Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Sermons

Sermons preached in a context, but written for people of all sorts and conditions.

  • Faith In Spite of Death

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    5 min read

    a Sermon for Good Friday Text: John 18:1-19:42 By what authority? There’s a telling moment toward the beginning of Holy Week that explains the drama that is unfolding. A moment that involves a simple enough pair of questions: By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them? Authority.…

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  • Not Alone: Maundy Thursday and the Building of Intimacy

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    5 min read

    a Sermon for Maundy Thursday Text: John 13:1-17, 31b-35 The Cup This year, it was helpful for me to remember that we have developed a different way of marking days from Jesus’s time and place. Then, the day began at dusk. So this, Jesus’s final day, has begun. He gathers His friends for dinner, for…

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  • Speaking: Palm Sunday and the liberation of Jesus

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    5 min read

    a Sermon for Palm Sunday A Text: Matthew 21:1-11 Something to Say What would you say and how would you say it? That was the basis of the writing exercise we did Wednesday night.* Imagine that you have a prime time block on TV on Thursday night; 50 million people are watching, you have a…

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  • Unbinding: emptying the tomb

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    5 min read

    a Sermon for Lent 5A Text: John 11:1-45 Preventing Death Our story is almost over. Jesus is nearing Jerusalem. And in one final, glorious act, Jesus reveals the very thing He has come to do. A big show of great, inhuman power, in which the whole purpose of the mission is revealed. For us to…

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  • Leaving the Cave: seeing, believing, and true power

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    6 min read

    a Sermon for Lent 4A Text: John 9:1-41 Plato’s Cave In Plato’s Republic, the philosopher introduces a strange scenario in which a prisoner is trapped in a cave. The prisoner knows nothing of the world as we know it. He’s stuck in one place, staring straight ahead for a long, long time. Behind him is…

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  • From Night to Day: reconciling, faith, and the Kingdom walk

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    7 min read

    a Homily for Lent 3A Text: John 4:5-42 The Story Our scene turns from Nicodemus, who seeks Jesus at night to an unnamed woman who stumbles upon him in the middle of the day. I think we are supposed to juxtapose these contrasting characters from chapters 3 and 4. Night/Day. Man/Woman. Named/Nameless. Leader/Commoner. Insider/Outsider. Hebrew/Samaritan.…

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