Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Proper 27B

  • In the example of Christian saints, we have people who lived remarkable lives who point to our own capacity to live the same way.

  • In a story, usually read as a matter of faithfulness, we receive a much louder critique of an impoverishing system of inequality.

  • At the Temple, Jesus teaches about economic exploitation by the powerful and offers a visual metaphor of what it means.

  • Jesus doesn’t simply criticize the priests for their hubris, he exposes the whole system for its corruption, exploitation, and rejection of the poor. of poverty and hubris in the Temple Proper 27B  |  Mark 12:38-44 Less than a week after starting at my first congregation out of seminary, I went to my first clericus—a meeting of…

  • As a priest I tend to hate the late fall. Mostly because it is our so-called stewardship season: the time in which we once again beg people to give money to the church. We try to pretend that it is about giving in the most generous sense, that we are concerned with Time, Talent, and…