The Word Is Resistance

In this episode we wrestle with the story of the parting of the Red Sea, wondering how our abolition dreams hold together oppressed and oppressor in making a way toward liberation. Featuring Dr. Sharon Fennema of the Liberating Lineages Collective and Cole Parke-West of Christians for A Free Palestine and Farm Church as our guest contributor. Transcript available here: bit.ly/TWARepisodes

This week’s Exodus reading is the culmination of the Ten Plagues, the escalating contestation of power between The Divine One and Pharaoh. Join Collective member Rev. Anne Dunlap and special guest Graie Hagans as they talk about this grim final plague in which all the firstborn of Egypt not protected by the passing-over preparations are to die. What is the role of ritual as abolition practice? What does it mean that the instructions for liberation are for everyone? Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

In our text for today (Exodus 3:1-15), Moses gets curious about a bush that burns, but is somehow not consumed. In this wilderness space, God calls Moses into the work of helping his enslaved Hebrew siblings get free from slavery in Egypt. Join Rev. Liz Kearny and special guest contributors Candice Baughman and Rev. Dexter Kearny of the One Parish One Prisoner program at Underground Ministries for a conversation about God’s call on each of our lives to participate in the movement to abolish the prison industrial complex - a journey that begins with a bit of curiosity. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

We begin our "Exodus and Abolition" series in Exodus 1, setting the context for the unfolding of the rest of the the story by showing us the contours of what enslavement means for the Hebrew people. Into this this context of oppression, enter three stories of women resisting unjust laws and acting to preserve life. Join Dr. Sharon Fennema as she brings womanist theologian and beloved ancestor Dr. Delores Williams into the room as a co-conspirator for interpreting this text. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

In our text this week, Jesus is really going through a rough time, and he manages to offend just about everyone around him with his sharp-edged words and actions. Join Rev. Anne Dunlap, Dr. Sharon Fennema, and Rev. Liz Kearny as they listen to the outcry of the Canaanite woman in the story, and wonder together about how her actions changed Jesus from that moment on. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

This "miracle" story of Jesus walking on water comes on the heels of Jesus feeding over 5,000 people. And they are all still in the raw trauma of learning John the Baptist has been executed. Join Rev. Liz Kearny, Dr. Sharon Fennema, and Rev. Anne Dunlap as they ponder miracles, tormenting storms, heartbreak, needing a minute alone, and Jesus reaching for us. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

Join our contributors Dr. Sharon Fennema, Rev. Liz Kearny, and Rev. Anne Dunlap as they talk (and cry) about the famous story of Jesus feeding over 5,000 people. The story follows after the series of parables imagining the kingdom of heaven together in community in chapter 13. And here, we encounter Jesus after having heard the news that John the Baptist had been murdered by Herod. With this violence on his heart, Jesus takes himself to a deserted place, where the community joins him after hearing the news themselves. What do we do when we are grieving and hungry? Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

This week, Jesus continues his lakeside parable teaching with a string of mini-parables: a mustard seed is sown and becomes a massive tree-home for the birds, a woman mixes yeast into her flour, a man buys the field where he was digging around and found treasure, a merchant sells all they have to buy a single pearl, and a net pulls in all kinds of fish which are later sorted into “good” and “bad.” Join Rev. Anne Dunlap, Rev. Liz Kearny, and Dr. Sharon Fennema as they talk about what these small, outcast thing have to do with overthrowing empire. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

In this week's text, Jesus entrusts the treasure of another land-based parable to the gathered community. Here, instead of exploring the interconnection between seeds and the soil they are planted in like last week’s parable, the story revolves around the complex interconnection between the growth and fruition of good seeds planted in good soil and so-called weeds maliciously planted and growing among them. And Rev. Liz Kearny, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Dr. Sharon Fennema have a LOT of questions. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

"The sower went out to sow." So begins one of Jesus' most famous parables. What could he be saying to this crowd of people at the lakeside? Join Dr. Sharon Fennema, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Rev. Liz Kearny as they talk about seeds, soil, belonging, underground secrets, and more! Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

As summer weather draws so many of us outside to dance with a whole host of sky, water, and plant relatives, the Revised Common Lectionary journeys with Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew as he shares stories and works wonders rooted in his relationship with the natural world. Join Rev. Liz Kearny, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Dr. Sharon Fennema of the Liberating Lineages Collective as they offer a "teaser" of themes and context for the Gospel of Matthew texts from July 12 - August 16, to help us explore what Jesus’ land-based parables and miracles have to teach us about building an alternative world of abundance and care in the midst of the daily realities of living under empire. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

In this Easter episode, join Rev. Liz Kearny, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Rev. Brigitta Vieyra as they witness Mary Magdalene's grief, and find life-giving currents of intimacy, waiting, agency, and claiming in the movement of this story. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

On this Good Friday, our hearts ache with Jesus and his community as they endure his arrest, interrogation and torture, and execution. Join Rev. Anne Dunlap, Dr. Sharon Fennema, and Rev. Liz Kearny as they keep tearful vigil through the Gospel of John's telling of this grievous story. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

This week, Jesus-the-organizer and his comrades enact a protest parade in opposition to Rome’s military procession happening on the other side of town, all during the feast of the Passover, when the Jewish people remember God’s liberating acts that brought them out of slavery in Egypt. Join Rev. Liz Kearny, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Rev. Brigitta Vieyra as they join the crowd in this embodied act of liberation. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

This week we encounter yet another passage from John (11:1-45) where water and bodies play a central role, this time the water of tears and the dead body of Lazarus and the grieving bodies of Mary, Martha, Jesus, and the community gathered around them. Join Rev. Anne Dunlap, Rev. Liz Kearny, and Dr. Sharon Fennema as they consider the ways that resurrection and grief are inseparable and how God loves us, our real physical bodies, like water. Transcripts available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

The 9th chapter of the Gospel of John is full of questions. What kinds of questions continue harm? What kinds of questions will get us free? Join Rev. Liz Kearny, Dr. Sharon Fennema, and Rev. Anne Dunlap as they wrestle with these questions, and wonder together how this story of a blind man receiving his sight can help us build a world where Every. Body. is met with care and dignity. In honor and heartbreak for the life of Nurul Amin Shah Alam. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

In this week's text, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, and they are both transformed in the course of their rather intimate conversation. Join Dr. Sharon Fennema, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Rev. Liz Kearny as they navigate the many layers of lineages of Jacob's well and the waters of life. Transcript available here: bit.ly/TWARepisodes

This week we get to eavesdrop on the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus about what a life moving toward kindom-making looks like. We’re reminded that logos, usually translated as “word,” actually means something more like “conversation,” so here we recognize Jesus/the Conversation-made-flesh doing what Jesus does best - engaging beloveds in deepening their understanding and widening their love. Join Rev. Liz Kearny, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Dr. Sharon Fennema in this episode that covers everything from word nerdery to camp to oceans of love. Transcript available here: bit.ly/TWARepisodes

We're back! Join us for this special series for Lent 2026, on the gospel texts for Year A. In this episode, Rev. Liz Kearny, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Dr. Sharon Fennema meet Jesus at the end of his 40 day wilderness journey, famished, not long after he has been baptized by John in the Jordan River, and go deep talking about the Son of God, the "diabolos," and temptations that tear us apart. Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes

This live recording of Dr. Vincent Harding’s song for the freedom movement is of a multi-racial “movement choir practice” in Denver, CO in December 2014, being led by Minister Daryl J. Walker. We are deeply grateful to the Freeney-Harding family for letting us use the song for this podcast. This song has been the theme song of our podcast since the beginning. Enjoy it now in its entirety. Lyrics: 1 - We are building up a new world (3x) Builders must be strong. 2 - Courage, sisters, don't get weary, courage, brothers, don't get weary. Courage, people, don't get weary, though the way be long. 3 - Rise, shine, give God glory (3x) Children of the light!

As "The Word Is Resistance" comes to completion, enjoy this final episode from Rev. Anne Dunlap, which includes brief reflections on the Magnificat and highlights offerings from 2 of our long-time listeners. Much gratitude for your presence with us over these 7 years! Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

As "The Word Is Resistance" podcast comes to completion, we are wrapping up with 4 special "Parting Gift" episodes. For this episode, enjoy a group conversation with Liz Kearny, Jean Jeffress, and Brigitta Vieyra, hosted by Anne Dunlap, as they reflect on how the podcast has changed them and what parting gifts they hope listeners take with them as we all go home by another way. Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir

As "The Word Is Resistance" podcast comes to completion, we are wrapping up with 4 special "Parting Gift" episodes. For this episode, enjoy a group conversation with M Jade Kaiser and Sharon Fennema, hosted by Anne Dunlap, as they reflect on their how the podcast has changed them and what parting gifts they hope listeners take with them as we all go home by another way. Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir

As "The Word Is Resistance" podcast comes to completion, we are wrapping up with 4 special "Parting Gift" episodes. For this episode, enjoy a group conversation with OG contributors Rev. Anne Dunlap, Nichola Torbett, and Rev. Margaret Ernst, as they reflect on their how the podcast has changed them and what parting gifts they hope listeners take with them as we all go home by another way. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

Paul is writing to his dear ones in Thessalonica about how to keep up their resistance under Roman occupation. Spoiler alert: This work involves 1) debunking the lie empire tells them (us) about “peace and security” while 2) depending on the beloveds around them (us) to fight off the numbing spell of this lie so we can keep resisting together. Tune in for this episode with Rev. Liz Kearny to explore the connections between the themes of this text, the toxic theology of Christian Zionism fueling so much of the violence of this moment, and our role as white Christians in taking action to stop the genocide unfolding in Gaza. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

In this episode, Rev. M Jade Kaiser wonders what it means to spiritually prepare individually and collectively for both times of disaster and openings of freedom. What wise or foolish actions or non-actions are we taking in the present that will serve us come what may - tomorrow, next year, or generations to come? Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

Join Rev. Anne Dunlap and Rev. Liz Kearny for a conversation about facing, embracing, wrestling with, and healing our lineages as white folx who seek to build up a new world. As we observe All Saints Day, where are the places of trauma in the stories of our own ancestors? What did they give up to assimilate into whiteness? Where did they show us how to resist oppression? With grounding in the lectionary's psalms for this day (1 and 90), how might we follow the path to the water that will impact the generations coming after us? Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

In a world that wants to force us into either/or thinking, wants to push us to choose - with us or against us - Dr. Sharon Fennema explores Jesus' invitation to discern our callings beyond the binaries. Join in lamenting all that we have given over to Caesar, and in imagining what it would look like to give ourselves and our world over to Love. Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

Rev. Liz Kearny was in Italy this month on a family trip and recorded these reflections from her hotel room in Rome after touring the Colosseum. After witnessing these remains of Rome’s death machinery, Rev. Liz wanted to share some #WrestlingWithRomans bonus content as she connects what she saw at the Colosseum with what we’ve been learning together in this series on Paul’s anti-empire missive to Gentile Christians. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

Paul doesn't shy away from practical matters in his letter to the Romans and this week's episode takes a look at his admonitions against letting differences divide us. Dr. Sharon Fennema explores contemporary and historical examples of the ways solidarity is a threat to empire and asks what these have to show us about resisting "divide and conquer" tactics and building the kind of community we are called to create as kindom-makers and Jesus-followers. Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

For our 300th episode, join Rev. Jean Jeffress as they wrestle with Romans 13:8-14. Paul is beginning to finalize his argument to the Roman Jesus-followers. He needs them to understand that what the love of Christ Jesus offers is belonging. And he really, really wants God's people to act like it. https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

What does grace mean? What does grace mean for white Christians hoping to resist white supremacy? Rev. Margaret Ernst wrestles with Romans 6:12-23 to help us get a view of grace as grounded in Paul's Jewish understandings of God's love, and as the gift of being invited to take action for liberation. Note: This episode for Pentecost 5A was posted late into the series. Sometimes wrestling takes longer than we think it will. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

This new reality Paul’s been sharing with us - about everyone being included in a mighty tree as one beloved community - seems a long way off, doesn’t it? Join Rev. Liz Kearny as she asks, “How do we get from here to there?” We can imagine that Paul’s Gentile audience in Rome is asking the very same question. In response, Paul gives the church in Rome - and all of us - daily practices and ways of being that disrupt empire and help us build up a new world. Note: The opening and closing grounding moments in this episode use the words of Silvia Federici, quoted in an Instagram post from Chiara Francesca (linked in the transcript). Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

What is Paul saying about what it means to be a people of transformation? Join Brigitta Vieyra in an exploration of how radical tenderness is a liberatory spiritual disposition of interdependence. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

All means all. Join Rev. Anne Dunlap as she sorts through trees and branches and calluses and grafts in Romans 11 to discover that what Paul really does mean is: All. Means. All. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

What is the good news that Paul longs for his beloveds to tell each other again and again, in the midst of Rome’s lies? Join Rev. Liz Kearny in unlearning what the empire’s religion has taught us about “confessing with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead,” and find out what Paul says will actually save us. ***Content warning: Mention of suicide*** Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

What does Paul actually think about his own Jewish people? Does the love song he sings in Romans 9: 1-5 offer us some clues? (Hint: it is a love song, after all). Join Rev. Anne Dunlap for this episode that definitely required some wrestling with so many layers and burdens of interpretation that she needed multiple metaphors to find a way through. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

(So good we accidentally posted it twice!) Who do we imagine when we read "us" in the book of Romans? When is "us" just a substitute for dominant and normalized? When is "us" collective liberation? Sharon Fennema explores these questions in starts and stops as she wonders what it means for God to be "for us" as white Christians with access to privilege and dominant culture Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

Who do we imagine when we read "us" in the book of Romans? When is "us" just a substitute for dominant and normalized? When is "us" collective liberation? Sharon Fennema explores these questions in starts and stops as she wonders what it means for God to be "for us" as white Christians with access to privilege and dominant culture. Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

So many of us were taught that Paul teaches us that our bodies are shameful, sinful even. Is there any other way to understand Romans 8:12-25? What would it mean if there were? Join Rev. Anne Dunlap for our latest episode in our #WrestlingWithRomans series! Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

Wrestle with Romans 8:1-11 with Brigitta Vieyra to dissect how race is a modern, colonial invention that Paul urges divesting from as a daily act of resistance. Together, we’ll also consider how the sacred, holy work of reimagining oneself beyond and away from whiteness requires us to become spiritual revolutionaries needed for our time.

Consider with Rev. Liz Kearny all the ways we have felt hopeless or overwhelmed by despair when we realize how thoroughly systems of oppression have saturated our very ways of being. How does Paul make space for us in Romans 7 to get honest about that? What is the first step from those places of despair onto the pathway towards transformation? *Note: This podcast is for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, not the 3rd Sunday as Rev. Liz misspoke in this recording. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

Join Jean Jeffress and Nichola Torbett as they talk to a live audience at the Northern Californa Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ Annual Gathering. We explain to people unfamiliar with the podcast what it is and what it does. And we have a conversation from Paul's letter to the Romans as part of our #WrestlingWithRomans series

Explore Romans 5:1-8 with the Rev. Liz Kearny as she learns how to reclaim this heavyweight text of the New Testament from the ways it has been co-opted by empire. What does it mean to remember with our whole selves that Abraham and Jesus are indeed our ancestors? How can we follow them in the path of faithful resistance to every system that seeks to destroy life? Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

Our new series, #WrestlingWithRomans, starts off with Rev. Anne Dunlap wrestling with the concept of justification and what Paul could possibly mean by invoking the faith of Abraham. Hint: It's not about arguing that Christianity is better than Judaism. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

"The Great Commission" in Matthew 28: 16-20 has long been used as a harmful loyalty oath to empire and a punishing god. Rev. Anne Dunlap asks if we can understand this text in a way that helps us declare our loyalty to the ways of justice and community and intimacy and liberation. https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

Join Dr. Sharon Fennema to feel into what these pentecosts of tender breath in the Gospel of John are offering us in this moment. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

What can a generative framework for holy resistance look like when we start thinking of Jesus less as martyr and more as witness? Join Rev. M Jade Kaiser as we ask how orienting ourselves towards attending our mistakes and failure, even when we feel guilt and shame by being a witness is a radical work of repair.

Ponder with the Rev. Liz Kearny what Jesus has to teach us about following our failures, limitations, and frailties to the truth: that it's community that holds the work of liberation.

Join Jean Jeffress as they discuss navigating and failure to navigate their own privilige and the ways in which the church is a hot mess during our Eastertide #FailureLab series. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/