Jubilee

Leviticus 25: 8-12

Romans 5 6-11

 Matthew 26: 26-28

Jubilee

What would you get if you crossed Civil War Generals Jubal Early and Robert E. Lee? "Jubilee", of course.  This weekend England—the British Empire—is celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  She has been monarch for 60 years.  Now traditionally, a Golden Jubilee celebrates 50 years of something, like a wedding anniversary, and a Diamond Jubilee celebrates 75 years of something, but for kings and queens an exception is made, so 60 years is the diamond celebration. That became official in 1897, the 60^th year of Queen Victoria’s reign, when it was decided by the powers that be in England that they needed a celebration. Things had not been going well for awhile there, so to bring about unity they celebrated her 60^th anniversary as Queen as the Diamond Jubilee.

Jubilee has since become a time of celebration, and we are tempted to think that Jubilee is a trip down memory lane; that Jubilee means looking backward and patting ourselves on our back for what we have done. For example, it is wonderful to celebrate 50 years of marriage.

But what is Jubilee all about anyway?  Well, it has biblical roots. We go back to the reading in Leviticus, chapter 25:

"Count off seven Sabbaths of years. Seven times seven years. So that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to a period of 49 years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you. Each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you. Do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a Jubilee and it is to be holy for you. Eat only what is taken directly from the fields."

The Biblical concept of Jubilee has nothing to do with looking back, it has everything to do with looking forward to where God is leading.  Biblically, Jubilee was about starting over.

We, as a church, and as Christians, are trying to be biblical. God told the Israelites to mark off fifty years and to declare a Jubilee. He told them, when the 50th year rolls around, blow the trumpet, the ram’s horn called the Shofar, and do it on the Day of Atonement. Fifty years from then, hopefully, the temple would be built, and on the Day of Atonement, the great high priest on that one day out of the year would go into the Holy of Holies in the Temple and make sacrifice for the people, bringing them together once again with their Lord and Maker.  Jubilee would be a celebration of starting all over, with no baggage from the past.

Atonement means reconciliation, becoming one with God, being made whole with him. Jubilee and atonement or reconciliation mean starting over again. For us as Christians, every day is a day of atonement where through the once, for all, sufficient, perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you and I can come into the holy of holies and be restored, start all over whole once again in our relationship with God. For us as Christians, Communion Sundays are an extra special day of atonement, for it is on Sunday that we gather together as the body of Christ and confess our sin (as we will do here) and be assured of God's pardon and forgiveness and gracious love. Through Holy Communion we are made at one with Christ again.

There is no evidence in scripture or anywhere else, that the children of Israel ever kept the year of Jubilee! Why?

Jubilee was to consist of basically 3 things. Three things were to happen on that 50th year that would make year 51 radically different from year 49. The first thing was this:  Release-- release of all of the slaves and bond servants.  The second was Reversion. The land was to revert back to its original owners.  The third thing was that the land was to lay Fallow for a year. They were not to cultivate. They were only to eat what grew wild in the field.

Now do you understand why the Israelites balked at ever celebrating the year of Jubilee? Release all the slaves and servants?  How on earth would they be able to get the work done, and live as they had been living for 50 years?  Turn all your land back over to the families from whom you had purchased it with hard earned money? How stupid an idea. And then, not plant, not cultivate for a whole year?  Even more stupid.  After 50 years of living with slaves and servants on land you purchased, depending upon what you grew for your food and income, how could you possibly give it all up and trust God for a whole year to provide while knowing you have to start all over with nothing? 

When you have built your whole way of life on a system of your own doing, when you think you know who you are and what you are doing, especially when you think you are comfortable, secure, it is difficult—almost impossible—to think of the kind of commitment that Jubilee requires.  But it is exactly what Christ calls us to do—be willing to give up everything if needed to serve God. Commit to starting all over, trusting that God will provide all we need.

So this is a special day. It is Holy Communion Sunday, and Christ is calling us forward into a new life, into an exciting new future. God is calling us to Jubilee. To step out and do some radical things for Jesus Christ. And the big question before us this day is "Will we balk?" By God's grace, we will not balk, but we will move forward into Jubilee, to make a difference in this world for Jesus Christ.

This table is the table of Jubilee. This morning, as we come forward for communion, I want you to make that your radical act of Jubilee if you are a Christian - you are coming forward because you are giving your life to Christ, you are reverting your life back over to Him, you are releasing your life into His care, you are seeking renewal, but also I want you to come with these words in your heart, "Lord I come here to trust you with everything I am and everything I have. I come turning the deed of my life over to you as my radical act of Jubilee." And Christ has amazing plans in store for those who do.

Amen