Show Notes
GazaCeasefirePilgrimage.com A Kiwi named James Harris set out with a mustard seed of faith and walked the length of Gaza to fundraise for relief and refugees while calling for a ceasefire. The next day he rang me (Jarrod) and asked if I would be interested in doing a walk too. I responded, “Mate, I think the world would be interested!” I picked up the phone and soon Lisa Sharon Harper, Suzan Wahhab, Mae Cannon, James Harris and I were all in tears. Not merely because of what is happening but of how the Holy Spirit is moving. GazaCeasefirePilgrimage.com was born. 2 weeks later, *12 counties • 77 cities* have signed up. Come join Dr Drew Hart as he facilitates us hearing the story, learning about the movement and responding to the invitation to transfigure our trauma and put our compassion into action for those who are suffering. The Global Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage Movement Founders: Suzan Wahhab shares the living faith of her ancestors, the First Christians, and is the President of Palestinian Christians in Australia. Suzan was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Ramallah before moving to Sydney, Australia where she is also a CPA and financial strategist. Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), and a well-respected North American voice, author and advocate in the Middle East and at home on justice, peacebuilding, and the Holy Land. Lisa Sharon Harper is a prolific speaker, award-winning author and internationally respected activist. Ms. Harper is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by designing forums and experiences that bring common understanding, common commitment and common action. Australian pastor, social change educator and activist, Jarrod McKenna, has been described by Martin Luther King Jr’s co-worker, Rev. Jim Lawson, as “an expert in nonviolent social change.” Jarrod is the Founding Director of CommonGrace.org.au, a pastor with Steeple Church in Melbourne, and the co-founder of the InVerse Collective and Podcast with Dr Drew Hart. And missing but very much the holder of the “Mustard Seed” that started the movement… James Harris is a proud West Aucklander whose passion for empowering community-based advocacy has seen him relocate to Amman, Jordan and remote Western Australia. He is currently the Director of Strategic Projects with NAYBA Australia, where he is working on projects related to community sponsorship of refugees and young people in out-of-home care.
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A continuation of our conversation with the late Walter Brueggemann.- Brueggemann wasn’t simply a scholar, he was a prophet. This is not hyperbole. This is a precise analysis of his vocation as one who devoted his life to the Sacred Scriptures of a dangerously free God. He was a poet as are the prophets, he would insist. His “prophetic imagination” was shaped by a lifetime of dedication to the texts that demanded of him pathos, lament and a consciousness counter to empire. He was a person of the kind of prayer that undergoes the kind of grace that requires doing justice, and loving mercy and a scholarship from a deep humility before the Scriptures while walking with the God they witnessed to. I will tell my grandchildren of the three days my brother Don and I stayed with Tia and Walter Brueggemann. I will tell stories of how Elaine and Ched Myers introduced me to Walter a few years prior and how I got to have lunch with one of the greatest Hebrew Bible scholars in the world and start a friendship. I will tell of how I got to introduce my mate Jono Martin to Walter and how I snapped a cheeky moment as my friend Traci took a selfie with the Bruggz coz we are giddy fans. I will tell of his humour, humility and indomitable brilliance that was paired with a warm kind curiosity. Unquestionably one of my biggest influences, I’m always reading Walter when preparing for a sermon, and not merely in the Old Testament. I first read Walter at the age of 22 and haven’t stopped. Yet I haven’t come close to reading his over 100 books. I’ve literally led hundreds of people through his “The Prophetic Imagination” and it is in my top 5 greatest books of Christian discipleship. Walter, your life was a blaze with God’s justice and I’m thankful for the ways you set me on fire. Rest in Peace.- Jarrod McKenna