BBC Radio 4 2016-06-25

So much happening, and so fast. A history-changing event - the pound falling, markets in turmoil; talk of independence for the UK, independence for Scotland; a new incumbent for Number Ten, and who knows what else lies down the road? Jubilation and bewilderment, pride and despair, the realisation of the brightest dreams or the most terrifying nightmares…

And none of us knows what kind of Britain or Europe might emerge from all this. Unlike many campaign claims, talk of ‘massive uncertainty’ is no exaggeration.

How can we best navigate the turbulence ahead? Simply keep our heads down while it swirls around us, maybe, content either that we’ve got what we voted for, or at least can’t be blamed, because we were on the other side.

More usefully, we might dig down to take stock: for instance, how much genuine political conviction, humanitarian commitment or religious faith have been behind our decisions? how much plain self-interest (which would need to be acknowledged for what it is)? It’s the best of our motives which will need to be applied to the new world we’re entering.

Among the millions of words which bombarded me in the months before the vote was a document from some of the main Christian denominations. It was intended to encourage readers to think deeply about the issues at stake, and sensibly didn’t tell anybody where to put their cross. It focussed on what it called ‘the real referendum question’, and the principle underlying it seems to me to be just as applicable as we face the different landscape now emerging. ‘To what extent,’ it asked, ‘does the European Union enhance or hinder our ability to love our neighbour, and, in doing so, our ability to love God?’

Loving God by loving neighbour sums up, said Jesus, all the other commandments.

So it should shape how we’re meant to react if we feel we’ve been wronged: it’s about the tough business of forgiveness, reconciliation, building bridges to people who might have been grossly unfair to us.

It’s about sharing what we’ve been entrusted with, seeking justice for those with whom we might have nothing in common save our humanity.

It’s about declining to bend the truth, stoke fear, use our own insecurities to frighten those already feeling vulnerable…even when we believe it’s in a good cause.

This way of living and loving is often demonstrated by people with no faith commitment; and in Christian thinking it reflects how God relates to us. It’s an unchanging principle, not subject to popular vote. In the words of St Paul: ‘There are three things that last forever: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love’