15/12/2025
The events at Bondi yesterday, 14th December, have left many hearts heavy at a time of year intended to be full of joy. Once again we are confronted with the reality that our world is marked by deep sadness, violence, and division. When hatred is directed at people because of who they are, it exposes how fractured humanity truly is.
At this time of year we reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ. We see in Matthew 1 he does not come from a polished or proud genealogy. It is a family album full of brokenness, hatred, sin, scandal, violence, and shame. Jesus did not enter a peaceful, united world. He entered a world already torn apart — Jew and Gentile, insider and outsider, rich and poor.
Yet this is precisely the family into which the Son of God chose to be born in order to tear down the dividing wall of hostility. In Him, God is forming one new family, not defined by ethnicity or background, but by grace and faith, Ephesians 2:14-16, "For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility... that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility."
That does not remove grief or erase evil overnight. But it gives hope that violence and hatred do not have the final word. That belongs to Jesus who was born into our broken history and having risen and ascended to heaven is now redeeming it.
May that be what we remember, pray for, and work towards this Christmas — not fear and division, but faith, repentance, love, and peace in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Kelvin
FRC Melville
