Most tea towels hang over the oven door, or on a peg by the kitchen sink, or even in a kitchen drawer; but we have two that hang on the kitchen wall as decorations. They mark the coronation of King Charles III and the Jubilee celebration of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. We also have jubilee mugs and plates, and water glasses. Among our coffee mugs is one marking the Iowa Diocese Cathedral’s triple jubilee anniversary.
It is natural for us to mark life in chunks of time – with special attention paid to those years that represent a portion or more of a century. Donna and I attended the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, just before we came to the United States, and we met up with friends on the Mall outside Buckingham Palace for her Golden Jubilee. In Iowa my first year as Bishop involved three celebrations to acknowledge the 150th year of the Diocese, with services at each end of the state and in Des Moines. The celebrations culminated in the mother church of the diocese where 150 years earlier the first Convention was held.
I admire people who live with a spirit of Jubilee. I think of Amy’s weekly opportunities for giving thanks for the “journey of another 365 (or 366) turns around the sun”. The alternative is to take life for granted, and that is a path we are all tempted to take because the receiving of life as a daily gift requires discipline of mindfulness. Maybe that is why a rendering of the Lord’s Prayer as a daily act is significant. All the elements of Jubilee which we have been considering are to be found there, especially that daily reminder of “give us this day our daily bread’ with its implied combination of gratitude and sufficiency. And the significance of living a life freed from guilt and resentment as we pray “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”.
“You shall count off seven weeks of years, so that the period of seven weeks of years, gives forty nine years. Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud….you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year… For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you” (Leviticus 25: 8-9, 12a)
The Jubilee practices that we have been thinking about – resting the land (and ourselves), forgiving and releasing of debts and of indebtedness, experiencing freedom from and for what, and working justice and the repair of the world – all link up and are expressed, in the end, with jubilation. It is no surprise that the final chapter of “Proclaim Jubilee”, the Lenten book by Maria Harris that has been a guide for these reflections, is entitled: Sing a new song, the canticle of jubilation.
Harris describes four reasons for jubilation. “We celebrate Jubilee today because the times demand it”, she writes. (Her reference is to the turn of the millennium. We at Grace are embracing our 150th year, our triple Jubilee. This time demands it of us). Secondly, “we celebrate Jubilee as a response to the challenges” of a turning century. Again, for us at Grace, to celebrate 150 years is a response to the challenges of being Church over those years have brought us, and to the challenges of being Church and the people of God now at this point in history and moving forward.
Harris asks: “Where does liberation claim us? How shall we practice connectedness? What demands does global suffering make on us? What artistic powers do we possess? What contributions will we make to the task of repairing the world?” I would add, how can these be our Jubilee questions and tasks?
She continues: “As their adherents are teaching us today, the Jubilee traditions are profound religious responses to these questions. As part of our spiritual, moral and religious heritage, we have received the power that lies in Sabbath, in forgiveness, in release of captives, in justice and in jubilation” (Proclaim Jubilee, p. 100)
The third element is that celebrating Jubilee “acknowledges that the world continues to be charged with the grandeur of God and that the Holy Spirit continues to brood over the bent world with warm breast and with ah! Bright wings. Proclaiming Jubilee is an act of faith, an act of hope, and an act of conviction that grace, goodness and holiness exist, even though none of them has triumphed fully”.
And finally, we celebrate Jubilee to give thanks to God. Our proclamation of “Jubilate” is always “Jubilate Deo”!
Paul was writing to the Philippians from a Roman prison when he proclaimed: “Rejoice always in the Lord, and again I say rejoice”. (Philippians 4:4) In the context of a Jubilant life, it is worth reading on: “Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God. And the peace of God which surpasses understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”. (Phil 4: 5-7)
What experiences or memories have you had of the jubilant spirit expressing itself in your life and the life of the Church? For me it is where I have allowed my life with its anxiety and urgency to lie fallow; where I have been touched with the forgiving love of God or at least have allowed God’s words of forgiveness to come alive to me beyond my stubbornness, or even shame and guilt; where I have “let go and let God” – yes, I have done the spiritual “Frozen” song thing and refused to continue as God’s frozen chosen and yielded to the Spirit’s “warm breast and with ah! bright wings”; and where I have fought for the dignity and justice of others.
We are in our Jubilee moment as Grace Church. And we are heading into Holy Week – where, as the apostle Paul says again in his correspondence to the Philippians, we are invited to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings that we may enter into the power of His resurrection. Being Christian is a joy-filled life. It is incarnated Jubilee.
Let us give Marria Harris the last word: “And now as we listen carefully to the command to sound the trumpet, we find still another meaning sedimented in it, one that is deeply personal. Recalling that the “land” in Jubilee always includes the “land” that we are, the words “you shall have the trumpet sound throughout your land suggests that we ourselves are Jubilee land!…. not only is the fiftieth year a Jubilee, so is all of life, if we let it. (P. 96) In other words, Jubilee is a guide for every person, every day, and it proclaims your very existence is Jubilee.
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