FirstPresabq Blog

Rev. Matthew Miller FROM THE PROPHETS Micah 6:1-8 Click here to watch the Sermon " Required." By now, I suspect we’ve all got the last verse of that reading down. Many of you may have been familiar with it before today. As bible verses go, it is definitely one of the greatest hits. I’ve got a calligraphy version of it by Ralph Douglass in a frame next to the door of my office. In some ways though it reminds me a little of Bruce Springsteen’s hit song from the 1984 album of

Rev. Essie Koenig-Reinke Matthew 4:12-23 Click here to watch the Sermon "Follow Me" This week, hundreds of clergy dropped whatever they were doing and traveled to Minnesota, to faithfully call an end to ICE’s violence and cruelty in Minneapolis. On Friday morning in freezing temperatures, they went out by the hundreds, tracking ICE and noting their activities, participating in sing-ins in state and federal buildings and more than 100 local clergy were arrested while peacefull

Rev. Matthew Miller FROM THE PSALMS 40 Click here to watch the sermon "A New Song" I know that the month of January is already halfway over (how did that happen?) so you may have already broken whatever New Year’s resolutions you made a couple of weeks ago. Don’t feel bad. Those can be hard to keep. Maybe instead you could make a week to week resolution to be in worship with your church community. And if you can’t be here in person, you can always tune into the livestream, or

Rev. Matthew Miller FROM THE GOSPELS Matthew 3:13-17 Click here to watch the sermon "Fulfill." This past week a friend of mine who pastors a church in Western North Carolina posted a video of something he said at the conclusion of the worship service he led last week. He related a conversation that comes up among people tasked with preaching week to week about scrapping an already prepared sermon in order to respond to late-breaking news. Most of the preachers I know at one t

Rev. Matthew Miller FROM THE PROPHETS Isaiah 60:1-6 Click here to watch the sermon " Shine" Over the past week, our family along with a good number of people around the world watched the conclusion of the fantasy series Stranger Things on Netflix. Set as it was during my formative years in the 1980’s, I had a particular fondness for this show. Especially the way in which the Duffer brothers, who created it, incorporated all kinds of references and visuals from classic 80’s mo

Rev. Matthew Miller FROM THE GOSPELS Matthew 1:18-25 Click here to watch the sermon "With." One of the drawbacks to the way we read scripture in worship   is that we generally only read a few verses.  If you want to get fancy,  scholars will refer to this as a pericope.  It’s a Greek word that literally means “cut around.” It’s getting to be grapefruit season.  We have that special knife with the bent serrated blade that allows you to cut around and section a grapefruit.  Tha