Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Resurrection

  • In the resurrection story, we get an Easter image as confounding as it is hopeful.

  • THE TROUBLE WITH EASTER You have to admit that Easter kind of sucks. Don’t get me wrong, the resurrection is great and everything and I love those cream eggs but next to Lent, this season is all treble and no bass. We spent 40+ days holding back praying and abstaining contemplating the persistent darkness and…

  • For Christians, the empty tomb is a strange image for Easter — we struggle with what God is actually giving us: the need to wrestle with Jesus’s absence before we can find him present. Mary confronts death before seeing new life Easter  | John 20:1-18 There is more to say than “Christ is Risen!” Not…

  • The empty tomb is the great symbol of change. To proclaim the good news, we have to confront the truth. That we don’t hate change, we’re afraid of something else. Why we need the empty tomb The Great Vigil of Easter  |  Mark 16:1-8 “I hate change!” That’s what people tell me. Every day I…

  • When we look at the same picture, do our brains assess the contents of the picture differently? The short answer is yes. But how interesting is the short answer? Especially when the science had essentially been saying no. Easter 2A  | John 20:19-31 Dr. Richard Nisbett, a psychologist from the University of Michigan has for…

  • He is not here; for he has been raised. Usually a person isn’t so happy to truck themselves all that way to see somebody and find they aren’t there. The Great Vigil of Easter  |  Matthew 28:1-10 Those four words: “He is not here” are among our favorite words as Christians. Probably more than for…