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Biblical and Theological Basis
for Jubilee
The
Oregon
working group of Jubilee USA Network is driven by awareness of
biblical moral and ethical vision, historical reality, and
contemporary experience. Faith
in a just and reconciling God underlies abiding commitment to act
together to remove economic oppression and share abundance.
The
biblical description of the Jubilee year, described specifically in
Leviticus 25, includes the concept that land is always God’s
possession and not sold in perpetuity.
Poverty is not to be cause for selling into slavery but in
jubilee years, every 50 years, Israelites are released and return to
their property. Evidence
shows jubilee practiced in cultures of the same area for the purpose
of maintaining political stability.
The
biblical context for jubilee as a means to keep peace may connect to
the history of the twelve tribes, e.g. Joseph sold by his brothers
into slavery is claimed and redeemed by God in
Egypt
and for the good of his whole family.
God’s covenant with the people, expressed in different
ceremonies, all point to permanent relationship with God and moral
responsibility in all relations.
For
Christians the ‘new covenant’ is sealed by the redeeming love
and forgiveness of Christ made concrete in early Christian
communities. It is
grounded in freedom from ‘the thrones and principalities’ of
this world similar to the central story of the Hebrew people’s
liberation of slavery in the Exodus.
God acts through relationship with the people who remain
faithful in spite of painful experience and the apparent conquest of
evil.
Holding
such values and faith in common across many cultures and religions
is at the heart of the worldwide Jubilee movement.
The Millennium Development Goals of the UN express the
tremendous challenge before us politically, environmentally,
technologically. Humanity
is created in God’s image. And
faith in God, understood as making the Sabbath for human beings--not
for humans to serve immoral, exploitive economic systems--makes all
things possible.
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