I wonder what you are hoping for this Christmas? Time with family? Maybe some nice presents? Maybe, like me, you are also hoping for some peace. Peace in every sense. We long for it in our wartorn world. But we also yearn for it within our families, on our streets, in our politics, in our own hearts …
2025 has been – as every year is – turbulent.
In January, we began with the awkward Oval Office meeting when President Trump seemed to deliberately shame the leader of Ukraine’s President Zelensky. Then in the spring, the House of Commons overwhelmingly approved legislation to decriminalise abortion to full term and rather narrowly voted to legalise assisted dying.
A hot summer threatened to spin Keir Starmer’s leadership out of control as a backbench rebellion against benefit reforms gained momentum. The Prime Minister seems to have been teetering ever since, with rumors of a contest for No 10 looming in the new year following a controversial autumn budget and another backbench rebellion – this time – on asylum reform. All the while, the far right has become more assertive.
It would be fair to say that the pace and complexity of life works against us finding any peace. So does the inability to escape a constant diatribe of news and fake news on those little screens that we spend far too much time scrolling through.
We try to get away from the hassle, but all too often the hassle ends up coming with us. We seek peace, but we rarely find it. Maybe that’s how we find you this Christmas: worn out by the world’s muckiness and anxious about what is to come …
The good news is scripture tells a lot about peace – including that its meaning is so much deeper than the absence of conflict.
Did you know, if you are trusting in Jesus, then you have God’s peace? How awesome is that! Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica was written to remind this new church of something absolutely critical: our God is a God of peace. And his peace is Trinitarian – God the Father so longed for you to know his peace that he sent his son Jesus into the mess and stress of life to establish peace on earth. He also sent his Spirit to transform us into people of peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14 verse 27).
Remember, in the Old Testament, to be in the presence of God without making the appropriate sacrifices, holding the right office, or guarding your steps with intense humility, would mean being consumed in holy fire. And yet, if you are a Christian, you aren’t just in God’s presence, God the Holy Spirit literally lives in you – now that would be utterly impossible if it wasn’t for the fact that Jesus’ death for your sins has been once and for all deemed to be a fully acceptable sacrifice. So you have peace with God, if you are trusting in Jesus. The matter is settled. Peace is established forever.
It’s a peace that we can have no matter what state our lives are in. When Paul wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians, encouraging them to “Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5 v16), he wasn’t sitting back with his feet up! Paul knew the pressure of persecution. Indeed, he had been driven away from the church in Thessalonica after only a few months of being with them. Paul’s life was not an easy one: imprisonment, beatings, riots, stoning, sleepless nights – even shipwreck! And yet, he knew God’s peace – Shalom – which literally means a wholeness, a putting back together of broken pieces.
Shalom – peace – doesn’t stop with us … we are called to be peacemakers! There are currently 11 UN peacekeeping operations deployed across the world protecting civilians, providing humanitarian aid, and supporting political processes. This is deeply courageous work which we must remember to pray for, but you don’t have to go to faraway places to be a person of peace. You can be a person of peace wherever God has placed you – in your school, hospital ward, coffee shop. So the next time there is a row – it is your job to keep the peace!
And Jesus is described as the Prince of Peace. This means that he loves to put the shattered pieces of our lives back together into a whole.
Peace isn’t achieved – it’s received. As we re-centre our scattered senses on the Christ child – the one who came to win us, to shed his blood for us – I pray that this truth will grip our hearts and encourage us to live out our calling as people of peace in an anxious unsettled world.
Tim Farron has been the Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005 and served as the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party from 2015 to 2017. Tim is also the host of Premier’s ‘A Mucky Business’ podcast, which unpacks the murky world of politics and encourages believers around the UK to engage prayerfully. He is the author of A Mucky Business: Why Christians should get involved in politics."
