It was good to hear the Queen giving an unashamedly Christian Christmas message yesterday which emphasised the importance of family and community and, dare I say it, marriage between a man and a woman. It was better than many of her recent Christmas messages, so much so that it seems a shame to take issue with it, however...
I do have a problem with her saying that 'we sometimes need saving from ourselves' because I think we need saving from ourselves all the time. I also think that while forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian faith, as the Queen said, the message of forgiveness in Christ came after John the Baptist's call to repentance. One of the problems in our society today is the emphasis on love, reconciliation and rehabilitation without the requisite repentance and confession of wrong-doing. Indeed, how often do we hear on the news that some politician or other public person has 'denied any wrong-doing'. It has almost become a mantra. Our prisons are full of repeat offenders who have manifestly not repented of their crimes because society has more sympathy for them than for their victims.
Until our society heeds the call of John the Baptist it will not know the peace that comes through Christ.
'The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord' - Isaiah 40:3 (KJV)
