28.01.18 – Leviticus 25:1-13 – The Sabbath of Sabbaths

Snakes and Ladders At home we have this old fashioned Snakes and Ladders board game, complete with a tear down the fold line from countless years of boundless fun and frustration.

There is nothing quite like getting a couple of lucky roles and smugly leading the pack, only to end up on snake and suffering the shame of sliding back down the board below everyone else.

We often play Snakes and Ladders at the Bible Study we run for the Young Adults around the traps. They think it’s just for fun, but really, it’s a teaching tool. You see, this old fashioned Snakes and Ladders board is complete with moral lessons and consequences for actions – both positive and negative.

If you look closely you will see that: Industry leads to Success Indulgence leads to Illness And Indolence leads to Poverty.

Eleanor, who was a med student on practicum here in Tauranga last year, said once, ‘surely it’s not just indolence that leads to poverty, but also bad social policy that leads to poverty.

We played Snakes and Ladders last Wednesday night and three times I was caught being indolent. I begged to differ, because really, I worked hard to be in the leading position I was in. I rolled sixes and earned extra turns. I was Thrifty which lead to Fulfilment on the 85th square via a shortcut which saved me 44 steps. And then I was accused of being indolent! I had worked hard for my position!

We also have this rule where if you land on someone then you jump them back to half their score. If I were to land on Dani who was also impoverished on the 64th square, then she would be sent backwards to number 32. And if Joe was also on that square because his patience had led to attainment, then he would be sent back to number 16 regardless of his prior expressions of good Christian character.

As you can imagine, the game took a very long time. So we had to introduce another new rule. For one round the Game Master declared a Jubilee, where each role was doubled. If you rolled a four, you would move 8 spaces.

One Jubilee round wasn’t enough though. We continued playing with our modified rules and a second Jubilee was announced. This time there was a winner. I can’t for the life of me remember who it was. I just remember that we all celebrated because finally it was over.

The Jubilee was interesting, because somehow it seemed unfair when another person inherited more from the Jubilee than you did. If Hayley rolled a six and moved 12 places to land on a ladder where her Penitence lead to Grace and the 98th square, only to have another turn because she rolled a six. Yet, if I only rolled a 1 to move two spaces and sit precariously between two snakes and a cluster of other players who could land on me at any moment and send me back, how was that fair!

I know a Jubilee is meant to be a celebration, but what about that feeling that others get a better deal out of it than me?

Jubilee In Leviticus, the Jubilee Year was meant to have occurred every 50 years in Israel. For the second year in a row the land was to lie fallow, all debts were to be forgiven, all slaves were to be freed, and liberty was to be proclaimed throughout the land to all the people.

The land was to rest as a reminder that God provides. The land was to be returned to its original owners so that everyone had a way of earning a living. The people were to rest from full on agricultural work and were to return home to their families and their Turangawaewae – their firm place to stand.

Logistically, can you imagine it? It actually sounds like a bit of a nightmare. If I had been around at the time, I wonder how I would have felt about it. If I were the daughter of a wealthy landowner who had been in a position to purchase many properties from his kinsmen when they were in financial need and keep them on as servants and workers, then I would view the Jubilee Year through a particular lens. If my father had accumulated much property and wealth then, as a woman I wouldn’t be able to lay claim to it, but I would be secure in the knowledge that I was provided for. But, what if the 50th year rolled around and I was faced with the knowledge that the ease of life as I knew it was up for grabs?

Or, what if I was a slave girl, whose father’s father had sold his land as a means of providing for his family temporarily. What if I was far from home, serving another family – being provided for and cared for, sure, but with no ability to change my situation. When the 50th year rolled around, would I wallow or would I rejoice?

One commentator explains that,

“The Jubilee was designed to restore economic equity to the structures of society that, then as now, become distorted over time, shifting wealth and power into the hands of a few.” (Brian C Jones)

The Year of Jubilee was designed as a leveller in an economic sense, and as a reminder that all good things come from God who is our provider and our sustainer.

However, there is no evidence that the Year of Jubilee ever actually happened. Jeremiah 34 tells us that ‘when King Zedekiah tried to institute the practice it was circumvented by the people’ (Roy Harrisville). I cannot imagine why!

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Debate Do you remember this time a year ago when I told you that we had to replace the carpet in the sanctuary because there was so much spilled wax from our Christmas Eve service, and that we had two options, to replace the carpet with grass or with sand?

Well, there is wax on the carpet again because we can’t help but have candle light at Christmas Eve. As a side note, if anyone wants to bring in their iron and help me suck out the wax with paper towels again, let me know.

Anyway, I digress.

Do you remember how a year ago we had a debate between the Grassites and the Sandhedrin? Well, we are going to do a similar thing today. Though, this is not exactly a debate, but more of a hui within the community. Think of it as a family group conference on a large scale.

This half of the church, you are wealthy land owners. Some of you are God fearing Hebrews, and some of you are greedy Hebrews. You have counted 7 Sabbath Years and it is time for a Year of Jubilee where you will return your land to its original owners, you will free your slaves, and you will cancel any debts owing you.

This half of the church, you are servants and slaves. Some of you are God fearing Hebrews and some of you are greedy Hebrews. Some of you aren’t even Hebrew, you are aliens in the land. It is time for the Year of Jubilee where you will return to the land of your forefathers and foremothers, those of you who are in slavery will be set free, and those of you with debts large and small, will be forgiven.

In small groups with those around you talk about what the suggestion of a Jubilee Year would mean for you, your family, and this community. After a few minutes we will open up the floor and there will be an opportunity for each group to express their option and perspective.

Remember, you have just had a Sabbath year, some of you are God fearing and some of you are not, yet we will all act with decency, order and respect.

Question: What would a Jubilee Year mean for you?

[Discussion]

St Peters Jubilee This year, at St Peters, we are going to have a Jubilee of sorts. The years don’t exactly line up but, well, the Israelites probably never did it anyway, so we can’t be accused of not doing it property. And there is already a precedent of calling for an extraordinary Jubilee when it falls outside of ordinary time.

There has been a building on this plot of land for 140 years. There has been a parish, a collection of people here in Tauranga, for 150 years. For the last decade or more this land has been carved up and carved into and we have been blessed by these buildings and the big trees and our blue cross.

This has all come at a cost – we have given and gathered millions of dollars, we have served for hours, days, years – which, accumulated, may even be 50 years or more.

This year we want to celebrate all that God has done among us. We want to give thanks to God for his provision. We want to retire our debt and give rest to the weary and offer opportunities for everyone to earn a living. We want to be free from the tyranny of the urgent and take only what we need from each moment and each day.

You see, the idea of the Jubilee year is to take from the land only what you need, don’t store, don’t sell, trust God and be free.

I find it interesting that in our game of Snakes and Ladders it is indolence, laziness that leads to poverty. One Commentator says that “if Israel had followed this practice faithfully, [that is, the practice of the Jubilee Year, then] they would have been a society without permanent poverty.” (NIV Study Bible).

So, it is not just indolence, laziness or inactivity that leads to poverty. It’s not just bad social policy that leads to poverty. It is also a lack of rest, over activity and an inability to be still that leads to poverty.

There are many forms of poverty. Economic poverty is just one. We can experience social poverty, relational poverty, time poverty, spiritual poverty.

The question is: what necessity of life are we lacking? What do we need to be set free from?

Are we enslaved to busyness and productivity because industry leads to success?

Are we slaves to never-ending ladders, trying to get higher and higher off the ground so we are further and further from our insecurity, only to find we carry it with us?

Are we caught in a trap of comparing ourselves to others and comprising our integrity in the vain hope that people will like us?

Are we busy trying to be God, bringing order to our chaotic lives and storing up our possessions because we don’t really believe that God will provide for us tomorrow let alone in our time of need?

Are we frantic and frazzled and wearing our busyness as a badge of honour?

If we are doing that, what are we saying to those who have a healthy work-life balance? Are we accusing them of being indolent when it’s not true, when they do work hard and they do rest well. Are we sending them down the game that we have made life into and taking pride in our high position?

What if we acknowledged our own poverty and our need to be reliant on God’s provision?

What if we made time for joy and celebrated our God who has forgiven us, set us free and reunited us?

You see, there is good news. Jesus Christ has come to proclaim liberty to all the people.

There is a bigger picture to the Year of Jubilee, and Jesus nails it, so to speak.

Right at the beginning of his ministry, just after he has been baptised, he returns home, to the land he belongs to. He stands up in the synagogue and reads from the scroll of Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lords favour.

The Year of the Lords Favour is a reference to the Year of Jubilee. This is accomplished in the work of Jesus, in his life, his death, and his resurrection. Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus heals bodies, minds and spirits. In his death, all debts of sin are paid. In his resurrection he sends his Spirit to his dispersed and scattered family and we are gathered and united to God and to one another again.

This year I am issuing a challenge, a dare for our Jubilee Year: Be free. I dare you to be free, not because of anything we do, but because of who God is and what God has done. I dare us to give ourselves a break. I dare us to stop trying to be God and start trying to trust God. God is our provider. God is our peace.

Over the last week I have been listening to a song by Bethel over and over:

Slow down, take time, Breathe in. He said He’d reveal what’s to come The thoughts in his mind Always higher than mine He’ll reveal all to come

Take courage my heart Stay steadfast my soul He’s in the waiting He’s in the waiting Hold on to your hope As your triumph unfolds He’s never-failing He’s never-failing

Sing praise my soul Find strength in joy Let his words lead you on Do not forget His great faithfulness He’ll finish all he’s begun.

Take courage my heart Stay steadfast my soul He’s in the waiting He’s never failing

People of St Peters, in 2018 let us proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. Let’s proclaim liberty to all who inhabit this space – 130 Spring Street. Let us proclaim liberty to Tauranga and to our nation – the Land of the Long White Cloud where God has come to dwell. This shall be a jubilee for you.