Looking back, looking forward: a Christmas message from our CEO

Today sees Parliament rise for the holidays. Like many of us, I am sure many of our political leaders cannot wait for the break and the rest.

It has been another difficult week for the Prime Minster, on the back of a challenging month, and testing year. Just this week he has faced a key vote on immigration, interrogation by the Covid Inquiry lawyers, and more bad news about the economy. But the Prime Minster is not the only one who will be glad to see the back of 2023.

Labour, who for months been studiously seeking to reassure the electorate about their competence, have faced their own internal debates over Gaza, and it seems that all the opposition parties are better critics than problem solvers.

In Scotland it has been a year of big changes. In March, CARE was a small part of the story concerning the controversy over the SNP leadership contest and Kate Forbes’ biblical views on recent social reforms led by the Scottish Government, but that was nothing compared to the story that broke just a few weeks later around Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP Party finances.

In Wales, the year ends with the First Minster stepping down at a time when he risks his legacy being the leader whose progress on tackling waiting lists and exam results was as slow as the speed cars now have to travel on Welsh roads. Plaid Cymru is still working through the shocking revelations about the culture within the Party.

Back in Westminster and in Northern Ireland, it is hard to tell whether people are merely frustrated or are now in despair that the NI Assembly is still not sitting.

We have seen scandal after scandal concerning politicians whose personal conduct and behaviour has been appalling. From bullying and sexual misconduct scandals, to cash for questions, dishonourable Members of the House have been found out in their droves this year.

And when we think of the context in which our political leaders are working, there seems to be little hope to raise our spirits. Vladimir Putin appears bullish about his prospects in Ukraine, we have seen the horror endured by innocent people in Israel and Gaza following the terrorist attacks on October 8 and the subsequent Israel Defense Force action. US politics seems deeply divided and elections across the worlds have demonstrated that many people feel traditional politicians and mainstream parties do not have the answers to some of the big political questions of our day.

In the UK, far too many people this Christmas will be cold, hungry, lonely, or still waiting after months for their illnesses to be treated.

The list of our brokenness at both an individual and national level could go on.

But it is Christmas.

A time of peace in the midst of conflict and joy that emerges from despair; a time of light and hope.

And we need that light and hope more than ever. Not the pretty, shiny light of the Christmas decorations, but the one light that the darkness cannot overcome; a hope more profound than any economic bounce from a nation spending its money on presents.

We are now in Advent: the season of anticipation. We look forward to Christmas and to celebrating Immanuel, God with us, the God who became man.

Jesus came to heal our brokenness. We read in Luke Chapter 4 that one of his first public pronouncements was to announce the implications of his ministry, a ministry that would bring healing at the deepest level of our need.

The gospel was to be good news to all people but especially for the poor; it meant “freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, (it will) set the oppressed free.”

At Advent, we look forward to Jesus’ incarnation, to the coming of the Prince of Peace. We should never tire of the wonder of what he did for us; and we should always be awestruck by our God’s grace and the ridiculous generosity of His love.

But Advent does not just look forward to Christmas; Advent should spur us on and remind us of our Christian hope: that we believe that God’s story is not finished. The way things are now is not the way they shall remain. There is more to come. Jesus’ incarnation, and his bringing of the Kingdom, was but a foretaste of the healing that will be completed when He comes again. We know that Jesus’ first coming marked the beginning of the end of darkness and the defeat of evil, but also that one day the King will return to complete what he started.

There are many in the public square today who think our hope is foolish, and that it has no consequence or relevance for the brokenness of our world and the big problems of our day. That has been my experience at points during 2023, and as CARE seeks to speak biblical truth with Christ-like conviction and love into the political debates of 2024, there will continue to be those who attack us, seek to silence us, or push us to the margins.

As followers of Jesus, it is important that we speak out with a spirit of boldness, and that we will not be silenced. But neither do we want to resort to tactics or behaviour that do not reflect our Lord. We believe in both truth and grace.

So while we will never dilute God’s word, and will never waver from our convictions, we will also never cease to love our opponents as much as we do our partners and friends. Indeed, our challenge is to be like Jesus and to see not friends and foes, but neighbours, who like us are made in our Creator’s image, and who like us experience brokenness and long to be healed. If we feel persecuted for our beliefs, we will not fight our persecutors with the same tools but will work harder to be compassionate, patient, and loving.

Our gospel can and will cause offense, but we should never seek to be offensive; God’s word can divide, but we should strive to be peacemakers wherever we can. That is hard in a broken world, but Jesus never said being his light and hope would be easy.

There will be a General Election in 2024. The issues that will dominate the coming months are likely to dominate an election campaign as well. Week by week, and in preparation for the debates and campaigns ahead, I hope that you can rely on CARE to do two things.

First, to speak biblical truth, and to represent God’s word faithfully, thoughtfully, and courageously to politicians and all those from across the public square.

Second, to continue to equip and empower the UK church with resources that help them engage with the key political debates of our day and to build constructive relationships with aspiring and established politicians.

In both these areas I am excited about the resources and work CARE has planned for 2024. We will continue to defend the preciousness of life from conception to natural end, and the cause of the defenseless and persecuted, but we will also look to set the agenda on some of the deepest, most ingrained, scars on our society.

God’s word speaks into all of life and we don’t want to just respond to what’s going on, but to set a new agenda for the problems that are diminishing the lives of too many in our nation. So, watch this space in 2024!

I’m really ready and looking forward to a rest over the holidays. I am certain that the Prime Minster and our politicians are as well.

When we return in the New Year the problems that burden us will still be there, but so to will the light that came into our dark world. A light that is the hope our public square and world needs so very much. A light that I pray you, me, and the Church will use to heal the nations in 2024, foreshadowing the day when all things will be made new.