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David W. Swanson's (Occasional) Newsletter

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The Death of Self-Preservation
August 2, 2025
Being the church in and for the world
Strangers in the Land
July 26, 2025
Echoes from the early days of Chinese migration
Negative Resistance
July 19, 2025
Learning to walk away from all of it
Our Obligation and Offering
July 12, 2025
Responding to cruelty with creative solidarity
Guided Into Truth
June 18, 2025
A Juneteenth sermon about the Holy Spirit
Reconciliation and Undermining the Racial Binary
May 17, 2025
Refusing to conform to simplistic assumptions
Reconciliation and Truth
May 3, 2025
Generalities are not enough
Expediting Our Family's Demise
April 26, 2025
On baptismal waters compromised by nationalist fantasies
Resurrection and Re-creation
April 19, 2025
"For the sun turned back and the earth shook and the mountains were rent, and all were awed."
An Invitation to Silence
April 18, 2025
Good Friday and the limits of our humanity
Reconciliation and Place
April 5, 2025
The patient work of making a home
Reconciliation and Joy
March 22, 2025
Potlucks, gardens, and joy in the Holy Ghost
Reconciliation and Politics
March 15, 2025
Racial reconciliation as "being political"
Reconciliation and Prophetic Witness
March 8, 2025
Let your light shine before others...
Preaching Through Chaos and Cruelty
March 1, 2025
This week I’m taking a break from reflecting on reconciliation in order to think about preaching during these chaotic, confusing, and, increasingly, cruel...
Reconciliation and Warfare
February 15, 2025
"It is an outrage upon the soul, a war upon the immortal spirit..."
Reconciliation and Repair
February 1, 2025
Multiracial churches that aren't (only) for white people
Reconciliation and the Preferential Option
January 25, 2025
Bearing witness to the hierarchy-upending kingdom of God
Reconciliation and New Creation
January 18, 2025
The possibility of reconciling what was never conciled
My Year With Books (and Burnout)
December 28, 2024
The books that held me up in 2024
We Will Set Our Hope
December 21, 2024
I hope you each have some rest and rejoicing ahead of you during the next few days. Our family is looking forward to visiting Maggie’s side of the family and...
Equipment for Dying
December 14, 2024
We recently hosted a small gathering to celebrate my dad’s retirement from full-time ministry. While planning the party, I remembered an essay I wrote a...
Advent Shadows
December 7, 2024
Facing reality, finding Christ
Finding Justice in Evil Days
November 30, 2024
A sermon about the God who enters our troubles with us
Lanes and Lines
November 23, 2024
Recognizing the times and what they might require of us
A Record of God's Experience
November 16, 2024
History from a perspective far wider than our own
Ten Convictions After the Election
November 9, 2024
Here's what I keep coming back to
Vulnerable Non-Partisanship
October 30, 2024
Speaking truth and seeking justice outside the bifurcating boundaries
Reconciling to Place
October 12, 2024
Well, Plundered is out in the world and it’s been a full fun stretch of travel, workshops, preaching, and podcasts. As you might imagine, my margin has been...
Plundered is Available Tomorrow!
October 7, 2024
Can you help spread the word?
For the Activist
September 28, 2024
A vision of transformation big enough to include our own lives
Dispatch from a Lonely Beach in Michigan
September 21, 2024
The expected loneliness and surprising companionship on a dark and quiet beach
Another Cultivating Belonging Story
September 14, 2024
Get your tickets to the Plundered book launch today!
Experiences of Cultivating Belonging
September 7, 2024
Stories of learning to love and be loved by our places
Cultivating Belonging
August 31, 2024
A rootless people learning to befriend our places
Telling the Truth and Loving Our Neighbors
August 17, 2024
Contending for truth among complicated, broken, and beloved people
The Meanings of Truth
August 10, 2024
Bearing (strategic) witness to the truth
Drowning in Deceit
August 3, 2024
Persistent, purposeful deception is effective but Christians won't give up on the truth.
Hope in Troubling Times
June 18, 2024
A sermon about becoming people of hope on the Sunday before Juneteenth
The Religion of Whiteness
June 1, 2024
Today I’m sharing an interview with Dr. Glenn Bracey, co-author with Michael Emerson of the important new book, The Religion of Whiteness. I’ve benefited...
A Leviathan, Whiteness as Religion, and Brown Faces in White Places
May 25, 2024
Three timely books to help us understand systemic racism, Christian nationalism, and whiteness as a religion
Juneteenth and Worship
May 18, 2024
Why and how to include Juneteenth themes in corporate worship
Public and Humble Presence
May 4, 2024
Observations from a pro-Palestine encampment
Glory and Good
April 27, 2024
On living as Christ's free people in complicated times
Attention, Grief, and Love
April 20, 2024
On not looking away.
Living in the Aftermath of Theft
April 6, 2024
Learning to interpret a world organized by plunder.
Loving Opposition
March 23, 2024
Henri Nouwen, MLK's principles of nonviolence, and community-building confrontation.
Questioning the Brown v. Board Model of Reconciliation
March 2, 2024
When proximity to whiteness isn't the goal.
The Poet-Preacher
February 10, 2024
The latest issue of Comment includes an article by Walter Brueggemann adapted from his book about preaching, Finally Comes the Poet, first published in 1989....
Mustard Seeds and Yeast
February 3, 2024
At the conclusion of a recent ministry conference, I bumped into one of the organizers and was able to share how refreshing the experience had been. I'm not...
 
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