August 5 2023

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.

From Leviticus 25:1,8-17, NRSV

In today’s reading we hear the instructions given to Moses about a jubilee year to be held once every fifty years. This was to be a year during which the people were to recognise and trust in their dependence on God. They were not to sow crops – the land was to lie fallow and the people were to live only on what grew naturally or what had been stored. Not only did this ensure that they trusted in God to provide, but it also allowed the land to remain fallow and be renewed. People were to be honest in carrying out land deals. Any land that had been sold or  changed hands during the previous fifty years was to be returned to the original owner. This meant that the poor did not lose all their rights and the rich could not have a monopoly of ownership. This was also to be a year of liberation for all. So for one year in fifty, there was an and to slavery, captivity, poverty and freedom from exhausting physical toil on the land. Here was God’s opportunity to show care for every person and for the land on which they depended.