Drew Downs
-
With them in the desert
•
6 min read
4. God promised to be with the Hebrew people in liberation from Egypt and desert wandering. For years, I’ve been drawn to the wanderings and grumblings text in Exodus. I love it as a story all by itself. But read up against the story which immediately precedes it, It plays like absurdist drama. Imagine growing…
-
God came to be with us
•
5 min read
3. For in Jesus, taking a human form and raised from the fragility of birth, God came to be with us. The most profound example of “With” is that God chose to be with us in the form of Jesus. This is the greatest proof that one’s being with another is the central act of…
-
“With” is the ultimate expression of faith
•
2 min read
2. In the word “with” we have the ultimate expression of Christian community, concern, and faith. When Jesus says For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. he’s assuring his followers that he’ll be there. It took centuries of scholars to deconstruct the idea of being there with…
-
Where ever two or three are gathered
•
4 min read
1. Jesus expressed the true nature of following him saying “where ever two or three are gathered, I will be with them.” Growing up, I always wanted to know what it meant to be a Christian. We were, of course. My Dad is an Episcopal priest and have more or less been in the church…
-
When I first picked up Empire Baptized: How the Church Embraced What Jesus Rejected by Wes Howard-Brook, I found myself sharing its insights immediately. I would walk into the next room and just start in: “Did you know?” I peppered my Thursday Eucharists with reflections and Facebook with random quotes. It was the physical proof…