What do you think?
Rate this book
Mend: An Invitation from Jesus to Return to Land-Based Repair
Are you searching for a meaningful way to respond to the challenges of colonization? An Invitation from Jesus to Return to Land-Based Repair offers a hands-on pathway for Christians in Canada and beyond to pursue a path of repairing right relations. Centred around the story of Zacchaeus from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 19:1–27), this book serves as a guide, recovering repair as central to discipleship and the restoration of communities to health. Let Mend invite you into a journey of hope, transformation and even joy—discover practical steps to embrace repair and experience the life-changing impact of following Jesus to repair the damage of the colonial project.
Praise for An Invitation from Jesus to Return to Land-based Repair
As the child of colonial settlers and European refugees, I was born into the tension of shame and gratitude for our history. I can relate to the nervous curiosity Jodi Spargur identifies with the Zacchaeus story. But I've also been welcomed out of the tree into the world of reconciliation. My Indigenous mentors tell me I need training to become a helpful partner, and that burden can't be all on them. This book will be a critical facet of that training.
- Bradley Jersak, Principal, St. Stephen's University
The whole unfolding of Zacchaeus’ transformation from self-protecting hoarder to generous restorer is such a profound way to couch the challenge/invitation of land back. And it feels promising and affirming a compelling approach versus guilt-laden and crippling one, which does the opposite, as you point out. Thank-you!
- Rena, a Metis grandmother and scholar
Wonderful storytelling that stokes the imagination. Great analogies to help us understand present-day realities. Gather your communities to take next steps on this good path together, this is collective work. Read together and act together. I pray blessing on this holy project. It is good. Jesus, call us like you called Zac, or give us ears to hear that call! Zac, pray for us.
-Steve Heinrichs, activist & editor of Unsettling the Word
Praise for An Invitation from Jesus to Return to Land-based Repair
As the child of colonial settlers and European refugees, I was born into the tension of shame and gratitude for our history. I can relate to the nervous curiosity Jodi Spargur identifies with the Zacchaeus story. But I've also been welcomed out of the tree into the world of reconciliation. My Indigenous mentors tell me I need training to become a helpful partner, and that burden can't be all on them. This book will be a critical facet of that training.
- Bradley Jersak, Principal, St. Stephen's University
The whole unfolding of Zacchaeus’ transformation from self-protecting hoarder to generous restorer is such a profound way to couch the challenge/invitation of land back. And it feels promising and affirming a compelling approach versus guilt-laden and crippling one, which does the opposite, as you point out. Thank-you!
- Rena, a Metis grandmother and scholar
Wonderful storytelling that stokes the imagination. Great analogies to help us understand present-day realities. Gather your communities to take next steps on this good path together, this is collective work. Read together and act together. I pray blessing on this holy project. It is good. Jesus, call us like you called Zac, or give us ears to hear that call! Zac, pray for us.
-Steve Heinrichs, activist & editor of Unsettling the Word
210 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 15, 2025
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 17, 2025
Jodi Spargur is (in her own words) a "settler" who has lived and ministered in Canada for many years. She has humbly and faithfully walked alongside First Nations communities, seeking to mend the damage done by Christian churches and colonialism to Canada's indigenous peoples. I believe her voice is a valuable one to listen to and in this book calling for reparations and land-based repair, she advocates for "integral mission" in Canadian Christians' relationship with First Nations; the Gospel is not merely proclamation, but also embodied in tangible acts of justice and social responsibility.
Personally (and now I will begin to sound like a reactionary curmudgeon), I think that the quest for cosmic justice is highly aspirational and that implementing it opens the door up to other forms of injustice; that's not to say we shouldn't strive for justice - it would be fundamentally wrong not to - but history and context are also complicated. This book is largely shaped around the story of Zacchaeus' epiphanic encounter with Jesus and how Zacchaeus comes to be convicted of his greed and stolen wealth and pledges to make restitution and amends, even paying back four times what he has cheated people out of. But Zacchaeus himself is the perpetrator of his own injustice; we can critique the excesses of Western individualism, but is it just to make us owe for what we have had no control or agency over? How far back do we unwind the clock in this quest?
When it comes to Mend, I would echo Mark Noll's assessment of the book Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery. Noll notes he disagrees with parts of the book, but he also proffers, "The entire book, even when you think things could be evaluated differently, will make you think, and think hard, about crucially important questions of Christian doctrine, American history, and God's standards of justice." Despite the disagreements I have, this book comes as a prophetic challenge.
For one, I appreciate Spargur's witness to reconciliation with Canada's First Nations. Most notably, I think she offers interesting guidance for how churches can build bonds of kinship with indigenous peoples, especially those upon whose ancestral land the church resides (one proposal that some churches have already undertaken is to pay what they would have to pay in property taxes to local First Nations and Spargur also suggests that as thousands of churches across Canada are expected to close in the next few years, these buildings be turned over to indigenous peoples for their spiritual uses).
Personally (and now I will begin to sound like a reactionary curmudgeon), I think that the quest for cosmic justice is highly aspirational and that implementing it opens the door up to other forms of injustice; that's not to say we shouldn't strive for justice - it would be fundamentally wrong not to - but history and context are also complicated. This book is largely shaped around the story of Zacchaeus' epiphanic encounter with Jesus and how Zacchaeus comes to be convicted of his greed and stolen wealth and pledges to make restitution and amends, even paying back four times what he has cheated people out of. But Zacchaeus himself is the perpetrator of his own injustice; we can critique the excesses of Western individualism, but is it just to make us owe for what we have had no control or agency over? How far back do we unwind the clock in this quest?
When it comes to Mend, I would echo Mark Noll's assessment of the book Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery. Noll notes he disagrees with parts of the book, but he also proffers, "The entire book, even when you think things could be evaluated differently, will make you think, and think hard, about crucially important questions of Christian doctrine, American history, and God's standards of justice." Despite the disagreements I have, this book comes as a prophetic challenge.
For one, I appreciate Spargur's witness to reconciliation with Canada's First Nations. Most notably, I think she offers interesting guidance for how churches can build bonds of kinship with indigenous peoples, especially those upon whose ancestral land the church resides (one proposal that some churches have already undertaken is to pay what they would have to pay in property taxes to local First Nations and Spargur also suggests that as thousands of churches across Canada are expected to close in the next few years, these buildings be turned over to indigenous peoples for their spiritual uses).
November 24, 2025
When Christians reduce the gospel to the dimension of individual release from the guilt of personally intended sins, it can lead them to respond to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation with indifference or resentment for what feels like a misplaced guilt trip. Following the lead of Jesus' encounter with Zacchaeus, this excellent book brings the personal together with the social and invites readers to come down from the tree of guilt and shame and to join Jesus on the ground of reconciliation. This can feel pretty overwhelming, but, at the gracious invitation of indigenous peoples, the last decade has seen some beautiful moments of reckoning in both the grassroots and in academia, and it is wonderful to see a book that humbly and eloquently opens that journey up to more.
March 30, 2026
A gentle and accessible yet direct invitation to action and reconciliation. The primary audience seems to be Canadian land-owning churches but the content has broader implications. For settlers who don’t know where to start in addressing reparations and reconciliation, this is a great read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews