Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Sermons

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

  • The hard message of a simple love

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    7 min read

    To love as Jesus says and does Easter 6B  |  John 15:9-17   All You Need is Love? We are once again in John 15, which is part of this book’s accounting for Jesus’s final teaching at the last supper. Whereas Mark, Matthew, and Luke have Jesus get right down to the point, giving them…

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  • Living in the midst of death

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    7 min read

    Jesus’s vine image and the challenge of abiding in him Easter 5B  |  John 15:1-8    A Green Thumb My Mom is a gardener. When we moved up to Alpena from southeast of Detroit, we were moving into a rectory: a two-story beauty with a side porch and slightly sloping lawn. Big, mature trees next…

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  • We are Witnesses

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    7 min read

    From the tomb to our lives Easter 3B  |  Luke 24:36b-48 The Physical Resurrection This moment we receive here in this third Sunday of Easter is another gospel treatment of the resurrection. At the vigil, we had Mark’s empty tomb, then on Sunday we had John’s empty tomb. Last week we had Jesus’s appearance to…

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  • Seeing the Lord

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    6 min read

    The resurrection and how Jesus wants to be known Easter  |  John 20:1-18   Earlier this week We have come to the end of a long, truly holy week. So much has happened in the story since we gathered last week (was it really only a week ago?) and many of us could benefit from…

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  • He Lives!

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    5 min read

    How the empty tomb provides all the ending we need The Great Vigil of Easter  |  Mark 16:1-8 He isn’t here They bought spices, then brought them to the tomb, to anoint him. Three women: Mary, Mary, and Salome. And they come out in the dark, shortly after the sun fades out of view on…

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  • Exposing Beauty

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    6 min read

    The ugliness is the brutality, not the day itself: it isn’t ugly. Not the sacrifice. Not what Jesus does in showing off the destructiveness of our obsession with power. Walking to his death defiantly humble, leaving Jerusalem displaying the same character with which he entered.

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