Sabbath and Jubilee
The biblical concepts of Sabbath and Jubilee help us remember that God offers us abundance, but that we need to place healthy limits, even on good things. When we do this, there is enough for everyone.
Key Insights
Abundance
God created a world of abundance, where there is enough for everyone. God invites us to enjoy in and share this abundance. |
Sabbath Limits
God tells us to place healthy and just limits on what we do and consume. God showed us how to rest from our work by doing so on the seventh day of creation. We need to place limits even on things that are good. |
Disparities of Wealth & Power
Human sin results in the unequal distribution and concentration of wealth and power. We must work to correct these disparities and ensure that everyone can share in the abundance, as God intended. |
Redistribution
God's recognition that human sin regularly creates inequality resulted in Jubilee directives, regular practices to redistribute wealth and power, known as "good news to the poor." |
Scarcity & Security
We find our security in God, not from ourselves. When we try to provide our own security, we live in a spirit of scarcity rather than abundance, hoarding and taking more than we need, depriving others of "enough". |
Quotations
The standard of economic and social justice is woven into the warp and weft of the Bible. Pull this strand and the whole fabric unravels. At the heart of this witness is the call to observe “Sabbath Economics.” At its root, Sabbath observance is about gift and limits: the grace of receiving that which the creator gives, and the responsibility not to take too much, nor to mistake the gift for a possession. Ched Myers
The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics We believe that the Sabbath-Jubilee mandates speak directly to the primary predicaments of our time: the destruction of the biosphere, the crushing burden of national and personal debts, the oppression of meaningless labor and the threat of unemployment, basic economic and social insecurity, and the spreading plague of consumerism, which is the motor that drives us all away from life as God intended it to be. Can it be that by digging into these mandates from ancient times we can find fundamental guidelines for the central concerns of our time? Why did Luke choose that special Jubilee text, Isaiah 61:1-2a, to explain the mission of Jesus in his inaugural sermon? Can it be that we too will find there the central meaning of our faith and vocation in today's world? What in fact does the bible have to say about the critical problems of daily living and human survival...? Can the biblical Jubilee offer us vital signposts through which we can identify and experience God's reign in our own lives and in our world here and now? Ross and Gloria Kinsler
The Biblical Jubilee and the Struggle for Life The jubilee was an ideal, a reminder that Yahweh, the creator of all, was the true owner of creation and that those who live in a covenant relationship with Yahweh must also seek right and just relationships with all people. The pious Israelite knew that the land was a gift from God. The land and all it signified -- work, material goods, financial security, the practices of economic and everyday life -- were to be understood within the context of one's relationship with God. All gifts of creation, including personal talents and abilities, first of all belong to God. The devout Israelite was a steward of God's goods. Natural resources and human talents were to serve all with a particular concern for the poor and weak. |
The "year of the Lord's favor" was a time to proclaim "liberty in the land for all" (Lev. 25:10), to "bring good news to the poor" and "let the oppressed go free." (Is. 61) It was a time to restore freedom and justice among people, to reestablish relationships of equality, remedy the conditions that kept people oppressed (Is.61), and to cancel debts (Deut. 15). The jubilee was intended to relieve the burdens of the weak and give people an opportunity to start anew. There was a clear social message in the jubilee. The jubilee year was an invitation for people to see their lives from a divine perspective: all that they were and all they did should be in accord with God's will for building a community of justice, mercy, love and peace. The Bible recognizes that inequalities will inevitably arise in "fallen" society—a realism it shares with the worldview of modern capitalism. Unlike the social Darwinism of the latter, however, the biblical vision refuses to stipulate that injustice is therefore a permanent condition. Instead, God's people are instructed to dismantle, on a regular basis, the fundamental patterns and structures of stratified wealth and power, so that there is "enough for everyone." This socioeconomic vision is articulated in a variety of ways in both testaments: through Exodus storytelling (Exodus 16), Levitical legislation (Leviticus 25), Deuteronomic exhortation (Deuteronomy 15), prophetic pronouncement (Isaiah 5), gospel parable (Matthew 25), and apostolic pleading (2 Corinthians 8-9). Ched Myers
Sojourners |
Child & Family Resources
Creation Care Kids / EarthKeepers Vacation Bible School
The Pastoral Center The EarthKeepers Vacation Bible School and Creation Care Kids Curriculum teach Sabbath and Jubilee principles to children and families. They were developed by the same people that created this Gospel Living site! |
Books
The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics
Ched Myers Ched Myers rescues the Hebrew Bible's traditions of Jubilee and Sabbath from the margins of contemporary theological discourse concerning economics. and re-reads them in a way that places them at the center of a new ethos and cosmology. He traces the witness of "Sabbath economics" through the life and teachings of Jesus and the early church. offering a compelling argument for why the Church today must offer alternatives to the dominant paradigms of economic theory and practice. Ideal for individual or group study. This book offers an accessible path to understanding the relationship between biblical faith and economics. To take this tradition seriously today will challenge disciples to revise their assumptions about prevailing economic practices, and renew their commitment to follow Jesus more faithfully in an increasingly hard-hearted, market-dominated world. (Amazon) Sabbath and Jubilee
(Understanding Biblical Themes) Richard A. Lowery Each book in this series provides an in-depth look at a major recurring theme in the Bible and its lasting theological influence. The series is designed to enhance the reader's understanding of our biblical heritage and its relevance to faithful life today. This book examines the biblical sabbath, sabbath-year, and jubilee traditions as part of a broader effort to reflect theologically on these challenges and points to ways we might build a global ethic of economic and environmental justice. (Amazon) |
The Biblical Jubilee and the Struggle for Life
Ross Kinsler and Gloria Kinsler Essential resource on how to transform self, church, and world in the Year of Jubilee and in the new millennium. (Amazon) Sabbath Economics: Household Practices
Matthew Colwell Expanding on the "Seven-Fold Covenant" developed by Ched Myers and Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, Presbyterian pastor Matthew Colwell offers a multi-faceted guide to living out the biblical vision of Sabbath Economics today. Full of practical resources and inspirational examples, it is ideal for individuals or groups looking to ground their finances and lifestyle in ecological and economic justice. (Amazon) |
Articles
- The Liturgy of Abundance, the Myth of Scarcity (Walter Brueggemann, Christian Century)
- God Speed the Year of Jubilee (Ched Myers, Sojourners)
- Various articles/pamphlets by Ched Myers on Sabbath Economics (some for purchase, some for free)
- Living Sabbath Values: Notes on Bible Study (Dale Stitt)
Organizations & Websites
- Sabbath Economics Collaborative - Valuable resources on the topic of Sabbath Economics and on members of the Sabbath Economics Collaborative, an informal network of people who cultivate the values of Sabbath Economics in their life and work.
- Bartimeus Cooperative Ministries - We are a group of believers committed to revisioning the relationship between the Word and our world, in order to help animate and build capacity for communities of discipleship and justice. Leaders in teaching Sabbath Economics, with extensive resources.
- Jubilee Economics Ministries - "Sustainable economics for one world, not five." Jubilee Economics works to promote practices, ideas, and stories for living economically on Earth, our one-planet home. We believe another world is possible when we: share resources fairly; reclaim the planet for future generations; hold sacred the interrelatedness of life; live intentionally in peace and community…in order that those with more will not have too much and those with less will not have too little— not someday, but now.
- Jubilee USA Network - Jubilee USA Network is an alliance of more than 75 U.S. organizations, 250 faith communities and 50 Jubilee global partners. It is building an economy that serves, protects and promotes participation of the most vulnerable. It has won critical global financial reforms and more than $130 billion in debt relief for the world's poorest people.
- Sabbath Manifesto - The Sabbath Manifesto is a creative project designed to slow down lives in an increasingly hectic world. We created 10 core principles completely open for your unique interpretation. We welcome you to join us as we carve a weekly timeout into our lives and to continue the momentum of the National Day of Unplugging throughout the year.
More about Sabbath & Jubilee
"The standard of economic and social justice is woven into the warp and welt of the Bible," writes Ched Meyers, "Pull this strand and the whole fabric unravels." Meyers coined the term "Sabbath Economics" in reference to the Biblical economy of grace and an observance of healthy Sabbath limits that keep individuals from taking too much.
God's abundant creation is enough to meet everyone's needs, and it is human sin that is responsible for disparities in wealth and power. The "good news" for the poor is that believers are called to address this reality through redistribution and collective ownership. We are to trust in God instead of trying to pursue elusive security or satisfaction elsewhere. When we do so, we are set free from the addictions and systems that otherwise enslave us. |
A world in which these ideals are put into practice sounds very much like the kingdom of God, as Jesus described it. The alternative is characterized by fear-motivated hoarding and great disparities in wealth. Let us look now at how Sabbath Economics helps us to love God, neighbor, and self.
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The Kingdom of God and the divine economy of grace:
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Scarcity, Security, and Interdependence
Both the Old and New Testaments address our tendency to put our security in things other than God. Today we fixate on insurance, retirement savings, available credit, supplies for natural disasters or terrorist attacks, the legal system, medications, guns to protect our homes, and missiles and armies to protect our country. While reasonable preparedness is not bad, an increasing preoccupation with fear, scarcity, and "security"—particularly in a post-9/11 world—shifts focus away from God and meeting the immediate needs so many of the marginalized have today.
These axioms are developed throughout the Bible. Through the manna feedings in the desert, God instructs Israel on how to work with a "divine economy of grace": gather just what you need, don't store any up, and exercise Sabbath discipline by not gathering on the seventh day (trusting that God will provide nonetheless). Exodus calls for fields to lie fallow every Sabbath (seventh) year, so that the poor can eat, and Deuteronomy adds in debt-release that allowed hope for those caught in the cycle of poverty. The Levitical Jubilee year, taken every "Sabbath's Sabbath" (49th/50th year), included debt release, returning lost land to its original owners, and freedom for slaves. |
These Sabbath/Jubilee values are central to Jesus' teaching. In Luke's gospel, Jesus makes his public debut by reading Isaiah's description of a Sabbath year (Lk. 4:16-21). Six times in the four gospels Jesus oversees a feeding in the wilderness reminiscent of the Exodus story, where his followers discover there is enough for everyone. He tells parables of wealth that are confusing to our modern ears, but that his audience of peasants would have heard as inverting the power structures and economic systems. He brings "good news" to the poor, calling for economic justice. The Kingdom of God sounds like a time and place that runs by Sabbath Economics.
In Acts of the Apostles, the first Christians modeled redistribution of wealth to those in need (Acts 2:42-47). Paul likewise held up Sabbath Economics values, expecting the early Christian communities to live out alternative models. He called for giving resources to the poor and treating persons as equals despite social and class barriers. He also rejected the patronage model of the time by choosing to support himself with a trade (see The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics by Ched Myers). The Sabbath Economics thread woven through scripture addresses the human tendency to fear scarcity and to put our trust in resources that we build up for ourselves. God instead calls us to interdependence within community—the Body of Christ—and to trust that God has provided enough to meet everyone's needs if they are distributed fairly. We model and experience this in community when we gather at a single table to receive Eucharist. Unfortunately, our communities continue to exhibit the same inequality and exclusivity that Paul lambastes (1 Cor. 11:17-22). |
Jesus feeds many in the wilderness:
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Catholic social teaching uses the principle of the common good to teach Sabbath economics values. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church defines the term as follows:
The principle of the common good, to which every aspect of social life must be related if it is to attain its fullest meaning, stems from the dignity, unity and equality of all people. According to its primary and broadly accepted sense, the common good "indicates the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily. [Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2004, 164.] |
The Common Good
This principle can apply to the choices of individuals, but it is also commonly applied to societal responsibilities and the political realm.
The implications of this theme are fundamental ones. It questions the very goals many are pursuing in their lives, relating to issues such as career, wealth, and family. It rejects the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) mentality, consumerism, and competitiveness common today. It also can be applied to almost every major political issue, from social security to war. |
Resources for faith and politics:
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