Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Drew Downs

  • Condemning Our Fear of Silence

    •

    8 min read

    In the first Passion prediction in Mark 8:31-38, Peter speaks when he should be listening, revealing how important it is to listen — because we’re likely to get the mission of Jesus wrong. We are so bothered by silence, we struggle to hear Jesus Lent 2B  |  Mark 8:31-38 This story of Jesus is one…

  • Love Awakens

    •

    9 min read

    Another shooting, further proof of the dangerous social pathologies in the American body politic, could be just a number. But instead, it’s awakening the spirit of love long dormant and suppressed by fear and a narrow understanding of freedom. Last week, I had to write a new sermon. The gospel was about the beginning of…

  • The Frightening Case Of a Coming American Collapse

    •

    7 min read

    The United States is in the midst of a social collapse. That’s the claim Umair Haque makes in an electric essay. Here are his three main takeaways. If the United States were to collapse, how would we know it? We think we’d know, right? Structures would fall, the banks would run out of money, and…

  • Facing Repentance

    •

    8 min read

    In Mark 1:9-15, Jesus reveals the mission of God, but another school shooting tests our resolve to see it, or to listen to his words of hope, saying that the time is now, kin-dom is here! A school shooting tests Ash Wednesday’s invitation to reconciliation Lent 1B  |  Mark 1:9-15 I had a really good…

  • Ashes and Hearts – On Fire

    •

    7 min read

    Most of what we talk about on Ash Wednesday is found in the small part of the Sermon on the Mount we get in the lectionary (Matthew 6:1-6,16-21). The rest of the chapter reveals it means so much more. Ash Wednesday is way more than ashes – it’s the work of forgiveness Ash Wednesday  | …

  • How to Not Celebrate Valentine’s Day

    •

    6 min read

    It seems weird to mix Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday. One’s the annual celebration of love and the other the annual reminder of our own mortality. But the two belong together more than we think. In 2018 we are fortunate to have St. Valentine’s Day land on Ash Wednesday. And the juxtaposition of the two…