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/