Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Year C

  • a homily for Proper 22C Text: Luke 17:5-10 Just a little bit more, pllleeeeeaaase! “Increase our faith!” they call to Jesus. Increase it. Build it. We are faithful, but not enough. Is what they no doubt think. We trust you, we’re here with you, and we want to believe, but…it’s just so hard to do…

  • For the last two and a half chapters in the gospel we call Luke, Jesus has been building up this teaching on faithfulness and action. It began with the crowd when he told them three parables about things that were lost and found. Each was lost, redeemed, and forgiven. Powerful stories that we often take…

  • a homily for Proper 21C Text: Luke 16:19-31     Picturing the People Listen again to the opening sentences of this parable. Hear it. Close your eyes and take it in. There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay…

  • a homily for Proper 20C Text: Luke 16:1-13 A strange little story Jesus is a master storyteller. He’s pulled off a sequence of three parables: a kind of meditation on a common theme: that culminate with the most beloved parable of them all, what we call the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It is a…

  • a homily for Proper 19C Text: Luke 15:1-10 In or Out? There are a million different ways to enter into this gospel. It is a familiar enough one that some of our long-tenured members are likely to have heard them all. The favorite approach is this one: these are two of the three “lost” parables:…

  • To Choose

    a homily for Proper 18C Text: Luke 14:25-33 Listen and read along! The Choice This might shock you, but when pastors get together, we talk about you. Not you in the particular. We talk about congregations and what we hear each Sunday as we shake hands. This is often the only time we get feedback…