As another bruising year ends, Christmas offers a reminder that peace is not found in power, wealth or spectacle, but in inner integrity, humility and care for others.

In an exchange between Jesus and the crowd he asked: “what did you go out into the desert to look at?”

2025 can hardly be measured as a great year for humanity, or indeed for the planet. Will next year be any better?  Probably not. Why not? Because overall we are accustomed to look for and treasure the wrong things, that is, they are the wrong things if we are genuinely interested in harmony and human wellbeing.

Christmas is celebrated by a significant percentage of the global human population. Customs such as the tree and lights, puddings and turkeys have evolved over time. In the UK, they were given a significant push along by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Albert’s German roots brought the significance of the tree to the English version of Christmas celebration. While these customs can usefully adorn the true Christmas story of the eternal Word made flesh, they are celebrated apart from that narrative by most people.

In other words, the celebration of Christmas is an entirely secular event for most. To be even more blunt, it has become a successful enterprise for a capitalised and commerce orientated world.

Perhaps because of this, Christmas is one of the most stressful times of the year for many people, perhaps for most people, according to the medical profession.

So, what have we missed, and is what we have missed important?  The single word most associated with Christmas is PEACE. But what does that mean. Does knowing Donald Trump has just been awarded FIFA’s inaugural peace prize throw any light? Sadly, not at all.

Peace is a by-product of something else. What Christians came slowly to understand was that on that first Christmas morning the true nature of God and the true nature of humanity were both being revealed, and peace was the outcome of the relationship between the two.

How so?  Well, because peace is first and foremost an internal reality.  Only when it is known, cherished and defended internally can it become externally manifest. In 2025 Trump, Putin, Netanyahu have been blustering and bullying, fuelled by ego and a self-perceived destiny for greatness, when in reality they have been at war with grievances within, from which they seem unable to be freed; internal and quite personal wars which they have inflicted on the world. By contrast, Mandela, Alexei Navalny and Marwan Barghouti (the Palestinian Mandela), found their true selves through incarceration and achieved potential for great leadership through inner integrity.

Navalny was murdered in jail, his gift of freedom, liberty and generosity to the Russian people was not to be. Will Barghouti be given the chance to lead his people to harmony and peaceful coexistence? It is one of humanity’s great paradoxes that the prisoner can frequently be freer than the jailer.

Peace is never simply the cessation of open hostility.  Peace requires the reasons for that hostility to be addressed. That is why Trump’s claims to have secured peace in more than a half dozen places throughout the world is so sadly ridiculous.

In personal or family affairs the same is true. Peace or harmony can only happen when the reasons for grievance or simple misunderstanding, have been dealt with.

In contemporary public discourse the true nature of God is most frequently either not known or distorted. Sadly, this is the case in religious as much as secular discourse. ‘God’ is a metaphor for what lies beyond description. Many self-proclaimed atheists appear to base their disbelief on a caricature that people like me find incredulous and have never believed.  Christian belief is that the wisdom behind all that exists became incarnate in Jesus and dwelt amongst us. As the scriptures say, Jesus is the human face of God. God is the breathing that makes all life possible and the grace, which is on constant offer even, no, particularly in suffering, as so many have experienced. Such is the human need to discover our true selves that often tragedy is a more important chapter in life’s journey than triumph.

In like manner true humanity is not exhibited in power and might, but seen in sacrifice, service, humility, empathy and courage. For this reason, human society needs the vulnerable and the poor because these very virtues are more likely to be found in their space. No wonder Jesus was attracted to people such as these.

We constantly hear that cost of living is the number one issue on the mind of Australians and mitigating this ‘crisis’ is the number one expectation we have of those who govern us. There are many amongst us who are very poor, but for most of us poverty is a relative issue. We gamble and lose more per head than any other nation on earth. The houses we expect to live in are larger than counterparts in any European country. We have a tax system which encourages wealth through ownership of property rather than investment in production. We have returned to driving large vehicles etc etc.

It appears the more money we have, the less we believe we have.

What do we look for to measure the value of each day? I asked my mother that question in the days before she died.  She said, “be content”, she might have also said “be of service.”

My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you, let not your hearts be worried, neither let them be afraid, said Jesus. John 14:27

Christmas shows that, as Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote: “earth is crammed with heaven and every bush afire with God – but only he who sees takes off his shoes, the rest sit around and eat blackberries."