Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Holy Spirit

  • More than Enough

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    6 min read

    a homily for Proper 22C Text: Luke 17:5-10 Just a little bit more, pllleeeeeaaase! “Increase our faith!” they call to Jesus. Increase it. Build it. We are faithful, but not enough. Is what they no doubt think. We trust you, we’re here with you, and we want to believe, but…it’s just so hard to do…

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  • When We Pray

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    7 min read

    a homily for Proper 12C Text: Luke 11:1-13 The Lord Praying They have left the house of Mary and Martha and it says  Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” Jesus was praying,…

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  • Not Gatekeepers, but Gateopeners

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    3 min read

    There, squirming in such a comfortable chair, made to feel prickly by the moment and its intensity and not the leather or the cushion, it is not my ass, but my brain that is jittery. As a priest, interviews are a whole different beast. This moment, as I recall was the most agonizing for what…

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  • The Spirit is Here!

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    6 min read

    a Sermon for Pentecost C Text: Acts 2:1-21 Listen to it here! A Holy Spectacle In Pentecost, we have the dawning of a new era. Jesus has departed and the Advocate, the Holy Spirit has arrived. It is now the apostles’ turn to deal with the ministry for which Jesus was preparing them. I’m not…

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  • The Messy History of the Sacraments in 6 Questions

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    5 min read

    [This is the second of three posts about the sacraments. Check out the first and the third.] As we explored yesterday, our Sacraments, primarily Holy Eucharist and Holy Baptism, are a physical and spiritual means of receiving grace. Today, we’ll have a small taste of the messiness around the living out of the Sacraments. There is…

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  • Jesus Verbs

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    1 min read

    a homily for Ascension Day Text: Luke 24:44-53 The Ascension is pretty much the hardest part of the Jesus Event for the post-Enlightenment world to get. It seems as if we can suspend our disbelief only so far. And the Ascension is just too much. And yet, we might be asking the wrong question. Listen…

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