An Audacious Invitiation is a startling new commentary on the Gospel of John by former United Church Moderator Walter Farquharson and long-time United Church minister Jeff Cook. Walter's reflections paired with Jeff's point-counterpoint responses allow the reader to participate in an energetic dialogue that will both surprise and inspire. Here we discover a Jesus of love and compassion and hope, a compelling call to a new way of living.
We need this book in the same way we need poetry on the muddy, complicated road of life. In despair over environmental disaster? Furious with wrong-headed politicians? An Audacious Invitation will help you sing instead of throw things. Walter Farquharson with Jeff Cook as his willing accomplice pulls stories out of his own life and Jesus' life and the lives of Jesus' friends' and attaches them to our own experiences. Then we are pulled along, mud metaphorically falling off our boots, by the insights these two share so generously. This is wisdom without pedantry, poetry without obscurity, and whimsicality without ever, ever lacking in substance. It is written with obvious delight in word and phrase. The poet seeps through on every page. It is sheer pleasure to move this way through the Gospel of John, guided by two assured companions. And none of this negates the practical fact that one day when you are feeling hopeless, but you must, somehow, find something good to say you will reach for this book. What you need will be here. -- Donna Sinclair -- Journalist and author, March 2014
