Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Easter

  • Living Risen | St. Paul’s Episcopal Church In this week’s Question + Response for St. Paul’s, I tackle the idea that the gospel needs to be made more personal, simple, and distilled for us to actually live it. Here’s a hint: maybe it doesn’t.

  • a Homily for Easter 4A Text: John 10:1-10   Alone When I left for college, I was pretty conflicted. In one sense, I was confident and believed in myself. In another, I felt unprepared and was worried that everyone was smarter than I am. I did well in school and had no reason to doubt…

  • In this week’s Question + Response for St. Paul’s, I explore the pressing question of what is Easter, really: that one Sunday, the season, or is it something way bigger than that? Easter is our favorite. Many of us like Christmas, too. But Easter takes the cake. A born Jesus is nothing compared with a…

  • a Homily for Easter 3A Text: Luke 24:13-35   The Walk and Talk When Aaron Sorkin’s show, The West Wing debuted in 1999, it pioneered a technique dubbed “The Walk and Talk”. Shows before The West Wing featured plenty of walking and plenty of talking and even plenty of people walking while talking. But no show…

  • a Homily for Easter 2A Text: John 20:19-31   Again, Thomas At one level, this is a simple story. Each year, the Second Sunday of Easter, we receive Thomas, the Twin. This is Easter. And Each year, we gather on that Easter and each year, Thomas misses it. A week later, like that fateful day 2000 years…

  • a Homily for Easter Text: John 20:1-18 The Recap I know that many of you were unable to attend the many parts of Holy Week and so missed the opportunity to know what we are actually celebrating this morning. So here’s a brief recap. On Sunday, Jesus, surrounded by a great crowd, arrives in Jerusalem.…