St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church Albuquerque

On her last Sunday at St. Michael's, Mandy preaches about loaves, fishes, and the abundance of God's blessing.

Faith, amidst the rhetoric of our world, is more than a hobby. Finding stillness and grounding is about more than what we do with 20 minutes on a Thursday morning or an hour and change on a Sunday. Our faith is how we stay sane in a world with insane priorities.

When was the last time you danced? I expect for some of us, it has been awhile. Dancing teaches us about our bodies. Today, I want to talk about dancing, about bodies, and God.

Let me say at the outset, I can’t tell you what the Bible thinks a particular presidential candidate should or shouldn’t do. The Bible wasn’t written with prophecy about how the Supreme Court should function. If we go to the Bible with questions that specific, we’ll usually be disappointed. But the Bible can tell us a great deal about leadership.

What does Jesus mean when he says, "your faith has healed you?" The answer, according to St. Mark, might surprise you...

Jesus doesn’t ask his disciples to know much. He does as them to do mostly very slow moving things: to listen, to pray to love, to follow, to serve the people around us.

There’s an irony in today’s Gospel lesson, which may be hidden to us. We can take scripture ever so seriously. Even those of us who have left behind the more literalistic readings of our earlier lives, tend to treat the Bible with a certain gravitas.

In a troubling passage, Jesus disowns his mother and siblings. Mandy says it is something different to read this after marching in the LGBTQ+ Pride parade, and see all the folks offering "Free Mom Hugs"

I want to spend some time today talking about sabbath, but before we get there, we need to pause. Because discussions about the sabbath in this first century text, they need some cultural translation.

On May 29, 2024, Bishop Michael Hunn confirmed, received, and heard the reaffirmation of faith of 25 people from across the region at St. Michael's. This is his sermon from the service.

On Trinity Sunday, what does Nicodemus' wrestling with religious language have to teach us about the nature of our Triune God?

When you say “I’m Spiritual” watch out. It’s not an easier alternative to religion. When you say, “I’m spiritual,” put on your hard hats. Because the Spirit has ideas, ideas about how this world should be: always more embracing, always more just, always more loving. So, go ahead, be Spiritual.

To understand the Ascension, you have to know that much of the Christian tradition is about wisdom, rather than knowledge. The wisdom at the heart of Christianity is a teaching about nondualism.

Leaning into the discomfort of John's Gospel: "I am the Way The Truth and the Life."

What does it mean to abide? What if we found ways in these anxious times, in these times when so many of us are just hanging on, to, instead, hang in there together? What if we chose, instead of grievance, curiosity and embrace?

The image of the shepherd is a radical one, radically different from the image of God so often on offer. If you struggle with the image of “God” on offer in our society, with the idea of “God” so many Christians point to in this country, this morning our Scripture offers the Good Shepherd, a counter-narrative. 

How many of us spend time and energy hiding our imperfections? How much money and anxiety do we spend masking our bodies, trying to conform to some image of perfection? Jesus is risen with wounds, that we might know in our woundedness, we too will rise. Alleluia.

Did you know, there are significantly more biblical commentators who openly cast doubt on the economic system of the early believers, than those who challenge the possibility of the resurrection?

This Easter, I find myself wondering what would a Resurrected Faith look like?

Palm Sunday takes us from the wild procession to the cold tomb, quite a distance Mother Mandy remarks. And the Passion offers us two visions of discipleship: the men who flee and the women who remain.

Can we make the question of the Greeks in John's Gospel the question of our own? Can we say, each time we come to the altar, "we wish to see Jesus?"

I think it's safe to say that most Episcopalians have a really strong preference for proclamation by example. Welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, that's all in our wheelhouse. We are committed to action, to doing good work. Why would we mess all that up by talking about Jesus?

In his final sermon at St. MIchael's, the Rev. JP Arrossa shares words of gratitude, and challenges us to continue to be a community of faith with zeal for our neighbors.

In this morning's sermon, the Rector asks us to notice something which doesn't happen in the Gospel...

The first Sunday in Lent finds us, with Jesus, in the wilderness.