Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

love

  • a Homily for Easter 6B Text: John 15:9-17 Last week’s Gospel pericope ended with verses 7 and 8 which read: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and…

  • That is our certainty. It is found being where GOD is. Where GOD says GOD will be. It isn’t found in our stated beliefs or creeds or political affiliation or what our Sunday School teachers taught us about GOD: it is about how we treat the powerless and the defenseless.

  • First, Love

    How Jesus’s subversive call to love continues to challenge us a Homily for Proper 25A  |  Text: Matthew  22:34-46  Commander Love Love GOD. Love neighbor. This is the basis for all of our teaching. We can see it, too. When we read those first five books of our sacred scripture, those written in Hebrew, we…

  • The dishonesty behind asking compromises any answer Jesus may have to the question a Homily for Proper 24A  |  Text: Matthew  22:15-22 The Trap This is not a story about taxes. This is a story about a trap that backfires. A trap set to deal with authority. And every time we go near the question of…

  • Forgiving GOD

    how our understanding of forgiveness is too small a Homily for Proper 19A  |  Text: Matthew 18:21-35   The volume of forgiveness When Peter asks about forgiveness, about the volume of forgiveness, it triggers a cascade of central teachings to our faith. Teachings that are the foundation of everything. On the surface, it is a simple enough…

  • 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.…