Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Mary

  • Magnifying God

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    8 min read

    There’s a way we turn Mary into a stock character for the plot rather than the key to understanding who Jesus is supposed to be for us. How Mary helps us better see what God is doing Advent 4B  | Luke 1:26-38 This morning I remind you that it isn’t yet Christmas! The sun has…

  • Rethink the Gospel for Advent 4B – Who is Mary?

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    5 min read

    Advent 4B  | Luke 1:26-38 Who is Mary? This time of year, everybody’s talking about her. Countless pieces are written, diagnosing her history and declaring her purpose. Many are bent on defending her virginity and others exposing her age. And much like the priests and Levites last week, we’re all trying to figure out how…

  • New Life

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    8 min read

    Here Jesus comes and that woman, Mary, who I imagined hitting Jesus’s chest in anger and mourning, whose brother has been brought back from the dead, this Mary, takes a pound of ointment, which is brought in a giant vessel and she is going to wash Jesus’s feet and prepare him for his burial. Mary…

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  • Little Girl Blessed

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    6 min read

    This is GOD! she sings. GOD doesn’t bless in earthly riches. GOD blesses in mercy. Not in wealth, but in food. Not in power, but in being raised out of the dirt. The dead to the world, alive, loved by GOD. Mary and the Revelation of GOD Advent 4C  | Luke 1:39-55 BVM Mary isn’t…

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  • Those Women, That Morning: Friday of Holy Week

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    2 min read

    “As soon as it was morning” Read the Text: Mark 15:1-41 There is a startling character to the Passion story. The Jewish authorities are bloodthirsty. Pilate, speaking for Rome, is strangely indifferent. The soldiers humiliate Jesus. The disciples have deserted Jesus entirely. And the women, many women who followed Him, watch from a distance. I’m struck by…

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  • Here Am I

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    8 min read

    Mary does not sing of false humility, but describes her response to the very character of GOD. That her very soul reveals GOD, her spirit (not just her mind) rejoices, for GOD’s favor has come to the poor, not the powerful. She is proof of who GOD is and who GOD favors.

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