Amid horrors like violence in Middle East, we should not sanitise harsh realities – Rt Rev Sally Foster-Fulton

When the temptation is to circle the wagons, do not be afraid to let love steer you towards those on the margins and seek common ground

War has never brought lasting peace (Picture: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)

We are tumbling towards 2024. If we let them, the days could slide past and land us in a new year before we surface, or stop to take stock, or try to make sense of the year we have experienced. I invite us not to do that this time.

There are too many vitally important issues, challenges and opportunities that desperately need our collective compassion, wisdom and focus. The theme for my year as Moderator is ‘Ubuntu’, a Zulu word meaning “I am because you are”. We cannot exist without each other, and we undermine and devalue our own humanity when we do not cherish and champion the rights of our siblings. Let’s not use our words to sanitise galling, harsh realities.

We are approaching 21,000 deaths in Gaza so far and more than 1,200 in Israel, yet we call them casualties. The word means ‘a chance occurrence’ – this is anything but that. These are mostly women and children, these are members of our human family. When we place “I am because you are” on top of this mess we have all contributed to, it should break our hearts.

There can never be anything casual about war and violence, this unfolding tragedy in the Middle East or any other conflict around the world. This year, let’s not slide into that delusion. War has never brought lasting peace – to say calls for peace are naïve is the delusional stance. Violence breeds violence and hate breeds hate. Don’t stand for it. Let’s not use our words to sanitise galling, harsh realities.

Neighbour-orientated politics

“Stop the small boats” rhetoric submerges the sad fact that our siblings are in those boats and they are desperate. Whatever the reasons (and we know that climate change and conflict are huge drivers), where is the welcome? What has Rwanda got that we don’t? Let’s not use our words to sanitise galling, harsh realities.

When words become so familiar that they wash over us and do not penetrate, pause and let them sink in. There is a cost-of-living crisis – let those words sink in. What are the options for our siblings who cannot afford the basics for survival?

When we place “I am because you are” into that unsquare-able circle, our personal response and our political decisions may become more neighbour-oriented. Let’s not use our words to sanitise galling, harsh realities.

Climate change, words so overused that they scarcely make the air move when spoken. When we hear them, the temptation is to say “are we still talking about climate change?” But let that sink in because the truth is “NO REALLY! ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS!!!”

The science is unequivocal – every day the evidence mounts, as every day, our siblings suffer. The ones who have had least to do with causing the chaos our planet is enduring are the ones suffering most. “I am because you are” does not sit well with the lukewarm response our global leadership has offered.

A powerful truth

In the Christian tradition, the Christmas season lasts for 12 days, beginning with the birth of the Christ child and ending with the coming of the Wise Ones – the Epiphany. And the story gets covered with wrapping paper, tinsel and trinkets – no judgment here, by the way.

I’m currently knee-deep in soon-to-be-packed-away Christmas decorations and our living room floor is strewn with piles of paper that I plan to recycle. The story is one of how the Wise journey to find love and how it takes them back a different way.

Christmas isn’t over when the baby is born. Christmas is a story of the embodiment of love and how the Wise find it in the breathtakingly beautiful, fragile life of a child. The incarnation stories sing to us of the power and the peril of believing in our dreams, of forging ahead with bold faith, of saying yes to risky, unexpected opportunities; for that is where we are most likely to meet challenge and love.

I invite us not to slide past the powerful truth of that story this time. There are too many vitally important issues, challenges and opportunities that desperately need our collective compassion, wisdom and focus.

We human beings become fully human when we cherish each other, when see part of ourselves (the most sacred part) in the eyes of every other human being. Hope lives in our relationships, one to another – they are what we do best and where we fail most often.

Hope holds on, knowing that love is strong enough to survive our failures. “Do not be afraid” is the most frequently spoken phrase in the Bible, I wonder why? Possibly because there is a difference between feeling afraid, which everybody feels sometimes, and “being afraid” – fear being the driver and determining factor.

When the temptation is to circle your wagons, look after number one and the ones you know, do not be afraid to let love steer you towards those on your margins and seek common ground. Do not be afraid. There is enough for all of us when we believe that enough to share.

Do not be afraid. Justice and peace hold hands and they walk the road together. Join them and change the world one step at a time. So, walk wide-eyed and open-hearted into 2024. Walk with determined steps, holding hands with hope and love – and we can change the world.

The Rt Rev Sally Foster-Fulton is the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland