Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Jesus

  • Childproofing Church

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    8 min read

    Order, stumbling blocks, and what real Christian community looks like a Homily for  Proper 18 A  |  Text: Matthew 18:15-20   what we mean by sin When Jesus speaks to the disciples in this passage, He speaks of sin against each other. This isn’t so much fault-finding, which we all do so easily, but sin-naming.…

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  • Hiding the Kingdom

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    7 min read

    Jesus’s parables are dependent on seeing and understanding Proper 12A  |  Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 The Hiding At the beginning of this chapter, we’re told Jesus is so swarmed by people that He jumps into a boat to teach the crowds surrounding Him on the shore. There so many people He has to put a barrier up; to…

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  • The protagonist is Jesus, but the story is about the disciples

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    5 min read

    I love talking with my Dad about church. He’s a priest. I’m a priest. Both of us are very traditional in many ways; very untraditional in many ways. And the best part is that they don’t always match. I greatly appreciate the way we talk, argue, explore, wrestle with our mutual vocations. Our talk last night…

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  • There’s still hope – Jesus, the yoke, and all of that shouting!

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    6 min read

    a Homily for Proper 9 A Text: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30   Dance, Puppet! “It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another” This is how Jesus speaks to “the current generation,” His generation. Returning from seeing John the Baptist who summoned Him, to question Him. John, asking Jesus of Nazareth: Are you…

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  • How Pentecost reveals our Story

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    3 min read

    Preachers love the Day of Pentecost. There is so much to work with. The images are so vivid, more vivid in our imaginations than they could be in reality, I’m guessing. One of my favorite plays is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, which is rightly called a “tragicomedy”. When I read it, I hear these voices, playful and…

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  • The Gift: How Jesus tells us to re-gift GOD’s love

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    6 min read

    a Homily for Easter 6A Text: John 14:15-21 Coming Home When my Dad would go on work trips; he would be gone all day. Often they were overnights. Alpena to Detroit is about five hours each way and when meetings went long, and he couldn’t make it all the way home, he’d stop and finish…

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