Who we are meant to be to each other? What do the scripture texts have to say about that, in ways that can support us in shaping a more just, anti-racist, compassionate future out of this pandemic?  What is the pandemic revealing that we can learn from (both good, like collectivity, and bad, like the total failure of empire).  What's the Word for white Christians in this moment?

Who Are We Meant to Be to Each Other? (2020 Easter Year A)

For the Second Sunday in Easter, Grace Aheron walks us through what the "doubting Thomas" Gospel reading from John has to teach us about this pandemic moment. What appears to be a story about faith in Jesus alone might actually be a story about understanding trauma, somatic experience, and collective community care... things very much alive in this COVID-19 moment. 

The texts for this week are:
Acts 2:14a, 22-32  
Psalm 16 
1 Peter 1:3-9 
John 20:19-31

Throughout the season between Easter and Pentecost, we'll be exploring what the text has to offer about these questions: Who are we meant to be to each other? What is the pandemic revealing to us?

Transcript here:
https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resistance.html

TWIR 4.19.20 #Relatable Thomas

It may be Eastertide liturgically, but it still feels very much like Good Friday right now. How can we hold the tension of crucifixion and resurrection in such a way that it releases us into a free-fall of repentance? In this episode, Nichola Torbett explores how the early church did just that, creating beloved community and a new economic reality.

The transcript is here:  https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resistance.html

TWIR 4.26.20 Hands Wide Open

Who are we meant to be to each other?  And what do gates have to do with abundant life?  Rev. Anne Dunlap offers wisdom from her time working on a goat farm to illuminate this week's gospel reading from John 10 -- Jesus claiming to be the gate to the sheepfold, and that he has come so that all may have abundant life.

Transcript here:
https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resistance.html

TWIR 5.3.20 The Gate of Abundant Life

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to God except through me."

In this episode, Rev. Seth Wispelwey discusses one of the most famous (and most misappropriated) sections and verses in Christian scripture, and how it's really a call to locate ourselves: our own belovedness and our own commission to manifest Godly goodness in today's world, even and especially during the pandemic and with our urgent call to dismantle white supremacy. 

Ours is a call to know and love ourselves - to say and embody I AM.

Transcript can be found here: https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resistance.html

TWIR 5.10.20 Making Way for Truth and Life

In this commentary on Acts 17:22-31, Rev. Margaret Ernst calls out racial capitalism as a god "made by human hands" that demands the sacrifice of black, brown, and poor bodies  - and contaminates the White american imagination of freedom. What have you learned about freedom during the pandemic, and what kinds of freedom dreams can we invite our white family and church members into that are in solidarity with people of color? She also shares action steps you can take alongside SURJ members nationwide to call for Justice for Ahmaud Arbery.

Transcript available here:
https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resistance.html

TWIR 5.17.20 Freeing Our Dreams of Freedom

Join Rev. Drew Bongiovanni for a discussion on Acts 1:6-14 exploring how white folks can combat the belief in individualism that keeps us from remembering that our liberation is bound up in the liberation of others. How can we use the power of gratitude and prayer to dismantle white supremacy? She also shares action steps you can take alongside SURJ members nationwide to call for Justice for Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.

TWIR 5.24.20 Remembering the Meaning of 'We'

From January 2017 to December 2023, “The Word Is Resistance” was a weekly podcast from SURJ-Faith by white anti-racist Christians based on the Christian lectionary, offering an anti-racist Word for other white Christians -- though all are welcome to check it out.  We are pleased to keep this incredible resource alive here as an ongoing resource to help us all get free.

What do our sacred texts have to teach us about living, surviving, even thriving, in the context of empire, tyranny, violence, repression - the times in which we are living today?  What do they have to teach us, as white Christians, about our role in resistance, in showing up, in liberation?  They teach us this: 

Our traditions were made for these times.  They come from these times.  So we have resources in our texts, our practices, to help us right now.  We can reclaim our stories and re-tell them to nourish our resistance against white supremacy and our work for collective liberation.