Church must not be allowed to become an instrument of political ideology, and rejected ‘the false doctrine that the Church should acknowledge, as the source of its message over and above God’s word, any other events, powers, figures and truths as divine revelation.’
Bonhoeffer paid the price for speaking out. His licence to teach was withdrawn, he was dismissed from his university, and eventually the Confessing Church seminary at Finkenwalde was closed. However, at Finkenwalde, he produced his two best-known books,
The Cost of Discipleship (1937) and
Life Together (1939).
In
The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer argues that cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the Church. The sacraments and forgiveness are thrown away at cut price. We offer grace without price and grace without cost, instead of offering costly grace, which calls us to follow Jesus Christ.
When synagogues throughout Germany were set on fire in 1938, Bonhoeffer told the Church: ‘Only those who cry out for the Jews may sing Gregorian chant.’ In his Bible, he underlined two passages in the Psalms that read: ‘They are burning the houses of God in the land,’ and, ‘No prophet speaks any longer.’ He marked the date in his Bible and wrote later: ‘The church was silent when she should have cried out.’
When World War II broke out, he became involved in the resistance, making contacts in Switzerland, Norway and Sweden. And yet he found time to write his book
Ethics. His contacts with George Bell failed to stop Britain’s policy of obliteration bombing and demanding ‘unconditional surrender.’ The German opposition was left without hope, and a disappointed Bell wrote his hymn ‘Christ is the King’:
Let Love’s unconquerable might
God’s people everywhere unite
In service to the Lord of Light. Alleluia.
In prison, Bonhoeffer worked on his
Letters and Papers from Prison and wrote: ‘What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed, who Christ really is, for us today … We are moving to a completely religionless time … if therefore man becomes radically religionless – and I think that is already more or less the case … what does that mean for Christianity? How can Christ become Lord of the religionless as well?’
The final chapter of his last, unfinished book begins: ‘The Church is only her true self when she exists for humanity … She must take her part in the social life of the world, not lording it over men, but helping and serving them. She must tell men, whatever their calling, what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others.’
He was hanged at Flossenburg at dawn on 9 April 1945. An oft-quoted line from
The Cost of Discipleship foreshadowed his death: ‘When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.’ His last recorded words as he was led to the scaffold were a message for George Bell: ‘Tell him that for me this is the end, but also the beginning.’
It was not the end, it was only the beginning. By the 1950s and the 1960s, he was the theologians’ theologian, and his influence was immeasurable. In recent years, he was ‘canonised’ by having his statue placed on the west front of Westminster Abbey. More recently, he has been the subject of a made-for-television movie in America. But what is his relevance today?
‘Bonhoeffer is one of the great examples of moral courage in the face of conflict,’ says Martin Doblmeier, director of
Bonhoeffer, a recent 90-minute film. ‘Many of the issues Bonhoeffer faced – the role of the church in the modern world, national loyalty and personal conscience, what the call to being a ‘peacemaker’ really means – are issues we continue to struggle with today.’
1 Firstly, Bonhoeffer reminds us that faith assumptions and presumptions are no substitute in the seminary and the theological college for intellectual rigour and questioning. Indeed, he shows us that this is a more effective way of building faith than by trying to impose our individual views on others, and impose them judgmentally.
2 Secondly, in this post-modern world, Bonhoeffer continues to challenge us when we find new ways to make our Christian faith subject to, and relevant to, the overarching fashionable political and social ideologies of our day. Is the ‘Fuhrer principle’ reflected in the calls and slogans at Trump’s rallies or in the campaigns of far-right leaders rising across Europe today? How often have the different brands of Christianity been called on in recent decades to justify the nation-state as it embarked on disastrous wars of pride, one after another, whether it was the Falklands War, or the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or indeed whether it was Catholic Croats or Orthodox Serbs indulging in ethnic cleansing to create nation states with a single religious identity.
3 Thirdly, Bonhoeffer’s story of the Church remaining silent when it should have spoken out as the synagogues were burned down in 1938 is a challenge to us today. Once again synagogues and mosques too are being attacked and burned down, this time in the US and the UK, and being daubed and attacked across Europe. The stranger is not being welcomed, the refugee is being turned back, many of our new immigrants are the victims of pernicious racism, migrants are left isolated and in cramped, dehumanising conditions. The Cross, in this case the Cross of Saint George, is being abused as a weapon in the hands of bigots and hatemongers. Civilians – including children, the elderly, hospital patients and staff, journalists – have been slaughtered in Gaza, children have been bombed at school in Iran. Hostages were held by Hamas for two years after they were abducted, and the last body was not returned until early this year. Are we speaking out, speaking out now, before our silence becomes complicity in something even worse?
4 Fourthly, in his concern with growing secularisation, a concern so well articulated in his
Letters and Papers from Prison, Bonhoeffer tells us we need to face up to the growing secularisation of society and of humanity. If he could see in the 1940s our need to speak about God in a secular way, how much more pressing is that need today? We are so obsessed with maintaining not so much our Church structures but our Church pomp and sense of self-importance, leaving us unable to reach out to a secular world with a ‘religionless Christianity.’ We often use Christianity as a garment to cloak and protect us and to ringfence our prejudices about others and their sexuality, class, ethnicity and background, rather than asking, like Christ, what they need and accepting Christ’s charge to go out into the world. How can we find the language that enables us to speak in a secular way about God, and how can we live up to our missionary charge in the world today by being able to present to postmodern humanity Jesus who is ‘the man for others’?
5 Fifth and finally, how as a Church can we resist the temptation to continue dispensing cheap grace? So often, success in the Church is measured by how well we fill the pews, and whether we send people out happy and clapping. But sometimes prophetic voices can be isolated and left speaking to empty pews. A congregation that goes out into the world feeling uncomfortable but challenged may be better prepared to take the light of Christ into the world of darkness. Dispensing cheap grace should never be the task of the truly prophetic priest.
It is not easy to rejoice in these challenges. But we can accept them as blessings, and must give thanks for prophetic life and witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyr priest and prophet, who challenged us to consider ‘the Cost of Discipleship’.
‘Receives Cross’ (Station 2 in the chapel, Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield) … Dietrich Bonhoeffersays, ‘When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 4 November 2026):
The theme this week (1 to 7 November 2026) in
Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘All Saints’ Day’ (pp 52-53). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by Matthew Anns, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 4 November 2026) invites us to pray:
Spirit, help us to pray for those who have mistreated us in our own lives. That they come to know the Father, and forgive them for sinning against both us and you.
The Collect:
Almighty and eternal God,
you have kindled the flame of love
in the hearts of the saints:
grant to us the same faith and power of love,
that, as we rejoice in their triumphs,
we may be sustained by their example and fellowship;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion Prayer:
Lord of heaven,
in this eucharist you have brought us near
to an innumerable company of angels
and to the spirits of the saints made perfect:
as in this food of our earthly pilgrimage
we have shared their fellowship,
so may we come to share their joy in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of glory,
touch our lips with the fire of your Spirit,
that we with all creation
may rejoice to sing your praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (seventh from left) among the ten martyrs of the 20th century above the West Door of Westminster Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
http://nrsvbibles.org
Patrick Comerford’s sermon in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, on 5 February 2006, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was published in ‘A Year of Sermons at Saint Patrick’s, Dublin’ (pp 19-22)
