Jubilee

I can’t say that I read the business section of the paper very carefully, but as I skimmed it yesterday, an article caught my attention. I had this morning’s Scripture readings fresh in my mind, especially Paul’s words in Romans about debt. What does Paul mean when he talks about being a debtor to the flesh, living in debt according to the flesh? And then I saw the headline for this article. It was in that Wall Street Journal section of the weekend paper. The headline ran, "Are We What We Owe?" It described Debbie, a college graduate in her early 30’s who fears that no one will marry her because of her debt. As she approaches any relationship, she feels that her $20,000 debt hangs like a dark cloud, a secret stigma that she does not want to disclose. The article went on, ultimately, to conclude that one partner’s debt entering into a marriage can indeed have very significant short term and long term repercussions. But what’s interesting theologically is how Debbie identifies with her debt. In her mind, her debt is as much a part of who she is as, say, her family might be. Are we what we owe?

Maybe this is one example of what Paul is talking about. When we come to see our own identity in terms of what we owe, then we are indeed debtors to the flesh. Jesus came to free us from such indebtedness.

To whom are you indebted? Or to what? What debts do you owe? It’s a broad question, and it encompasses much more than financial obligation. Probably almost all of us have financial obligations, indebtedness. For most of us, our financial debts are of a manageable size. We entered into them voluntarily, and we benefit from the cars and homes we could not acquire any other way. Put those debts aside in your mind and think of other ways in which you feel indebted. What sort of sentences would you begin, "I owe it to…" I owe it to my parents to make something of myself. I owe it to my country to put a flag in the window. I owe it to my spouse to remain faithful. I owe it to my family to provide for them financially. I owe it to my children to ensure that they participate in every school and extra-curricular activity that other children participate in. This sense of obligation is strong in most of us, and most of its goals are commendable. But… Is it really good to have indebtedness, obligation, loom like a great shadow over our relationships with others? Is this what it means to be debtors to the flesh?

I invite you now to consider the other side of this indebtedness question. Who do you feel is indebted to you? What do you feel that other people, or the world in general, is obligated to provide to you? What are you owed in life? These are the sentences that begin, "I deserve…" I deserve. Because of who I am, or what I’ve done, or what I’ve given, or just because I say so, I deserve… You owe me. We say those words and think those thoughts all the time. We may say them apologetically or angrily. We may say them with pitiful meekness or haughty presumption. I deserve… Sometimes we may camouflage them with noble self-righteousness. We may justify them with a host of specific rationalizations. Or we may not think they need camouflaging or justifying. I deserve. You owe me. As Christians we are called to uphold and promote justice. And it may seem that expecting obligations be fulfilled within the world is an enforcement of justice. But it’s not quite the same. Forcing others into a position of indebtedness. Even if it’s only in our mind, once again we have brought this sense of obligation in to dominate our relationships with others.

As this new millennium was dawning a few years back, many Christians around the world began to speak of Jubilee. That’s a wonderful word we don’t use very much any more. It reminds me of a folk song about an old time family/community get-together on the river with clowns, children, music, dancing.

"Jubilee, wasn’t it a jubilee?
They were singing out together,
They were shouting revelries.
Jubilee, Lord, wasn’t it a jubilee?

They were dancing by the river,
They were dancing by the sea.
They were bouncing all the babies
Up and down upon their knees.
They were laughing out happy,
They were crying out free.
Jubilee, Lord, wasn’t it a jubilee?" [Bill Staines]

Even the folk song knows that somehow the Lord is mixed up in this idea of jubilee. The song describes a gathering of people characterized by happiness and freedom; no cloud of interpersonal obligation or indebtedness darkens the jubilee. In most Christian churches, Jubilee 2000 dealt very concretely with efforts to promote debt cancellation in so-called third world countries. Debt cancellation. Freedom from debt is part of jubilee. The idea of Jubilee comes from Scripture, out of the Jewish idea of Sabbath. Every seventh day is the Sabbath day; every seventh year is the Sabbath year, and after seven times seven years is the year of the Lord’s favor, the Jubilee.

Sabbath and Jubilee. Writing in 1999 about Jubilee 2000, Presiding Bishop Griswold wrote: "The essence of Jubilee is related to suspending patterns—patterns of work, patterns of domination, patterns of acquisition." Sabbath or Jubilee is a time when "we call a truce in all the personal and social conflicts which exist between us and enter into a renewed awareness that all is gift, nothing is possession. In recognition of this fact, all patterns of usefulness, control and self-generated productivity are suspended as we enter into the Sabbath rest. Members of one’s household, slaves and servants and even one’s animals are released from their tasks, and all are allowed to find their proper balance and relationship in union with God and one another. On the Sabbath we are liberated from acquisition and self-definition in terms of what we can do; what we can control; what we can dominate." As Bishop Griswold points out, debt is all about control and power. To be in debt is to be under another’s power. To look at others in terms of what they owe us is to seek domination or control over them.  (Click here to read Bishop Griswold's full comments.)

But in Jubilee all is gift. Nothing is possession. It isn’t so much about having our debts forgiven or laying aside our expectations that others pay their debts to us. It’s about suspending our entire participation in a world in which debts exist. It's about stepping out of a world in which indebtedness is the coinage of relationships.  Jubilee is about celebrating a world in which all is gift, given freely in love, with no expectation of obligation or return. All is gift; nothing is possession. In such a world indebtedness is not possible.

In this Jubilee world no sentences begin, "I owe it to…" Rather, sentences begin, "Let me share what I have been given out of God’s bounty. I give you my time, my care, my gifts because I love you, not because I owe you." In this Jubilee world there are also no sentences that begin "I deserve… You owe me…" It is a world where earning and acquiring are less important than receiving and celebrating. It is a world where relationships are not characterized by the control or domination of indebtedness, but rather find their right balance in union with God. It is a world where love shines upon and motivates our relationships with others.

We have no evidence that the ancient Jews ever truly celebrated the Jubilee year as a practical reality. But Jesus has opened this Jubilee world to us. Jesus offers us this world where who we are is no longer defined in terms of what we can do; what we can control; what we can dominate; what we can or cannot acquire. We are not what we owe. Neither are we defined by what we are owed. We are free from the debts of the flesh.

But to experience Jubilee, we must, as Griswold says, suspend the normal, familiar, pervasive patterns of our lives. We must suspend all patterns motivated by usefulness, domination and acquisition. "For if we live according to the flesh, we will die; but if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, we will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."

Joint heirs with Christ. God’s own heirs. We are heirs to a wonderful new world. As Bishop Griswold concludes: "May we, in ever deepening union with Christ, become jubilee people from head to toe who live and proclaim not just a year but new age of the Lord’s favor." Jubilee.

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