Continuing to talk to people, read, watch and listen to accounts of this past weekend’s “Unite the Kingdom” march, it seems that many of the reasons people are giving for supporting it are the same as those that people gave for supporting Brexit.

I’ve heard people share that they are poorer; that public services are worse than they used to be, if they can be accessed at all; that they feel overlooked and left behind; that they are losing a sense of their own story and identity; that they want to get back something that they feel has gone, even if they can’t quite articulate what that is.

Why has Brexit disappeared from our discourse? Has it been fumbled by those who were to deliver its promises? Were those promises hollow to begin with? Both? Has it simply been lost to the mists of time? Something else entirely? Because it seems clear that these yearnings and needs of many have not been addressed or satisfied and are therefore continuing to concern us all.

I’m lucky compared to some. While I’ve had direct recent experience of highly strained public services (of family being denied access to treatment via the NHS for example), and while – like so many of us – I’m directly feeling the challenges of the current economic climate, I’m not destitute or without hope.

Nevertheless, I am deeply disheartened that we are seemingly so ready to blame the ‘other’ for our current woes; that those in positions of power and influence in our local communities, our nation and other nations are prepared to fan those flames, and that we are so willing to uncritically accept and share inaccurate information or deliberate misinformation if it seems to fit our existing worldview or somehow make us feel better about ourselves, however fleetingly. For what it might be worth, I know that I am not somehow above doing the same.

If we are to ease the simmering tensions that we see all around us, locally, nationally and internationally, it is beholden upon us all to try and identify our problems clearly and without prejudice; to examine ourselves and our own motivations honestly and not seek to point the finger at others; to be gracious in our dialogue, slow to anger and abounding in love; to be courageous, fair and creative in seeking to identify solutions to our problems that will benefit the common good rather than the interests of a few; to find and share what we have in common rather than pull up the drawbridge to hoard and hide. I’m not convinced that I see this approach anywhere much in our society right now, including in some Christian communities and in protests and counter-protests.

As a Christian minister, I’m heartbroken to see the name of Jesus Christ being invoked to try and justify the deliberate stoking of division, tension and national exceptionalism. Christ clearly wasn’t above putting the noses of the powerful and influential out of joint in righteous anger, but not in the name of a nation’s borders or boundaries as we understand them today. Christ put noses out of joint to draw ALL people back to God and turn them away from sin (the things that separate us from God and each other), championing a way of life based in justice, peace, mercy, hospitality and a love of neighbour. As Tom Wright puts it: “We must resist Christian nationalism as giving a Christian facade to nakedly political, ethnocentric and impious ventures.” I hope that Christians will find their identity and hope in Jesus Christ and the example of his teaching and way of life, rather than a flag or a man-made border.

I don’t pretend to have immediate answers or clear solutions for the many complex problems that our world is currently facing. I do know that trying to live a life of faith after the example of Jesus Christ helps me find a sure and certain hope in these difficult and uncertain times. Perhaps it might help you too. Those who have been at services that I’ve led recently will know that the introduction to the sharing of Christ’s peace that I use most often is “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. We meet in Christ’s name and we share his peace.” If nothing else, I will continue to do my best to live a life based in love, faith and the example of Christ, and will endeavour to be a peacemaker wherever I go and in whatever I do as opportunity and ability afford. It’s the best I have to offer.