As we begin a new year, Bishop Jonathan Gibbs, the Bishop of Rochester, reflects on how we all have the opportunity to join in with what God is doing at this time, by responding to the call to follow Jesus and to allow him to change and renew our lives.
Read Bishop Jonathan's message in full below.
It has been wonderful to gather together with so many people over the season of Christmas and Epiphany, to celebrate the birth of our Saviour and the hope that he brings to us and to our world.
For this is what the Christian faith is really about – it’s about hope instead of despair, light instead of darkness and new life in place of death and decay.
And my goodness me, how we could do with some more of that right here and now in today’s world! Because frankly the world is in a mess and the times in which we live feel dark and scary. And who knows what the future will hold in 2026 and beyond – with wars all over the place, increasing global instability, flu epidemics, and goodness knows what, never mind climate change and the cost-of-living crisis!
A few years back, we thought we had pretty well got things sussed. The Cold War had come to an end and peace was supposed to be breaking out all over the world – there was even to be “peace dividend” from which we would all benefit. And then came 9/11 and the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan and the economic crash and rising immigration and COVID-19 and all the rest.
Not forgetting misinformation and disinformation and conspiracy theories and AI. And we may well end up asking, who’s pulling the strings, who’s calling the shots – and the answer is – who knows?
It's certainly not us because frankly whoever we are it feels like there are bigger powers at work, and we are all just little people caught in the middle.
And I guess that was probably how people in Bethlehem were feeling around the time Jesus was born.
They were living in an occupied country under the brutal rule of the Roman Empire. Anyone stepping out of line could expect a pretty harsh response, with crucifixion being the preferred way for the authorities to make an example of someone.
There may have been no internet, but Big Brother was certainly watching, with spies everywhere; and Big Brother was counting too, as everyone was summoned to their hometown to be registered – and taxed. They knew who you were, and they knew where you lived! Not so very different to today really!
And it was in this context, in this place and this situation, that Jesus was born. God sent his Son into the world, born in a stable, a long way from home, to an unmarried mother who’d nearly been kicked out into the street, until an angel put Joseph straight about what was going on.
And then came a ragbag of visitors: shepherds first, by all accounts a dodgy lot, not trusted by the townspeople, dirty, unshaven, smelling of sheep – and worse.
They came first, followed by a motley crew of magicians, astrologers (or whatever they were), strangers from a foreign land – no passports, no papers, with a story about a star and following it to Bethlehem.
But they all came because they were drawn by wonder, drawn by hearing something, seeing something they didn’t fully understand but somehow or other they knew it was important, special. No, more than that, they believed this was God himself doing something new, something amazing: breaking into the world, shining light in the darkness, bringing hope to those in despair.
And that is what Jesus does: he comes to us in unlikely ways and at inconvenient times. He speaks to us: sometimes he whispers to us, sometimes he even shouts to us, because otherwise we can be too deaf or distracted to hear.
He invites us to lift our eyes beyond all the stuff that fills our lives, all the things that are stressing us out, all the things that fill us with fear.
He invites us to look instead at him – the baby born in a manger, a vulnerable child, and he asks us to let him into our lives, so he can fill us with his light, his love, his life – so he can begin to heal and change and remake us – and through us begin to heal and change and remake the communities and even the world of which we are part.
And it all starts with people like you and me saying Yes to Jesus. It starts with people being drawn to him – whether they are scruffy, stinking shepherds from the back of beyond, or well-heeled, well-dressed magicians from a foreign land. This is for all of us – it’s for you and me and for every single person on this earth.
It’s about people walking in darkness and looking for light. It’s about people living in fear and looking for hope. It’s about people oppressed by their circumstances looking for freedom and a fresh start.
It's about God coming to us as a tiny baby, a baby who will become our saviour, die on a Cross and rise again from the dead.
This Jesus – the life-transforming, world-changing, heaven-opening Son of God – this Jesus comes to us and speaks to us and invites us to respond to him and to follow him for the rest of our days.
Because that’s how it starts for each of us as individuals: realising that we don’t have all the answers after all and recognising that Jesus Christ is the one who can answer our fears and meet our deepest longings, for hope and peace and purpose and light.
And it’s also how things start for whole societies – when people begin the realise that they have been sold a lie, or at best half-truths, by the gods of modernity and materialism.
Since the 1960s in one way or another, we have been promised it all: ever-increasing prosperity and (after the end of the Cold War) peace for all – and look what we’ve got instead – a flat-lining economy, ecological disaster and a growing threat of war.
Because of all this, people are beginning to look for answers beyond the material and the economic.
They are looking for spiritual answers, spiritual resources to help them make sense of the new reality we are all experiencing. And that is happening especially among the younger generation, with apparently people of GenZ (that is, in their teens to late twenties) being those most likely to be in church this Christmas.
It all starts with people turning to Christ and committing themselves to following him. And it’s catching on, with people turning up in church and wanting to know more; people being prompted in a dream to buy a Bible and to start reading it.
I have been seeing this more and more at services of Baptism and Confirmation, as young adults especially, have shared the story of how they have come to faith in Christ.
And that’s how revival starts, as more and more people respond to the call of Jesus, and that’s also how societal renewal begins, as more and more people discover new purpose in life and new motivation to live differently, not just for themselves but for a higher purpose – the purpose that Jesus called “the kingdom of God”.
At the start of this New Year, each of us has the chance to join in with what God is doing, by responding to the call of Jesus to follow him and to allow him to change and renew our lives.
In the words of Saint John’s Gospel: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has neither understood it nor overcome it.” That darkness is what we experience when life doesn’t have God as a reference point or as a guide.
It’s life focussed on other things – the things that have so failed us in the last few generations – and Jesus offers us an alternative: “To those who received him, he gave the power to become children of God.” And that is his offer to each one of – the offer to receive him as our Saviour and King, the one who can lead us out of darkness into his marvellous light.
There are lots of offers around in the shops and on-line at this time of year. I pray that you won’t miss out on this one – the most important and life-changing offer of all: “To those who received him, he gave power to become children of God.”
And so, at the start of this New Year, may I pray for each one of us across the Diocese of Rochester:
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you that you came into our world at Bethlehem and thank you that you are indeed the Light of the World.
Shine your light into our hearts to lead us and guide us, that we may follow you and walk in your light for the rest of our days, until finally we see you face to face. Amen.
Bishop Jonathan Gibbs
Bishop of Rochester
January 2026