Drew Downs
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This Wednesday of Holy Week
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5 min read
The bridge from the start of holy week to the end reveals the wide difference between the world God dreams for us and the world we insist on perpetuating. Even as the dream comes alive in our midst. After three days of confronting the Temple authorities and challenging everything they believe about power and influence,…
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This Monday of Holy Week 2018
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7 min read
It’s the day after the great entrance. Palm Sunday was yesterday. Jesus seems to change before our eyes. But he doesn’t. It’s our stunning inactivity which gets called out at the beginning of Holy Week. We all know this story. It often goes by the strange name: the cleansing of the Temple. But it doesn’t…
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Where do we come in?
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6 min read
The challenge of Palm Sunday is fighting the impulse to skip ahead. But we’re invited not only into a bittersweet day but a whole week which challenges how we see the hope of Christ in our lives. We arrive at Jerusalem with Jesus expecting hope and fear Palm Sunday B | John 12:12-16 Where do…
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The Scandal of Holy Week
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5 min read
The challenge of keeping Holy Week is that there’s way more than we can fit into a couple of days. But we’re not doing ourselves any favors by not even trying. I grew up with Holy Week. As a life-long Episcopalian, Holy Week was a natural part of my upbringing. Just as all the seasons…
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White Nationalism and the Limits of Free Speech
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11 min read
White nationalism wants you to treat it like an honest ideology. It wants you to debate it, honor it, privilege it. But it isn’t yet another source of water flowing into the well, it’s poison. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece on white nationalism. Specifically, I wrote about the challenge in responding…