Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Gospel of Matthew

  • a Sermon for Proper 29A     Text: Matthew 25:31-46 Now what was that about the goats? I saw a comment online a week or so ago about these gospel readings we’ve had that said something to this effect: What horrible readings for stewardship season! This morning’s gospel, like the last few weeks have been a pretty…

  • The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Matthew 25:31-46 We all know the parable about the sheep and the goats. The easy reading of this parable is that it has to do with division—sheep/goats, left/right—and eschatology—how time is completed/the end times. It clearly looks like that. But I don’t buy it. And neither should you. The context…

  • Proper 28A, Matthew 25:14-30 This passage is known as the Parable of the Talents.  Which is unfortunate, since it sometimes gives us the wrong idea.  We think that it has something to do with investing our talents and treasure in the Kingdom of God.  That’s what we normally preach.  And we’d be wrong. We also preach…

  • In this parable, (Matthew 25:1-13) with bridesmaids, waiting for the bridegroom, the easy reading is wrong.  It doesn’t work.  If we see this as being about…The Second Coming or Heaven after death or the perfect example of Christian community… Then God is an idiot. See, the easy reading makes us think two things: We need to prepare for…

  • Hypocrites

    My reflection on today’s gospel: Matthew 23:1-12.

  • Proper 25A Matthew 22:34-46 In this corna!  Weighing in at a paltry 135 pounds of emaciated flesh, Jesus of Nazareth!  And in this corna!  Weighing a combined 1,600 portly pounds, the Pharisees!  [Booooo!] For the last few weeks, we’ve been dealing with this sequence in Jerusalem in which Jesus is tangling with the Jewish leadership.…