The Road to Jubilee

“The Road to Jubilee”

February 2, 2025 Cobleskill U nited Methodist Church, Pastor Anna Blinn Cole

Leviticus 25:1-19

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

We’re concluding our series on Wintering by hearing this rather summer-like scripture passage about growing and harvesting.  The important lesson in his passage is about how rest and equity for all are what we aspire to as a community of faith.  Listen now to the scripture about the “Year of Jubilee.” 

The Sabbatical Year

25 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a Sabbath for the Lord. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in their yield, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. 6 You may eat what the land yields during its Sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you, 7 for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

8 “You shall count off seven weeks[a] of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the Day of Atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. 10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all 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. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you: you shall not sow or reap the aftergrowth or harvest the unpruned vines. 12 For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.

13 “In this year of Jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. 14 When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another. 15 When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years until the Jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years. 16 If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price, for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you. 17 You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

18 “You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely. 19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely.

Ah, the Book of Leviticus.  Not often a book of the Bible that makes it to the list of favorites.  It’s so jam packed with details and particularities; it can be hard to grasp the actual message.  

Like in the passage we just heard, for example.  Lots of numbers and instructions. But underneath those specifics is a larger message, and one that is really, really important.  This is THE scripture about Jubilee and if Jubilee is a new term for you, then let’s hear more.  You see, the gist of scripture is this:  There should be seasons to your life as a community.  Time when you all work really hard and time when you rest.  The time of rest shall be called Jubilee and the rest won’t just be for some, it will be for all.  The workers, the bosses, the animals, the land itself, the ones in debt, the ones who don’t have enough to eat, and the ones who do, the ones who are slaves, and the ones who are not.  Jubilee means that there should always be time set aside from the laboring for rest and restoration: not just for some, but for all.  Literally, Jubilee means a trumpet blast of liberty.  

Leviticus goes into great detail in explaining the specific timing of Jubilee; that it should be “seven weeks of years,” 49 years total, and then finally an entire year of rest.  The deeper meaning of this math is significant because it’s basically the concept of weekly sabbath enlarged into a much bigger scale.  

We’re pretty far removed from this exact practice today.  We enjoy things like retirement and vacations, but what’s interesting to me about the biblical Jubilee is the way this “trumpet blast of liberty” is not an individual achievement won by merit or hard work, but a collective thing.  It’s liberty for everyone, not just for some.  It’s the animals and the earth and the ones at the bottom of the economy, too.

Jubilee may be an ancient practice and not part of our present reality, but I would still name it as the goal we should be striving toward.  It is the beloved community that Jesus would preach about thousands of years later.  It’s a new world of balance, equity, and kinship.  

Even though we’re not yet in a time of Jubilee, I do believe we are on the road there.  Meaning every day, I see this community of faith taking steps that bring us closer to a world of balance, equity and kinship.  

About 21 years ago… well, I guess however old Sam Lasher is…. 21, 22?  About the lifetime of a young adult ago, Lori Lasher had the idea of starting a thrift store at this church that could provide a place of equity and kinship among young parents.  The idea was that exchanging kids’ clothes and toys would bring people together to share what they had.  Lori named the thrift store exchange, “The Road to Jubilee,” so that it could be a path for joy and happiness, not just for some, but all.  When I asked Lori about the name and the concept this week, she told me about that focus on equity and restoration.  She also said, “Personally it provided a time for me to renew with three young children at home.  It became a focus for me to foster my relationship with God, our church and myself.”

In the 22 years since, the thrift store has continued to be a place of restoration, not only for the piles of stuff that finds a second or third life in someone else’s home, but also for the community that gathers there and shares in the promise of equity before God.  Rich or poor, everyone finds treasure.  

Every Sunday morning, I try to begin our time of worship by reminding us all why we’re here.  We are the beloved of God.  We belong in community.  And together we can be the difference in a hurting world.  And this simple reminder: Be loved-Belong- Be the Difference, forms our foot steps for walking on and staying on the road to Jubilee.  

Here's how it works:

God loves you.  There is no more fundamental truth than that.  It’s the heart of every line in the Bible and it’s the reason why Jubilee as a concept even exists.  

At Cobleskill United Methodist Church we take God’s love very seriously.  We believe that everyone needs to know about this love and that no one is excluded from this love.  And so to show the world and the community that they are beloved, we make our worship warm and inviting for all people.  We let this be a place where children are accepted with all their wiggles and all their questions.  We throw parties for the neighborhood as often as we can, whether it’s candy coming down a chute on Halloween or a Block Party on our lawn, an Egg Hunt for the neighborhood, or a blessing of the community’s animals.  We ask nothing in return.  We hope only to spread the news as widely as possible, that God loves you and there are no exceptions.  

This is the first footstep on the road to Jubilee. 

The next step comes after you embrace God’s love for you.  Once this is a truth that you can accept and celebrate for yourself, you see that the family of God is a place to call home; a place to belong.  And so here at Cobleskill UMC we try to find foot steps toward belonging.  We celebrate with people as they take the step of baptism.  We help friendships form over coffee hour snacks.  We train volunteers in leading children and youth programs where they can learn more about God and grow in their faith.  We organize small groups where people can get to know one another and explore big questions together: groups for parents, groups for fellowship, groups for grieving, groups for recovery, groups for Bible study, groups for reading inspiring books.  Helping people to know they belong is how we move closer to God’s Jubilee.  It’s another foot step toward kinship and shared restoration.

Finally, we come knocking on the door of Jubilee when we realize that our own belovedness and our own belonging has empowered us to share love and belonging with others.  It’s when our restoration prompts us to seek the restoration for those around us, especially those who are depleted.  This is how we can be the difference.  Because living in this world is not just about me.  It’s not just about you.  It’s about all of us.  And because we at Cobleskill UMC want to be the difference, we dedicate an entire wing of our church building to community outreach.  The thrift store that started in a small closet 22 years ago now expands into five rooms and it’s dedicated, amazing volunteers keep, literally, tons of stuff out of the landfill and on racks where the community comes to be delighted.  Our food pantry and its team of devoted helpers put food tables in homes across the neighborhood and our Fellowship Hall hums with children and adults all summer while they eat a healthy and delicious lunch.  Through advocacy and organizing, teams of people at this church seek to also be the difference in restoring relationships with those who are cast out, including solidarity with immigrants and full inclusion for LGBTQ siblings.  And finally, it may be a little unorthodox, but this church is being the difference at the dumpster, too. Thousands of pounds of soft plastic and many car and pig trailers full of Styrofoam were not thrown away because this church believes in God’s promise of Jubilee, where the earth, too, will not be forgotten.  

Sometimes it feels like we have a long way to go before we will reach God’s great year of Jubilee.  But winter is a good time to stop and reflect.  To take stock of the steps that have brought us this far, and to see that we are still moving in the right direction.  By God’s grace, let’s keep finding the endurance to put one foot in front of the other.   

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Anna