9 May 2010
Psalm 93, 96; Lev. 25:1-17; James 1:2-8,16-18; Luke 12:13-21

The Lord gives Moses instructions for the Sabbath and Jubilee years. These two commandments, as much as any of the other pieces of the law, will distinguish the Jews from everyone else. They are to live in radical trust such that every seventh year the land is to lie fallow and they are to live off the abundance of all that they have from the six prior years and whatever grows wild or natural in that seventh year. Every fifty years they are to do the same but they are also to give the land back to its original owners who have been given the land by the Lord in perpetuity. If anyone has lost his land due to an inability to pay debts, or has mortgaged the land, it is returned in this year. Mortgages were actually to be based on the productive capacity of the land for the number of years remaining until the jubilee year for this reason. Elsewhere, the Lord has said that the land actually belongs to Him, it is given as a leasehold to the people who serve Him. When they are sent into exile, it is partly to allow the land to rest for all the Sabbath and jubilees they have neglected. From the beginning the prosperity gospel has been a danger for the church, we like the stuff under creation.

The Sabbath and Jubilee years would have prevented an accumulation of wealth in some ways as they would also have limited the poverty among the people. Here, Jesus is first asked to divide an inheritance, something teachers were regularly asked to do as the laws were based on Biblical principles rather than in secular law. Jesus rejects the request for its basis in greed, the question is only asked if more is desired. He follows his answer with a parable meant for all who would hear. The man in the parable has been greatly blessed but his response to that blessing is to build bigger barns in which to store the abundance. Jesus says that instead we are to rest and be satisfied not in the provision but in the provider.

James speaks of how we bear up under testing and the necessity of faith. Faith is in the one who is the giver of every perfect gift, the one in whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. He is faithful and true to His nature revealed long ago on the mountain to Moses in Exodus 34 and more fully in the person of Jesus who promised that whatever we ask in His Name will be given to us. We can depend on receiving as we ask but what we ask for in His Name matters also. He is the one who taught the parable above and also the Lord’s prayer with the petition for daily bread as the Israelites in the wilderness received manna as their daily bread. What are you seeking from the Lord? Are we asking for that which will exalt Him and more fully form us into His image or are we seeking more of the stuff of earth?

Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!