On October 26, we welcomed Lisa Sharon Harper, author of The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right, for a theological forum with Director of Advancement Andi Saccoccio, a conversation about division, reconciliation, and the biblical notion of shalom.
“The way that unjust structures are able to stand is because people believe they should stand. They can’t stand if we say no to them—they can’t. And the only way for people to come to the place where they are willing to say no to the structures is if they are able to see the lie the structure stands on.”
Unjust structures are able to stand because people believe they should stand.
Lisa, Chief Church Engagement Officer for Sojourners, has traveled across the country and around the world writing, speaking, leading trainings, and helping mobilize clergy and community leaders around shared values for the common good, with a particular focus on racial justice. In this conversation, which you can watch the entirety of below, Lisa shares powerful insights about the invitation to shalom and the bold declaration that the way of God runs contrary to power differentiations that a particular type of person over another.
“When you get baptised into Jesus, before you go under the water you see as the empire tells you to see—you see the differentiations in power. But when you come up out of that water, all you see is the image of God. You see everybody was created with the call and the capacity to exercise stewardship of the world.”
We were proud to host Lisa Sharon Harper at The Seattle School, and we are thrilled to share this conversation with you now. May it inspire you to continue working toward shalom in a world that so desperately needs it.