One of God's Great Ideas!

"Count off seven sabbaths of years--seven times seven years--so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years.  Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month...Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants."  Leviticus 25:8-10

One of God's Great Ideas!
By Rev. William Dohle

Good ideas are hard to come by.  Just ask any writer.  As a writer myself I struggle sometimes coming up with something original and unique.  Something that will make my reader go, "Wow!  I never thought of it like that!"  Because, by and large, most ideas are recycled from one source or another.

For example... I read Fantasy books, those are books that feature swords and sorcery, men in distress and maidens in armor, and vice-versa.  Every book I read, or probably ever will read, is somehow related to the original classic "The Lord of the Rings" which is itself based on the mythology stories of countless cultures.  Tolkien and every writer after him have arranged and rearranged the material, bringing a new story out of the old.

So they say... there is no such thing as an original idea.

But occasionally, whether original or not, an idea comes that is so outrageous, so incredibly unbelievably crazy, that it is received with a mixture of laughter and scorn.  When faced with an idea that wild, one must either dismiss it or embrace it.  There is no in-between.  That idea, for God, is the Year of the Jubilee.

Most people are unfamiliar with this biblical concept.  Rooted in the 25th chapter of Leviticus, it takes place on the 7th year of the 7th year.  Basically, every 49 years.  This year is a time of grace, hope, freedom, and celebration.  What must take place this year??

• "...everyone is to return to his own property." Because "The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.  Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide fo rhte redemption of the land."(25:23-24)
• Houses in the country, if purchased or acquired by someone, are to be returned.  "...houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as open country.  They can be redeemed and they are to be returned in the Jubilee."(25:31)
• Slaves sold into servitude are to be freed and released.  "...he and his children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee, for the Israelites belong to me as servants."(23:54-55)

In other words... debts are to be forgiven!  Stored crops are to be eaten.  No work is to be done on this year. For this year, which would have come but once in a lifetime, is a Jubilee, a gift of grace and freedom and liberty from God!

Can you imagine the celebration?!

Of course some scholars say it was just a dream...nothing more.  They say that the Year of Jubilee wasn't something that Israel ever did.  It was a good idea...but not practical.

We too have abandoned this notion. No matter how much we claim to be a "Christian nation" and want to "live by the Bible", few people have ever raised this issue up in our world today.  Perhaps it's because its just so radical, this grace given freely and without cost.  Perhaps it's because its so not-capitalist...this idea that everything belongs to God and we are just tenants and caretakers of it.

But what if this actually happened?  Can you imagine it...

• The World Bank announces a year of Jubilee...and forgives the debts of the poorest countries in this world who suffer with paying just the interest on the massive loans they have.
• Banks announce that student debt acquired up to this year is forgiven...no strings attached!
• Pawn shops are required to return the property that was sold to them from the many who sold it.
• Homes acquired in foreclosure are returned by the banks to their rightful owners...debt free!  The interest and all the fees on it forgiven.

Of course there'd be questions on how to do it and for whom?  But they could be answered.  How much debt should we forgive?  All of it!  Who would receive the grace?  Everyone!  How would we know if someone deserved it?  We wouldn't!  And it wouldn't matter!  Grace would be given to all.  Grace that comes from economics turned on its head.  For a year, the world would bask in the glow of grace for a single year, reveling in what it was like to live debt-free, unbound to anyone except God.

Not practical?  Maybe.  But, practical or not, I think the Year of Jubilee is what the Kingdom of God looks like here on earth.  If God were to bring that kingdom here on earth so we could see it, it would look like this!  Freedom from debt-collectors and their chains.  Freedom from the mistakes of the past.  Freedom for all!!

Maybe that's why Jesus, when speaking about his ministry says...

The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18-19)

In other words... God has sent Jesus(and us) to proclaim the promised Year of Jubilee!!  Our part?  Let's start by forgiving the debts owed to us... and then move on to the rest of the world!

God of Jubilee, God of dancing, your kingdom whispers to us, calling us to freedom and grace and hope and life.  Lead us that truly your kingdom may come, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.