Drew Downs
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Saving Faith
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9 min read
Jesus’s message of restoration buts up against his critique of the status quo. Now, he invites us to see that faith can save us; and we can save faith.
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The difference between justification and mercy
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3 min read
We make a habit of justification. We just want to explain. There was a reason we weren’t there. Something. Anything to avoid mercy. A justification is often the grounding upon which we make a case. We hope that everything we do is justified. That’s how we often think about it. But it isn’t how we…
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Lead with Love
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9 min read
We want Jesus to teach us how to love like it takes a methodology or more faith than we have. Instead, Jesus shows how that misses the point. Jesus and the teaching of uncommon forgivenessProper 22CLuke 17:1-10 We jump into the story with the apostles shouting “Increase our faith!” It makes it all sound random.…
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A parable of white privilege and black suffering
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2 min read
A retelling of Luke 17:1-10 A Parable “There was a black man sitting in his home, watching TV. An off duty police officer, who was white, broke into his home and shot him in the chest. At her murder trial, the man’s brother was invited to testify. Everyone in the courtroom expected the younger brother…
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seeing the gaps in the lectionary. This week: the gap between Proper 21C and Proper 22C. The text: Luke 17:1-4. Context First things first. We are now many chapters passed when Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem. This means we are getting far closer to arriving in Jerusalem than we are to those easy days…
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No Excuse Not to Love
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3 min read
We make lots of excuses not to love. They’re all trash. Every single one. Because Christians have no excuses to avoid loving other people.