The Army has an interesting relationship with faith. Its Chaplains are held in great love and esteem, our many failings as soldiers overlooked because of our great love for the soldiers we serve with. Yet we are also objects of ridicule, we are holy fools, essential to the moral life of the army, bringing much needed morale to our troops who often express their contempt for the faith that brings us into their lives, even as they express their love for us as individuals.   

So who do I say Jesus is to the soldiers I work with?   

Most of the individuals I work with would ‘never darken the doors of the church’, yet they will come into my office and lay bare their souls as they seek to make sense of their lives. At higher levels they are the ones who will speak to defend our continued presence in the Army. I wonder sometimes if they ever ponder what it is that draws them in and allows them to open themselves, what it is that makes us such a valuable asset to them. Everything I do as a chaplain, the one to one conversations, the mental fitness and behaviours teaching, the Acts of Remembrance, the Field Services, all of this and more, I do because my answer to the question ‘Who do you say that I am?’ is ‘the God who loves the people I serve’.   

We are a nation that has enjoyed peace for the last 80 years, it is a wonderful truth to celebrate. The cost in human life over those years of warfare is incomprehensible, a cost that our sisters and brothers in Ukraine are painfully living with. It is not something any of us should desire, which is why some of you reading this may be pacifists. You may abhor the reality of war, you may actively campaign against the arms trade or nuclear weaponry, and the people I love may present an affront to you.   

‘Who do you say that I am?’   

When the people I love are stood in front of you they are looking to you, as they look to me, to answer the question ‘who is the God you follow and what does that mean for me?’ I wonder how you will answer Christ in that moment?