St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church Albuquerque

On the weekend of America’s 250th anniversary, Angel Nalubega reflects on Paul’s confession that we often know what is right yet fail to do it. Naming the realities of nationalism, racism, and exclusion, this sermon calls Christians to solidarity with the vulnerable, receiving grace together and becoming Christ’s beloved community.

Exploring Paul’s letter to the Romans, this sermon wrestles with grace, sin, and transformation. It contrasts “cheap grace” with costly grace that calls us to follow Christ. Baptism is not symbolic alone but a new identity—reminding us we are loved, redeemed, and invited into a life of purpose and possibility. 00:00 Opening & Introduction 00:45 Context: Paul, Rome, and Early Church Tensions 03...

In a time marked by division and exhaustion, this reflection turns to an unexpected place for hope: laughter. From Genesis to the Pride parade to Jesus’ sending of the disciples, it argues that making space for one another through conversation may be how God continues to do the impossible in our midst.

In a moment shaped by fear, division, and questions about who belongs, this sermon explores how God unsettles our settled assumptions and invites us into a wider, deeper way of living together. Drawing from the story of Abraham leaving Haran and Jesus sitting at table with a tax collector, this reflection asks a simple but urgent question: who will you be?

In this Pride sermon, The Rev. Mike Angell reflects on the church’s history of both harm and courage, lifting up the witness of Pauli Murray and the faithful resistance of local communities. The message is clear: welcome is not something the church gets credit for, but something it is called to live into. The work ahead is making sure every LGBTQ+ person, and every child, knows they are created in...

On Trinity Sunday, Rev. Mike Angell reframes doctrine as invitation. The Trinity reveals God as dynamic relationship, not solitary power. Even with doubt, we are drawn into belonging, made in the image of love. In a divided world, faith becomes practiced community, where all are welcomed to the table at the heart of God.

This sermon explores the Spirit not as spectacle, but as breath—quietly bringing peace, healing, and courage. Through scripture and personal stories, it reveals how holy love restores brokenness, overcomes fear, and forms new community. True belief means giving one’s whole heart to God’s love and living it out.

On Ascension Day, this sermon contrasts a culture of shallow, disposable living with the Gospel’s call to rooted presence. Drawing on Robin Wall Kimmerer and the angels in Acts, it invites us to stop looking for escape, to love fiercely, and to live deeply. Not everywhere, but somewhere. As if we were staying.

Set against stories of injustice past and present, this sermon explores Jesus’ commandment to love as a costly, embodied practice. Rooted in the farewell discourse and the Eucharist, it calls the church to resist separation, stand with the suffering, and become Christ’s body, broken and given for the life of the world.

In this sermon, our rector reflects on how Christian faith has often been shaped by an anxious focus on salvation that Jesus himself never centers. Drawing on John 14, he argues that Jesus’ words about being “the way” point not to exclusion or superiority, but to a way of life marked by trust, compassion, and openness to God here and now. When fear‑based theology turns faith into boundary‑making o...

On Good Shepherd Sunday, the image of sheep and shepherd can feel distant or even insulting. Drawing on Palestinian shepherd practices, Howard Thurman’s wisdom, and Psalm 23, this sermon explores discernment, trust, and how we recognize the voice that leads toward life rather than fear or domination.

On the road to Emmaus, the risen Christ walks unnoticed beside grieving disciples. The Rev. Lee Lowery explores how we remake Jesus in our own image, miss his presence in everyday life, and yet encounter him again in community, Scripture, sacrament, and the faces of those most in need.

Preaching on Doubting Thomas Sunday, the Rev. Joe Britton reflects on John’s Gospel and its surprising claim that the Holy Spirit is given on Easter Day itself. Drawing on music, lived experience, and the sacrament of baptism, he reframes Thomas’s doubt not as skepticism but as spiritual illumination delayed. Baptism, he argues, is the moment when Christ breathes the Spirit into us, opening our ey...

We celebrate Easter this year in a world at war, a world tired, anxious, and hungry for good news that does not deny reality. This reflection asks what Christians really mean by victory when suffering, fear, and injustice persist. Easter is not about pretending everything is fine, but about refusing to let despair win.

On Good Friday, Angel Nalubega preaches a powerful homily about the cross. Leaning on the theology of James Cone, she says that we cannot understand the cross without the lynching tree. Christ the Victor is the suffering servant, the poor man.

The Rev. Simone Drinkwater explores the significance of the cross and passion narrative, emphasizing its central role in early Christianity. She challenges the modern focus on resurrection, urging believers to embody self-giving love and hope, transforming present suffering into a vision of the world to come.

This sermon reflects on Jesus’ raising of Lazarus as the culmination of his life‑giving ministry and a witness to God’s desire for human beings to be fully alive. It challenges Christians to confront the death‑dealing powers of our world that deny abundant life to so many. It ends by returning to the honest questions of a child, grounding hope in the conviction that no one is abandoned to the tomb...

We live in a world that trains us to scroll past complexity and look away from suffering. This sermon invites us to resist that pressure and to see again with the clarity, nuance, and courage Lent demands. From encounters with unhoused neighbors to rising antisemitism, and from disability justice to digital distraction, we’ll ask what God longs for us to see. And where the Spirit is already helpin...

In this session of our newcomers class at St. Michael and All Angels in Albuquerque, we explore how Christians — especially in the Episcopal tradition — understand the Bible as a library of texts written across many centuries. Together we look at the structure of the Hebrew Bible (the TaNaK), the origins of the New Testament, how the canon came to be, and why different Christian communities treat...

The Rev. Simone Drinkwater reflects on the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John’s Gospel as a story shaped by cultural tension, religious estrangement, and unexpected openness. She notes how the conversation crosses boundaries of gender, ethnicity, and faith, even as it reveals the awkwardness and pain carried by John’s community of outcasts. Drawing on her own perspective as a...

In this newcomers class at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, we look at two core questions: Why Christianity? and Why the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement? The class follows four main movements: 1. Christianity and resistance We begin with the world Jesus lived in: a world shaped by empire. Drawing on Howard Thurman and liberation theologians like Orlando Espín, we explore how Chr...

In this sermon, the Rev. Mike Angell reflects on Jesus’ nighttime conversation with Nicodemus and what it means to be “born from the source” in a moment of global fear. Drawing on Archbishop Hosam Naoum’s plea for peacemakers in the midst of new conflict involving Iran, Mike challenges Christians to reject religious division and reclaim a faith rooted in connection, courage, and the cosmic love of...

Join us this Second Sunday of Lent as our Director of Youth & Outreach, Angel Nalubega, brings a powerful and challenging sermon. Together, we will reflect on the “Empires” in our lives that demand our ultimate allegiance. Angel’s sermon draws striking parallels between the steadfastness of Palestinian Christians and the faith‑driven defiance of Ida B. Wells and Fannie Lou Hamer. Through these...

Join us on this Ash Wednesday as we lean into the beautiful messiness of faith, treating it not as a goal of perfection but as a practice. This sermon is a gentle invitation to stop pretending and start being honest. Join us as we remember that while we are indeed but dust, we are more importantly Beloved.

We sing our last Alleluias before Lent. We leave behind the long green seasons after Pentecost and Epiphany—“ordinary time”—and reflect on why that ordinariness feels so appealing in days that are anything but ordinary. This sermon explores how people of faith respond to disorderly times: through mystery, courage, and refusal to accept cruelty as normal. From biblical mountaintops wrapped in cloud...