I Surrender All

May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Being in church can be dangerous – it’s dangerous becomes sometimes church can “take”. Because sometimes if you’re not used to church, the holy atmosphere, or the hymns or the prayers or something about being here can awaken a deep sense, that has always been with you, sometimes you “catch” religion, you feel the presence of God deeply, and it changes your life.

In Luke 14, “large crowds were travelling with Jesus”. They’d caught religion, they’d found God. Praise be. Can you imagine how delighted London diocese would be if you told them the church was attracting large crowds. But Jesus’ reaction is the opposite, instead he needs to warn them of what they’re letting themselves in for; he turns to the crowd and says: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”

Now I don’t think we’re meant to be angry at our family or angry at life – being emotionally angry isn’t what we’re talking about here and isn’t to be recommended; but our allegiance and commitment to Christ should be so total that our attitude to anything else in comparison is logically akin to hate.

There are two ways of looking at the Christian life. If someone asks you why you are a Christian, you might well explain to them that a) you believe in Jesus and accept him as your personal saviour, but b) you might go on to say something like: Jesus sweetens your life; Jesus makes my life better, he takes our life and improves it, he adds light and meaning to our life.

But this isn’t what Jesus is getting at. To be Jesus’ disciple demands more. It’s not about Jesus adding and improving our life; It’s about Jesus owning all aspects of our life. It’s not about loving your family or God, but loving your family because of God, through God. Because if we say Christianity changes our life, ultimately that is what we mean: Jesus owning all aspects of our life.

I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the things that inspired me when I was younger was the story of Thomas Becket. If the Church of England were to choose an archbishop of Canterbury, they would not choose Becket. They didn’t. Becket was appointed archbishop of Canterbury by king Henry II specifically because he wasn’t churchy or a devout Christian or particularly spiritual. He was a worldly politician. But seemingly overnight, when he was made archbishop, he realized the enormity of what he had been called by God to do; he caught religion, he caught God, with Becket church “took”, and he started opposing the king and supporting the church instead.

There’s a wonderful bit in the film Becket where Becket is giving away all his rich clothes to the poor, and washing their feet, and he prays to God and says: “Dear Lord, I wish there was something I really regretted parting with, so that I might offer it to You. But forgive me, Lord, [giving everything away,] it’s like going on a holiday. I’ve never enjoyed myself so much in my whole life. Lord? Are you sure you’re not laughing at me? It all seems far too easy…”

Becket ends the film as in real life, murdered on the floor of Canterbury Cathedral, killed by four of king Henry’s knights – a willing martyr, a witness – for martyr means witness – a witness to the truth of God above everything else.

Becket’s life is a witness that Christ shouldn’t be a part of our life – our whole life belongs to him. It’s not about duty to God and our job and family; but duty to God which includes our job or family. St John says in his first letter, Chapter 2 verse 6: “Whoever claims to live in God must live as Jesus did.” And Jesus lived by giving everything away for love of God and love for us.

Your life does not belong to you; “you were bought with a price”, says Paul in 1 Corinthians [6:20], you were bought with the precious blood of Christ [cf. 1 Peter 1:18-19]. As Christians you do not own your time; your time is God’s time. It’s just a matter of how God would have you organize that and live that out: to surrender every moment to God, for God to direct us, as may be most expedient for us and for God.
And of course when you hand over everything to God, you’ve got nothing to lose; you have a freedom you can’t get anywhere else, a freedom that’s like a cool breeze from God. Life then becomes easy come easy go, because it’s already Christ’s, it’s surrendered to Christ. May we, with the help of God, be faithful disciples of our Lord and Saviour—the Shepherd of our souls—Jesus Christ.

Amen.

The Rev’d Michael Aylmer,
St Mary Magdalene, Enfield, 07/09/2025