Drew Downs
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Becoming Beloved
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7 min read
Jesus wants us to talk about money. I know you don’t want me to talk about money. And you know I don’t want to talk about money. But here we are. Just like I didn’t want to talk about divorce last week, but there it was. Jesus wants us dealing with important stuff. Jesus is saying…
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It’s not really about divorce
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8 min read
When Jesus is asked about divorce in Mark 10:2-16, we act like he’s given us an answer. What he’s given us is a whole new question. Again Jesus pushes us to see the forest, not the trees. Proper 22B | Mark 10:2-16 Let me say at the top that Jesus doesn’t condemn divorce. Let’s first…
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Our problem isn’t that we can’t tell when someone’s lying. It’s that we refuse to punish those who lie or protect those who tell the truth. Truth is a weighty topic. And yet it all feels so subjective. The elephant parable comes to mind. The one in which many people touch the different parts of…
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Out of Line
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9 min read
In Mark 9, we get a vision of the flipped script, the powerless raised up and the powerful brought low. And still, we struggle to see ourselves in it. Jesus warns that being a stumbling block deprives us all Proper 21B | Mark 9:38-50 Is the second time ever the charm? At this point in…
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More Than Two Internets
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14 min read
We talk like we’re divided in two. But if there were two internets, it wouldn’t be split left/right. It’s more like right vs. everyone else. The way we talk about American culture is a lie based on truth. How we come to this lie, and why we stretch the truth to justify it, is vitally…
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The Good Samaritan Confusion
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8 min read
The point of the parable of the Good Samaritan isn’t just to be nice. Or that we’re all the same. Jesus pushes us to see how we see each other. Here’s a story poorly understood. There’s a man mugged and beaten by the side of the road. People keep going past him. But one stops…