In a video message for Christmas, Bishop Jonathan Gibbs addresses the darkness and fear facing us in the world today and encourages us to look to the story of Jesus' birth as a light in the darkness
Watch here or read it in full below
A light in the darkness
As we approach Christmas this year, I guess many of us feel that we are living in anxious and uncertain times. There is a sense of gathering gloom and darkness in our world that isn’t just to do with the nights drawing in.
We are seeing wars in numerous places, with fear of their escalation even right here in Europe. There is the growing impact of climate change.
And then there is the rise of Artificial Intelligence, alongside the power of social media and their effect on the mental health especially of young people.
All in all, it can seem a pretty dark and scary world out there at times.
And it is into this situation that the message of Christmas speaks so clearly. Saint John says at the start of his Gospel, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”
That light is Jesus Christ who came into the world to bring God’s light to us, to show us the way, to guide us and to bring us hope.
Jesus can bring us that light because he is the one who made the world. And he invites us to receive that light by receiving him into our lives.
As Saint John says, “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God."
And that is the invitation that he issues to every single one of us. It is the invitation that our churches celebrate and proclaim afresh every year at Christmas – and throughout the whole of the year.
However dark our world may appear – and however dark the circumstances we ourselves may be facing – Jesus offers us light in the darkness and hope for the future.
So may I invite you this Christmas to come along and hear more about the light of Jesus in your local church – and if you’re a regular there already, then invite others along to discover the light of Christ for themselves.
'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.'
May the light of Christ shine ever more brightly in our hearts and in our world this Christmas and in the year to come.
Bishop Jonathan Gibbs
The Bishop of Rochester
December 2024