...and your desire to be debt free in your own place.
[Sit
down.] I'm illustrating a synagogue
custom at the time of Jesus. You heard it: Jesus stood up to read the
Scripture and then sat down. all eyes
fixed on him. It was customary that the person who commented on the Scripture
would sit while he spoke.
Whether
a preacher sits or stands matters not at all. It's just custom. When people complain that the church is too
traditional often they're really referring to local customs that are not longer
relevant. Ringing church bells, wearing a tie or choir robes, singing three
songs instead of six, or sitting in pews, stained glass - those are all just
customs that vary over time and culture. Unfortunately people can come to
cherish the customs more than the spiritual tradition out of which they
grew. As cultures change customs need to change, but the underlying
spiritual tradition does not.
So
the fact that Jesus sat doesn't matter in the long run, but what he had to say,
how he teaches us to live, matters absolutely.
Every
Jew in the synagogue knew that whoever declares the Jubilee is simultaneously
declaring himself to be the Messiah. Not much wonder all eyes were
instantaneously glued on Jesus. It's like Jesus is saying, “I'm it.”
Let's
first try to understand the original intent of Jubilee.
Jubilee
is about liberating what is bound. (Harrison)
It is recognizing that land and people are not really the property of people.
The earth is the Lord' and everything in it. Leviticus 25 (which you might
want to have open before you) names
practices that make perpetual ownership impossible. (Fox)
Releasing land.
The
first seven verses apply the principle of sabbath
rest to the land. Every seventh year the land was to rest. No planting,
no pruning, no harvesting. You might wonder, “Wouldn't people starve?” No
problem. Grains self seed, unpruned vines still
produce grapes. V. 6. “You may eat what the land yields during it'ssabbath – you, your slaves,
employees, livestock, wild animals. How would you like that?
If it was fields and vineyards you had planted and harvested
for 6 years you might feel a little jealous. Anyone, as well as you,
could eat all they wanted. But if you were too poor to own land and just
got by on whatever your employer gave you, it would be a great year, eating
your fill every day. And you didn't have to slave that year tilling,
planting, harvesting. Servants got some rest for a change. I suppose
there was still the livestock to tend. Land owner and land pauper could
together relax, enjoy, party, share. Jesus said,
“Don't worry about...what you will eat or wear. [The birds] neither sow nor
reap..., and God feeds them. (Luke 12:22-24). I wonder if living more
simply one year in seven would help us live more simply and joyfully the other
6.
Land
sabbath was a throw back to
the journey from Egypt
to the Promised Land. People ate whatever they could find, and had enough –
even in the wilderness! - where nobody owned
land.
It
also reflects the garden of Eden. The first
humans were to tend and care for it. But with one exception, they could
eat whatever grew - a perpetual feast.
Land
sabbath is a tangible
reminder that we didn't make the berries and we can't make them grow. We simply
cooperate with God's creation.
Allowing
the land to lie fallow is good ecological practice, as is plowing in nutrient
crops like clover, rotating crops. Farmers can give us the details, but
if we deplete the soil of nutrients, we grow tomatoes and cucumbers low in
nutrients. We eat our fill but are undernourished. We need to sustain the land
so God through the land can take care of us.
Since
most of us don't farm how might we practice land sabbath today?
I
picked extra strawberries; here, have some. What's
mine is yours, and really not mine. It God's.
Maybe
we try to purchase produce from places that practice good land care.
Part
of living at peace is living in harmony with the land.
Land
sabbath released use of the
land every seven years.
2.
But every 50 years, the Jubilee released ownership of land, or at least
redistributed it. And Jubilee released people who had become landless servants.
Ancient
Israel
was not a monetary society like ours. So
if people got into debt that they couldn't pay off they had two options.
Sell their land or sell themselves and their families as servants.
Working
as a day labourer for someone else made it difficult
to earn enough to repurchase land once you lost it, although relatives were
encouraged to buy the land so the original owner had a better chance of getting
it back. Enterprising individuals grew more and more wealthy by
snapping up forced sales. So God says the
land must not be sold in perpetuity. The land belongs to God not humans. Everyone
has the right to access the means to earn a decent living. If relatives can't
redeem the land, the Jubilee year will. Every 50 years an intentional effort
would evenly redistribute the land. No ones situation
was ever completely hopeless. There were built in breaks to the cycle of
poverty and welath.
If
you were playing a game of Monopoly and every 50 minutes all the money and
property was dealt out equally again, how would you feel? If you had
accumulated a lot of properties and money, you might be a little reluctant. But
if you were down to $8.00, and a couple of mortgaged
properties and knew you were done for, you might be relieved.
So
do we care more about the property or the players? God makes no bones
about it. People come first.
Notice
this is not communism. People can grow their own crops. Sell, buy, eat as they choose. But unbridled capitalism is no more
Christian than communism. God clearly opposes the parasitic accumulation
of more and more at the expense of others and orders ways to disrupt it.
Jubilee
can spare us from the rampant materialism of the culture we live in. It's a
practical way to love your neighbour as yourself, a command that originates in Leviticus.
Is
it any surprise that a concerted effort started in churches in 40 countries to
cancel debts of the poorest nations was called Jubilee 2000 – a debt free start
for a billion people.
Might
allowing refugees to return home or to settle in Canada be another way of practising Jubilee today?
When
someone saw today's Jubilee topic she asked. “Is that like about native land
claims?” I said, “Yeeesss.”
Allowing people to return to what is theirs at least as much as ours. On Canada
Day, can First Nations people celebrate too?
10,000
Villages provides access to world markets for artisans (like this woman in India) to earn
income to support their families.
Jaunita struggled to
put food on the table in shantytown Nicaragua,
the poorest country in Latin America. She
dreamed of starting a small business but mainstream banks said she had no
collateral and loan sharks would bankrupt her. Through a microloan
program of Mennonite Economic Development Associates, perhaps with money some
of you gave or loaned, she has started a thriving bakery in her humble home and
employs three others.
Habitat for Humanity – a hand up not a hand out.
If
we had discussion time today, it would be great to hear your ideas and
experience of Jubilee.
anyone who cares for young children knows
that the concept of “mine” comes easily. Sharing for two and three year olds
begins with taking turns, moving toward the idea that “it's mine but you can
have some.” With more maturity we can say, “it's ours
so we'll share.” With even more maturity, “It's God's. There's plenty for all.”
Vacationing
at Sauble Beech one summer we overheard an old couple
sitting on their deck whining (that's probably too nice a word) at aneighbour for moving the
property line a few inches. I'm like, Life's too short. Relax. Have a party. Vacation. How many conflicts are over “personal”
property, national boundaries? Part of living at peace is relaxing our
grip on ownership and accumulation of more and more of what God wants everyone
to enjoy.
The
practice of Jubilee released land ownership or redistributed it. The same
thinking applied to people. People belong to God, not to other
humans. So, even those who by their own choice offered to be servants
because they couldn't pay their debt were, as v. 39 says, not to serve as
slaves, but as hired labourers. Twice its said they
were not to be treated harshly (V. 43, 53) Further, at any time
they could be redeemed by a relative, or if they found the means, to buy their
own freedom. But, if not, they would be freed at the next year of
Jubilee.
The
rationale comes at the end of the chapter. God says, “The people of Israel ...are my servants, whom I brought out
from the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” In
other words, I freed you from slavery, so don't put others in perpetual servanthood. Treat others with dignity.
We
could add that Jesus who announced Jubilee in the Nazareth synagogue paid the highest price,
his own life, to redeem us. That's the value of each human.
When
Jesus announced release to the captives, we might get nervous. “The debt
thing might be a good idea, but letting murderers and rapists loose on the
streets? That's nuts.” Don't worry. The death penalty was
applied to murderers and rapists very quickly. The only thing they put people
in jail for those days was debt.
So
Jubilee is about liberating indebted people, part of loving your neighbour as yourself.
What
would be a practice of Jubilee today?
(obviously a stop to the trafficking of humans as slaves)
How
about a fair minimum wage so people don't have to work two or three jobs?
-
How about investing only in companies that treat workers well?
-
Ruby Ancar is delighted to return home.
Mennonite Disaster Service volunteers helped her build a home after her Louisiana coastal
village was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. She hopes others will return
to what she calls the promised land. “This is
our heritage, our past, and our future.” “Come, join us for the
celebration.”
The
generous sharing of Hidden Acres Camp means single moms and their children can
spend quality family time this week, a break from the routine worries of
poverty.
With
the recent apology by Stephen Harpur to the
aboriginal people of Canada,
it struck me anew, how children, yanked out of
their homes and put in residential schools were separated from their families,
and the dysfunction that resulted. A whole generation had no parent models.
African
slaves were often split up – husbands and wives, children as soon as they were
old enough to be sold to work.
Refugees
fleeing war also get separated from families.
Perhaps
more remarkable than the Prime Minister's apology was First Nations leader Phil
Fontaine's simple, “We are now in this together.” “We” and “they” replaced with
moving forward together.
Servitude
can divide people. The practice of Jubilee reunites. In Israel families
could move back to ancestral lands and to extended families again. It was a
reunion. It was possible to live with relatives again
That's
part of living at peace. If you have extra time off this
weekend. Thank God for the freedom to be with your family and friends.
Relax. Love.Party. Enjoy. Be
easy on each other.
To
what degree the people of Israel
implemented the year of Jubilee is debated but Jesus began to fulfill it:
-
healing the sick
-
refusing the power of armies
-
freeing people from demons
-
interacting with rich or poor
-
his joy
-
feasting
-
his teachings that reduce preoccupation with material
things, encourage love and just treatment of others,
-
his breaking barriers between men and women, slave and
free, Samaritan and Jew
Early
followers of Jesus practised Jubilee, perhaps without
even knowing it. When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, some sold possessions
and goods and distributed the proceeds to those in need.
They made sure both Jewish and Greek widows got taken care of. The apostle Paul
collected funds for those starving in Judea
during a famine.
As
I scan the Scriptures I'm impressed with the persistence of God's passion for
our well being, our freedom, our dignity, our equality. Jubilee practice is one
such expression of god's amazing love for every person. Jesus came to fulfil it and invites us to practice it too.
