On the First Sunday of Lent, Fr Sam reframes Lent not as a season of gloom, but as a path to deeper joy. Reflecting on the wilderness temptations of Christ, he explores how Jesus reversed the pattern of Eden, resisting the temptations of appetite, power, and control where humanity had failed.

Lent, then, becomes a season of abundance. Through fasting, prayer, and generosity, we are not punishing ourselves but retraining our hearts, turning away from self-reliance and back toward the loving relationship with God for which we were created. True joy, the sermon reminds us, is not fleeting happiness but flourishing in communion with the Trinity, made possible through Christ’s victory in the wilderness.

On the Last Sunday of Epiphany, Fr Sam reflects on the competing pressures that crowd God out of our lives, busyness, noise, and a culture unsure of truth itself. Drawing on the Transfiguration of Christ and St Peter’s insistence that the apostles were “eyewitnesses of his majesty,” this episode calls listeners back to Jesus as the firm foundation of truth in a confusing world.

In a time of overload and uncertainty, the sermon reminds us that faith is sustained not by clever ideas or shifting priorities, but by returning again and again to the revealed glory of Christ, making space for prayer, worship, and truth amid the noise.

On the Second Sunday of Epiphany, Fr Sam reflects on the difference between seeking explanations about God and receiving revelation from God. Centered on John the Baptist’s declaration, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” this episode explores how God reveals Himself most fully not through ideas, but through the cross.

Epiphany, we are reminded, reaches its deepest expression in Christ’s self-giving love — where human brokenness meets divine forgiveness. The sermon invites listeners to approach faith not as something to be fully explained, but as a mystery to be encountered, participated in, and lived through repentance, grace, and sacramental life.

On the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, Fr Sam reflects on baptism as a gift, not an achievement. Using the image of baptism as a spiritual birthday, this episode explores how our deepest identity is revealed, not earned in God’s love. Just as Jesus is named “Beloved” at the Jordan before he does anything to prove himself, so too we are claimed, welcomed, and loved before all action or effort.

Baptism and Eucharist together remind us that our worth rests in grace alone, calling us to live not from comparison or striving, but from the secure knowledge that we are God’s beloved children.

As the new year begins, Fr Sam reflects on Epiphany as a story of insiders and outsiders, and God’s deliberate choice to reveal Himself beyond boundaries. Set against a world marked by fear, conflict, and division, this sermon explores how Jesus was born into political instability, poverty, and displacement, and how the first to worship Him were foreigners and immigrants.

Epiphany reveals a kingdom not built by exclusion, but by welcome. It reminds us that most Christians were once “outsiders” themselves welcomed only by grace and calls us to live that same grace today by building bridges, not walls, and making room for those the world is quick to reject.

On Midnight Mass and Christmas Day, Fr Sam reflects on the power of names and what they reveal about who we are — and who God is. Drawing from St John’s Gospel, he explores Jesus as the Logos: the meaning at the heart of reality who became flesh and lived among us.

This episode traces the names of God through Scripture, the God who sees, the God who sustains, and the God who saves revealing a God who knows us fully and comes close to carry what we cannot.

Christmas, then, is not about having life figured out or being “good enough,” but about discovering what it means to be known, forgiven, and loved by the God who calls us by name.

On this Third Sunday of Advent, Fr Sam reflects on a simple but searching question: Why does the Church exist? Drawing on the preaching of John the Baptist and the story of God’s covenant with Abraham, this episode explores how faith not heritage, status, or tradition is the true foundation of belonging to God.

Set against the backdrop of the Barnet Christmas Fair, the sermon reminds us that the Church exists not for itself, but to welcome those who feel on the outside, offering grace, belonging, and the hope of Christ to anyone with even the smallest spark of faith. Advent becomes a call to reject complacency, widen the circle of welcome, and make Christ known through love, hospitality, and mission.

In this powerful Second Sunday of Advent reflection, Fr Sam asks a deeply searching question: Why does the Church exist? As St John the Baptist Church prepares to welcome hundreds of people through its doors for the Barnet Christmas Fair, this sermon reframes community activity not as tradition or visibility but as mission.

Drawing on the fierce preaching of John the Baptist and the theology of St Paul in Romans, Sam challenges the danger of religious complacency. Just as the crowds at the Jordan assumed their birthright as children of Abraham made them secure, we too can fall into the trap of believing that history, culture, or status make us the Church. But John’s warning is clear: belonging to God is not about heritage it is about faith and relationship.

Through the story of Abraham, Sam traces the widening circle of God’s covenant: from one man, to a family, to a nation, and ultimately to the whole world. Faith, not background, is the true foundation of righteousness. This means that anyone with even the smallest spark of belief belongs and the Church exists for precisely those people who think they might be on the outside.

The Barnet Christmas Fair becomes a living parable of this truth: the Church does not exist for itself, its building, its history, or even its traditions it exists to make Christ known, to make people feel they belong, and to make strangers feel like family.

This episode is a stirring reminder that Advent is not only about preparation for Christmas, it is about recommitting to the mission of welcome, grace, and outward-looking love.