THE YEAR OF JUBILEE

I had a thought the other day about turning 50, which I turned earlier this month; I don't know what brought it on, but for some reason I remembered the Year of Jubilee (which means a time of shouting) that God commands the Israelites to observe , in Levitcus 25: ...you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all of its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces...

That certainly puts a different spin on turning fifty! The fiftieth year, the Jubilee year, is to be a sabbath year, a time of liberation, of returning to one's family, roots, property. The Jubilee is also a year of forgiving debts, a time of going home to who we truly are in God.

And so I am wondering: how many self-inflicted debts have I taken on over these 50 years? How many times have I said to myself: 'You can't do that.' 'You' no good at that.' 'You're not a handy person.' 'You can't handle money.' 'You never win anything.' 'You're not practical.' 'You are only a haphazard musician.' etc. These kinds of tapes I have been playing all of these years--they are like chains, like debts, are they not? To come to the Year of Jubilee and to hear the divine word calling: 'Time to give those up, Randy Scrivener! Time to go home! Time to shout 'freedom' to all the people! Time to remember who you are!' That has made turning 50 quite an exciting prospect! R