Saint John the Baptist Church - Chipping Barnet - Sermons

Today, we ask ourselves, Who is God to us. Fr Sam focuses on a truth which my Pentecostal charismatic upbringing taught him. Fr Sam speaks about the notion that God's nature is infinite and so we tend to focus on the elements of that nature which makes the most sense to us. our starting point must not be our prejudices and our desires. We must start each day by laying aside who we want God to be and ask Jesus to show us who he actually is.

Today, we remember St Mary Magdalene, Fr Sam focuses on a truth which my Pentecostal charismatic upbringing taught him. Fr Sam speaks about the fact there is no relationship without emotion. Whilst it might be comfortable for us who prefer a more contemplative Anglican approach to worship to consider our type of worship the norm, Worship of our Gods throughout the ages has in fact tended to be much more lively and much more emotive.

Do we have the strength to speak truth to power? Speaking truth to power is risky, because it means boldly proclaiming uncomfortable truths to people with power over you. Fr Sam speaks about account of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist and the consequences that he faced prior to his death.

This sermon touches on Saint Mark's account of Jesus healing people, noting the tone of benign indifference in the passage. This tone may be due to the Messianic secret principle in St. Mark's gospel, where Jesus asks healed people to keep quiet about their miracles. Theologians debate why Jesus asked people not to mention the miracles he performed, suggesting it may have been an early example of reverse psychology. Fr Sam speaks about as despite having enough reasons to be famous, Jesus insisted on secrecy, which some speculate was to make him more famous through reverse psychology.

The best public servants are rarely completely popular. Could it be that as human beings we tend to demand a just world, particularly of our public servants, of our leaders, even though we find out that the unjust world unjustly benefits us. In his sermon today, Fr Sam speaks about as how as a people we can choose to serve others and follow the call of Jesus Christ, who is the true servant.

Do you consider yourself a just person? Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. In his sermon today, Fr Sam speaks about how we can leverage our Christian faith to address injustice in our world.