If we walk into a church and we’re unsure of what denomination it belongs to, or any Anglican church and we’re not sure which tradition it belongs to, one way to work that out would be to simply look round and see what kind of crosses are in that church. If we saw crucifixes rather than plain crosses, we could be fairly certain that we were in either a Roman Catholic or Anglo Catholic church whereas if we saw plain crosses, we could be fairly sure that we were in a Reformed church of some kind, or an Anglican church of a more Reformed or Protestant tradition. Because different denominations and traditions do tend to favour one or the other, the plain cross or the crucifix.

And there are quite understandable reasons for that. Catholics tend to favour the crucifix because it emphasises the sacrifice of Christ and this is what lies at the very heart of the liturgy, Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, the breaking of his body and shedding of his blood for the forgiveness of sins. Those of the Reformed and Protestant churches and traditions though favour the plain, empty cross because this reminds us that Christ is no longer on the Cross but has been raised to life. So the plain cross symbolises Christ’s Resurrection and his victory over sin and death. So who’s got this right?

Actually, both are right, but in a sense, both are wrong too. Those who favour the plain, empty cross are right because we must never forget that the foundational event of the Christian faith is Christ’s Resurrection; without the Resurrection there would be no Christian faith. I know that when we hear academics on the TV talking about Jesus and the early Church they usually say that that the foundational event of the Christian faith is Christ’s death on the Cross, but they are utterly wrong. If there had been no Resurrection, Jesus would have died on the Cross, and his movement would have died with him; end of story. Jesus’ death on the Cross is only given meaning in the light of the Resurrection. We Christians are called an Easter people are we not? We’re not called a Good Friday people are we? And for good reason because our faith is founded on our belief in Christ’s Resurrection from the dead.

Having said that, those who favour the crucifix are also right because we Christ couldn’t have been raised from the dead if he hadn’t first died, and that’s simply common sense. And while his Resurrection gives us the assurance that we can be raised to eternal life, it was his death on the Cross which made that possible because his death takes away our sins, the sins that would have prevented us from inheriting eternal life. So we simply cannot have the Resurrection without the Crucifixion; we can’t have the plain, empty cross without the crucifix. And this is why those who favour one over the other are both wrong, because we simply can’t have one without the other.

What we really need to do is to be able to look at a crucifix, see the cost of our salvation, Christ’s death on the Cross for the forgiveness of sins, but then look beyond that to see Christ’s victory over sin and death. We need to be able to see what Christ’s sacrifice and death on the Cross leads to, his Resurrection. But when we look at a plain, empty cross, we still need to be able to see Christ on the Cross. In seeing the empty Cross as a symbol and reminder that Christ is risen, we still need to be able to see that the Cross was also, and first, the instrument of his death and the means by which our sins are forgiven, and the Resurrection was enabled. In this morning’s Gospel, I think we hear Jesus saying this, albeit in a slightly different way.

In our first reading we heard the story of Moses and the bronze serpent. The people were being plagued by deadly serpents and in answer to Moses’ prayer God tells Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole so that anyone who was bitten could look at the bronze serpent and live. And Jesus uses this story to speak about himself:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

It’s quite common in John’s Gospel to find double meanings in Jesus’ words and what Jesus means by being “lifted up” here has been interpreted in a number of ways. He could mean lifted up on the Cross, in which case he’s referring to his death. He could though mean lifted up from death and be talking about his Resurrection. He could even mean lifted up from the earth and be referring to his Ascension. He could mean any of those things, or any one of them or all of them. This is one of the reasons John’s Gospel is not the easiest to understand. What we do know though is that later in the Gospel, when Jesus speaks in a similar way, John tells us quite explicitly that Jesus was referring to his death, to being lifted up on the Cross:

‘“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.’

I don’t think it’s unreasonable then, to assume that in this morning’s Gospel when Jesus speaks about being “lifted up” he was, perhaps primarily, speaking about being lifted up on the Cross. And I think that’s made more likely given the context of the Old Testament background story because that’s a story about being saved from death. Moses lifted up the bronze serpent so that anyone who looked on it would live, and Jesus was lifted up on the Cross so that those who look on him – believe in him, would live forever by virtue of his death on the Cross which takes away the sins that otherwise would have condemned us to death.

What I think we should notice here is what people are called to look at. In the reading from the Book of Numbers, the people aren’t called to look on the pole in order to be saved, they’re called to look at the bronze serpent. And neither are we called to look at the Cross for our salvation, but at the one who was lifted up on the Cross, to Christ. And this doesn’t only agree with what we’ve read this morning, but it’s in accordance with Old Testament prophecy more generally. The prophet Isaiah, in the Suffering Servant prophecy which is so central to our understanding of Jesus’ Passion and death says,

‘Behold, my servant shall act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.’

And Isaiah then goes on to describe the suffering that the Lord’s servant will go through. And through the prophet Zechariah, God says that after pouring out a spirit of grace and prayer on people,

“…when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child.”

And John explicitly links this prophecy to Christ being pierced by a lance as he hung on the Cross.

So the message is clear. When the people of Israel wanted to be saved from death, and God raised up for them a bronze serpent on a pole, they weren’t told to look at the pole, but at the serpent. And in the same way, when God wanted to save us from the death of sin, and his Son was raised up on a Cross, we weren’t told to look at the Cross, but to look at the one who was raised up on it. We’re called to look at Jesus.

Today is the feast of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It’s a day when we exalt the Cross, when we lift up the Cross and sing its praises. But even today, we mustn’t take our eyes off Christ because it’s Christ who gives meaning to the Cross through his sacrifice on the Cross. Even as we think of the Cross as the means of our salvation, we mustn’t take Christ off the Cross because it is he who accomplished our salvation. And even if we look to the empty Cross as a symbol of Christ’s Resurrection, we mustn’t take Christ off the Cross because we cannot have the Resurrection without first having the Crucifixion.

I think the relationship between Christ and the Cross is wonderfully expressed in the 9th Century Anglo Saxon poem, The Dream of the Rood. It begins with a vision in which the dreamer sees the Cross and describes it as ‘wondrous’ and ‘beautiful’, ‘surrounded by light’, ‘the tree of victory’. All things which we might well say today. In the poem, the Cross then begins to speak, and it describes the horror of the crucifixion and its own distress at being put to such terrible use. Eventually the Cross goes on to speak about the honour that people now give it, but it’s an honour that it knows it owes entirely to Christ who once hung and died upon it. It says,

‘Now, my loved man, you have heard
how I endured bitter anguish at the hands of evil men.
Now the time is come when men far and wide in this world,
and all this bright creation, bow before me; they pray to this sign.
On me the Son of God once suffered;
wherefore I now stand on high, glorious under heaven;
and I may heal all those who stand in awe of me.
Long ago I became the cruellest of tortures,
hated by men, until I opened to them the true way of life.
Lo! The Lord of Heaven, the Prince of Glory honoured me,
and exalted me above all other trees…

It’s right that we should exalt the Cross as the instrument of our salvation, but we must always remember that, in and of itself, the cross is a symbol of humiliation, torture and death. It is only given honour and glory because of the one who hung and died on it for our salvation; because it is Christ’s Cross. As the mantra of the Society of the Holy Cross says,

We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for he is our salvation, our life and our resurrection,
through him we are saved and made free.

Amen.

---

The Propers for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 14th September 2025

Entrance Antiphon
We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection, through whom we are saved and delivered.

The Collect
O God, who willed that your Only Begotten Son should undergo the Cross to save the human race, grant, we pray, that we, who have known his mystery on earth, may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38
Philippians 2:6-11
John 3:13-17

Prayer after Communion
Having been nourished by your holy banquet, we beseech you, Lord Jesus Christ, to bring those you have redeemed by the wood of your life-giving Cross to the glory of the resurrection. Who live and reign for ever and ever.
Amen.

In our Gospel readings over the past few Sundays we’ve heard some quite radical things from Jesus, things which turn our usual understanding of him and of the way things should be completely upside down. We could lump these sayings together under a heading of ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ because it’s quite clear that what Jesus is doing through these radical teachings is trying to convey to us just what is demanded of us if we want to be his disciples. He’s trying to tell us just how counter intuitive and counter cultural his disciples must be, and just how hard it not only can be but will be to follow him.  

This morning’s Gospel not only follows in the same vein but seems to sum up what we’ve been hearing over the past few Sundays. This morning we’ve heard Jesus say that we unless we hate our families and even our own lives we can’t be his disciples. He warns to consider the cost of discipleship before we take up our cross and begin to follow him. He likens discipleship to fighting a war when we’re outnumbered 2 to 1. And all this, both over the past few weeks and today, has been building up to Jesus’ final words from this morning’s Gospel; 

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”   

The cost of discipleship then, is everything. If we want to be true disciples of Christ, true Christians in other words, our love of Jesus and our loyalty to him must be greater than our love and loyalty to everyone and everything else. That doesn’t mean to say that we can’t have a life, that we can’t have hobbies and interests and enjoy ourselves, but it does mean that the way we live our lives must always be in keeping with the teaching and example of Jesus Christ.  

The cost of discipleship then is, or at least can be, very high and so to be a true disciple of Christ, a true Christian, takes hard work and discipline. But that seems to be a great problem for most people. Most people, it seems, want to call themselves Christians but don’t want to pay the cost of discipleship. And I think Church attendances bear that out.  

I don’t know how many people in this country claim to be Christians now, but at the last census, in 2021, it was 46%, about 32 million. So in 2021 there were 32 million people in this country who said that they are Christians. Well that’s only 4 years ago so think back; where were they all then? Look around you this morning, where are they all now?  

Of course the Church of England isn’t the only denomination of the Church in this country, and it isn’t even the biggest denomination in this country now, that’s the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, and even though Church of England attendances have risen in recent years, and apparently they have, there are still vast numbers of people in this country who say that they’re disciples of Christ and yet can’t meet even that most simple of requirements for a Christian and come to church.  

I’m sure we’ve all met members though of the ‘You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian’ brigade. And they’re a prime example of those who want to call themselves Christians but don’t want to pay the cost of discipleship. If you think about the statement, “You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian” it implies an understanding of what you do have to do in order to be a Christian. But have any of you ever asked anyone who’s said that to you, what? What is it that you do have to do in order to be a Christian? I have, quite often, and the answer I’ve almost invariably got is some vague talk about being ‘good’ and living a ‘good life’.  

But what does it mean to be ‘good’ and live a ‘good life’? Well, for a true disciple of Christ, it means to live following the teaching and example of Christ. But when I’ve asked people who say they don’t need to go to church to be a Christian what they mean by ‘good’ the answer has, again almost invariably, been about their own ideas of goodness and what it means to live a good life, which, in fact, is the way they already are and the life they’re already living because hardly anyone ever believes that they’re bad and live a bad life do they? And so people say that they’re Christians without any mention of Jesus Christ’s teachings and example. But where is the discipline in simply doing what we want to do rather than following Christ’s example? What cost is involved in living as we choose to live rather than living as Christ taught us to live by both word and deed? It’s simply wanting Easter without Good Friday because what’s glaringly absent from this way of thinking is the cross that Jesus says we all have to take up and carry if we want to follow him.  

So what can we  say to those who think they can be Christians without coming to church? Well, first of all, that they’re completely wrong. In fact they couldn’t be more wrong if they tried. The Gospels tell us quite explicitly that Jesus himself called the Church into being. When Peter confessed his belief in Jesus as Christ and Son of God, Jesus replied, 

“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 

Why did Jesus do this? If, as so many people think and say, the Church is unnecessary, why did Jesus bother to call the Church into being at all? He clearly thought it was and is necessary. So when people say that you don’t need the Church, far from submitting to Christ, what they’re really doing is saying that he was wrong and that they know better than him.  

Also, to be a Christian is to follow not only the teaching of Christ but his example too. And Christ’s example was to join the faithful in public prayer and worship every Sabbath; the Gospels say this quite explicitly too; 

‘And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day….’     

And if it was Jesus’ custom to be in the synagogue every Sabbath day, it should be his disciple’s custom to be in church every Sabbath day too.  

So the undeniable answer from Jesus, as found in scripture, to those who say you don’t have to go to Church to be a Christan is that the Church is necessary for Christians and to be a Christian it’s necessary for us to go to church.  

But even so, there are people, many people in fact, who wouldn’t really deny this and yet still won’t come to church because of the un-Christian behaviour of those who do go to church. We know this is a problem because we probably lose more people from the Church for this reason than for anything to do with matters of faith. People can be very badly treated by members of the Church. People can become so sick and tired of what they see as the hypocrisy of some Church members that they want nothing more to do with the Church. People leave the Church because of what they see as the worldly behaviour of some Church members, or of the Church as an institution. We lose people for all these reasons, and these things can lead people to say that they stopped coming to church because they simply weren’t getting anything out of it. Then they often join the ‘You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian’ brigade. So what do we say to them? 

Let me start by saying that, first and foremost, people need to remember, or perhaps to realise, why we come to church. Of course we come to church to receive; we come to receive the Word of Life and the Bread of Life, to meet the Lord in Word and Sacrament. But primarily we don’t come to church to receive from God, we come to give to God, we come to offer our thanks, our praise and our worship to God for all he’s already given us, most especially through the teaching and example and the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. What we do in church is our response to God’s infinite love for us. So why should what anybody else does stop us from doing that? What difference should what other people do make to our personal response to God’s love for us? We might find what other people do very annoying, even hurtful at times, but didn’t Jesus experience the very same things during his time on earth? He didn’t give up and neither should we. It’s the Way of the Cross, the cost of discipleship and our love of Jesus and loyalty to him must be strong enough to keep us going in spite of these things. 

I want to finish with a story I read a few days ago that I think we might all take to heart. It concerns a woman who told her parish priest that she was leaving the Church because she was sick of seeing people using their mobile phones and hearing them talk and gossip during services and even sleeping during the sermon. The priest asked if, before she left, she’d come again the following Sunday, fill a glass of water almost to the brim and during the sermon walk round the church holding the glass and try not to spill any of the water. So the following Sunday she did what he asked, and she manged to do it without spilling a drop of water. Later the priest asked how many people she’d seen using their phones, heard talking or noticed had fallen asleep while she’d been carrying the glass round church,. The woman said she hadn’t seen any because she’d been concentrating so hard on what she’d been doing. So the priest said,  

If you focus as hard on God when you’re in church, as you did on not spilling the water from the glass, perhaps what other people are doing won’t be so noticeable then either.  

Amen. 

---

The Propers for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 7th September 2025

Entrance Antiphon 
You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right; 
treat your servant in accord with your merciful love. 

The Collect 
O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption, 
look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters, 
that those who believe in Christ 
may receive true freedom 
and an everlasting inheritance. 
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
God, for ever and ever. 
Amen. 

The Readings 
Wisdom 9:13-18  
Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17 
Philemon 9-10, 12-17 
Luke 14:25-33 

Prayer after Communion  
Grant that your faithful, O Lord, 
whom you nourish and endow with life 
through the food of your Word and heavenly Sacrament, 
may so benefit from your beloved Son’s great gifts 
that we may merit an eternal share in his life. 
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. 
Amen.