Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

discipleship

  • seeing the gaps in the lectionary. This week: the gap between Proper 21C and Proper 22C. The text: Luke 17:1-4. Context First things first. We are now many chapters passed when Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem. This means we are getting far closer to arriving in Jerusalem than we are to those easy days…

  • We make lots of excuses not to love. They’re all trash. Every single one. Because Christians have no excuses to avoid loving other people.

  • Unbound Grace

    The parable reveals how blind the rich man is to reality. And in reading it, Jesus hopes we won’t continue to share the same delusion.

  • In just a few verses, Jesus ties us in knots and turns us into our enemies.

  • Bad Economics

    Jesus keeps teaching us about the limits of transactional thinking — and the life-giving beauty of sacrifice in his way of love.

  • In Luke 14:34-35, Jesus uses an imperfect analogy about salt losing flavor. Often we’re too distracted by the analogy to get the point.