September 7, 2025: Counting the Cost of Discipleship

The “One Thing” and the Cost of Discipleship

Father Bob Wismer’s sermon doesn’t sugarcoat faith. He invites us into the hard, bracing words of Jesus—words that challenge our comfort zones, upend our priorities, and reorient our lives around a single, non-negotiable focus: Christ himself.

Listen to the sermon here (click the play button below)

Finding the “One Thing”

Father Bob begins with a surprising cultural reference: the movie City Slickers. In it, the cowboy Curly tells the city-dwellers that the secret of life is “one thing.” The challenge is figuring out what that one thing is.

To make this vivid, Father Bob recalls a science demonstration with a jar, sand, stones, and a large rock. If you put the sand and smaller stones in first, the rock won’t fit. But if you start with the rock, everything else falls into place.

So what is the “big rock” for followers of Jesus? It’s the call of Christ—a call that sometimes sounds extreme. Luke’s Gospel includes words about “hating” family, life, and possessions. Taken literally, it sounds harsh. But Father Bob explains that this reflects Semitic language, which often uses extremes rather than gentle comparisons. Jesus isn’t commanding animosity—he’s demanding clarity.

In practice, it means:

• Priority over preference. Loving God so fully that other loves, while real, pale in comparison.

• Context matters. Luke’s Gospel is also full of compassion for family, neighbors, and the marginalized. Jesus isn’t contradicting himself; he’s showing us the order of things.

• Relational priority. Our agendas, our families, our possessions—none can take precedence over our devotion to God.

The “one thing” is singular devotion to Christ, the rock on which everything else must be built.

The Cost of Following Jesus

Here Father Bob shifts gears. Jesus didn’t preach feel-good platitudes. His words were intentionally disturbing, pressing us to wrestle with the real cost of discipleship.

• Taking up the cross. To Jesus’ first listeners, the cross meant humiliation and death. Father Bob reminds us: “He calls us to take up our cross. He gave his all—and now calls us to give our all.”

• Brutal honesty. Jesus never promised an easy life. Faith requires hard work, deep engagement, and courage in the face of difficulty.

• Counting the cost. Through parables of a builder and a king, Jesus underscores the need to consider what commitment really means. Temporary glory—like Herod’s temple, now rubble—cannot compare to the eternal reality of God’s kingdom.

• Recruitment, not spectatorship. Jesus wasn’t building an audience. He was raising a movement. Faith is about participation, not passive observation.

Following Jesus, then, isn’t a hobby. It’s a life-altering decision that costs something real.

The Paradox of Sacrifice

And yet, this is where paradox emerges: the costliest path is also the most life-giving.

• Turning the world right side up. What feels like upheaval is, in truth, a restoration. Christ reorders our lives into their proper alignment.

• Counting the cost of not following. It’s easy to think discipleship is too demanding—but Father Bob presses us to consider the alternative: isolation, self-reliance, and emptiness.

• Grace and joy. The Eucharist embodies this truth. We don’t come to the table because we deserve it; we come because God invites us. And in that invitation lies joy, strength, and the freedom to love.

A Final Word

Father Bob’s sermon leaves us with a stark but hopeful challenge: identify your “one thing.” Is Christ truly your rock, the first priority around which everything else falls into place?

Discipleship is costly—but the cost pales beside the gift. The path of the cross, though demanding, leads to joy, grace, and the kind of love that can turn the world right side up.