The scandal of the church

This post is from the defunct blog “Dying Church”

Sermon preached by the Archbishop of York at his Inauguration:

The scandal of the church is that the Christ-event is no longer life-changing, it has become life-enhancing.  We’ve lost the power and joy that makes real disciples, and we’ve become consumers of religion and not disciples of Jesus Christ.   You see, the call to corporate discipleship is a call to God’s promised glory.  For Christ did for us that which we couldn’t do for ourselves.…

Well, the late Canon David Watson, who was Vicar of St Michael-le-Belfry – the church next door to this Minster, said twenty-four years ago, “Christians in the West, have largely neglected what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.  The vast majority of Western Christians are church-members, pew-fillers, hymn-singers, sermon-tasters, Bible-readers, even born-again believers or Spirit-filled Charismatics – and we have got some those here this morning – but aren’t true disciples of Jesus Christ.

If we were willing to learn the meaning of real discipleship and actually to become disciples, the Church in the West would be transformed, and the resultant impact on society would be staggering.”

(Via achievable ends)