The Jubilee Year Concept

What would a Biblical Jubilee look like for a white, middle-aged, relatively rich, somewhat overweight American woman who wants to take her faith seriously?

I’m turning 50 this year, and I started thinking about the Biblical jubilee every 49 years (or some say 50).  And the concepts of forgiveness of debt, restitution, letting the land lie fallow after working it for years.

And I got intrigued with what it would look like to explore some themes in my own life that relate to Jubilee:

• Whom do I owe, and what would it take to forgive?
• How do I keep myself in debt?  What would it look like to forgive those debts?
• Who paid or pays a price for the nice life I live?
• What would it mean to not “harvest” but to let things “lie fallow” in my non-agrarian home?
• Do I need to make restitution somewhere?

And I started asking questions (and the list will grow):

• What are the themes of Jubilee metaphorically?
• What things do I always intend to do and how can I move from the road paved in good intentions to a highway of holiness?
• How does my level of consumption affect the world?
• What could I read to learn more about Biblical Jubilee?
• What, in the spirit of Jubilee, should I read and do to carry out these principles?

That’s a start.

This project has been a year (plus) of learning and doing (thus satisfying those in the “49th year” camp and those in the “50th year” camp).

The idea is to invite others along for the ride — in the hopes that we can explore together what a Jubilee might look like and how we could enact those things we’re convicted to explore.  I hope I can stimulate you to think about things differently (or thank you for already doing that and educating me).

Come along!