A Life of Leaving
Sermon for Conversion of St Paul – 25 January 2026 – All Saints Kesgrave & All Saints, Little Bealings
Text: Peter answered him, ‘We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?’ (Matthew 19v27)
God give you peace my sisters and brothers
‘We have left everything to follow you! It seems just a little as if Peter, speaking on behalf of all the disciples, is having a case of buyer’s remorse. Today’s reading is their response to Jesus insisting that those who are burdened down by their wealth will find being a disciple a challenge. Listen to His words earlier in the story;
‘Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ (Matthew 19v23-24)
Peter has rumbled the fact that it is not just wealth that slows us down on our journey toward God’s Realm. He knows that, with the Rich Young Ruler, he and his fellow fisherfolk carry other burdens that hinder them on the pilgrimage home and reminds God, as if God needs any reminding, ‘We have left everything to follow you!
But then he drops the ball.
Having worked out that to follow means to leave, he then asks, ‘What then will there be for us?’ Having left everything he still wants something to hold on to! I imagine Jesus making the equivalent of a spiritual face-palm, taking a deep breath and saying, ‘Right, let’s start again from the top shall we?’ Then goes through everything He taught them about children, divorce, forgiveness, wealth, greatness, and generosity in chapters 18, 19 and 20 of Matthew’s Gospel all over again.
(P.S. if you fancy a little ‘light‘ homework read it here.)
The lesson that the disciples had missed completely is that eternal life is not only about following Jesus (everyone, even the Rich Young Ruler, wants to do that) but also about leaving things behind.
The Gospel is not about receiving – what’s in it for me?
But about leaving the past in dust and ashes – which is a reward in itself.
What’s that verse from the hymn?
Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Saviour, or I die.
In my more fey moments, and if you know me at all they are becoming more and more frequent I listen to the words of Mary’s Magnificat from the viewpoint of the wealthy;
Her words:
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty. (Luke 1v53)
…are indeed Good News for the poor and the wealthy alike. By the feeding of the hungry the rich are no longer weighed down by the burden of their wealth. Emptied of their riches they are now set free to follow. Would that the Mega-wealthy of our world, in which eight people own as much as the poorest half of the World,[1] would hear these words!
Following is about leaving. And if we are ever to be true followers of Jesus we must learn to live lives of leaving for only when we stand before the One Who Loves us Best with open hearts and empty hands will be able..
…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ (Ephesians 3v18).
To belong is to leave
To hold is to let go
To follow is to deny oneself
To love is to choose to be last
With Lesley-Anne and I in the business of leaving once again, after Easter we move into our 12th Church Home, my thoughts have been forced to ask questions of ‘What?’ and ‘How?’ and ‘When?’ and most of all ‘Why?’
Long ago, when in the Sixth Form at the Royal Hospital, I found words that helped set the course of my life in a book given to me by the School Chaplain. Written by Dag Hammarskjöld then General Secretary of the United Nations, his book ‘Markings’ has held me on many a day;
‘I don’t know who – or what – put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer yes to someone – or something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life in self-surrender had a goal. From that moment I have known what it means ‘not to look back,’ and ‘to take no thought for the morrow’.
Led by the Ariadne’s thread of my answer through the labyrinth of life, I came to a time and place where I realised that the way leads to a triumph, that the price for committing one’s life would be reproach, and that the only elevation possible to man lies in the depths of humiliation (or humility). After that, the word ‘courage’ lost its meaning, since nothing could be taken from me.’
…and later,
For all that has been, Thanks.
For all that will be, Yes!’
There it is! There is the answer to Peter’s plea ‘What then will there be for us?’
Once we have given up everything (or everything has been taken away from us) nothing can be taken from us ever again!
Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
You see it is when we learn to let go that we are finally held,
when we are lost we are found,
and when we leave everything that, at last, we return home.
‘What then will there be for us?’ Jesus promises the disciples who have emptied themselves and have ‘left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.’
But there is a deeper gift than that.
We, who whatever our circumstance, commit ourselves to a life of leaving finally find that all along we have belonged. Alleluia…
So today I leave you with more words from a famous author whose poems have touched my life; part of T.S. Eliot’s poem Little Gidding;
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always–
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one…
[This blog ‘A Life of Leaving’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2026 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged]
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Riches and the Kingdom of God
Peter answered him, ‘We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?’ 28 Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. (Matthew 19:27-30 NIV)
For Clergy Colleagues
A few days after it was announced that I’ll be stepping down from holding a pastoral charge on Easter Day and finally retiring at the end of August and feelings are mixed:
The air breathes fresher
Vocation guilt nags (as always)
There are glimmers of a new dawn
All in all feeling a little reborn
Is that Ok?
Suffolk Vicar 