Why Platinum Jubilee?

Jubilee comes from the Hebrew word 'yôḇēl' ( ram's horn), which when blasted signals the beginning of the Jubilee year. Leviticus 25 gives the significance of the Jubilee year. The Israelites were to count off seven sabbaths of years amounting to forty nine years, and consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty or release throughout the land. This 50^th year shall be the year of Jubilee. The concept of Jubilee is thus inseparably linked to Sabbath year – the year after the sixth year. In Old Testament terms this Jubilee year is thus to be observed every fiftieth year.

In Luke 4 when Jesus invokes the writing of Isaiah's use of the concept of Jubilee, he sets a paradigm shift about Jubilee. Jubilee is no longer going to be consecrated in a cycle of fiftieth year, but its significance is to mark the lives and character of the church everyday. In Jesus a new day is dawn – the Jubilee year is for every single day. Given this significance, Jubilee year is not really about organising a grand programme once in fifty years. The idea of organising a grand programme called Jubilee on the fiftieth birthday of the church is not quite the most appropriate way to mark the significance of Jubilee. Tagging 'Silver', 'Golden', 'Diamond' or 'Platinum' before Jubilee does seem to make it even less significant. The world has made 25^th anniversary as Silver Jubilee or the 60^th year as Diamond Jubilee. But Jubilee for the Old Testament Israel was meant for the cycle of every 50^th year. Israel then failed to practise it faithfully is a different matter – just as the church today perhaps fails to live up to the significance Jesus taught and demonstrated in his three and half years of ministry.

As given in the Leviticus, the Jubilee year must be a year when the slaves are set free. Bonded labourers, to use a modern terminology, are to be set free and be given a new beginning. The land also must be left uncultivated, and the people are to eat on what grows naturally – trusting in the Lord to provide for their needs. The land sold, say, to due economic hardship is to be returned to the original owner thus setting a pattern for a fairly egalitarian society. Jubilee year thus sets a pattern for the Israelites society to be fairly egalitarian. The New Testament pattern does not specify all the detail but the significance of the Leviticus text is embedded when Jesus pronounces the dawning of the Jubilee year as he reads the book of Isaiah.

Given this theological significance, what kind of envisioning and implementation takes place when a grand programme on Jubilee is being organised by a church in our society? Do we see those who are into drugs and alcohols being released from the bondage to freedom? This is highly unlikely because addiction of this sort generally requires treatment longer than a three-four days of grand Conference. But do we see people being set free from greed and selfishness that often are responsible for oppression of the poor and the helpless? Or to put it differently, do we see through such Jubilee programme the poor and the helpless being set free from their misery? Do we see the sick being healed and cared for as an outcome of a grand event called Jubilee? What kind of changes do we observe in the lives of the people and the larger society through massive spending on an event called Jubilee except for the fact that the particular church hosting the programme is now much poorer? Unless the programme triggers renewal in the lives of the church members, organising Platinum Jubilee appears to be a waste of resources.

The more important point, however, is that Jubilee should not really be about an event; the message of a Jubilee year must become part of our lives. As an individual and as a corporate body – the church – the message of the Jubilee year that releases people from all sorts of bondages – greed, hatred, poverty, sickness, pride etc. – must be practised and be observed in our living. Thus the significance of a Jubilee year is not in organising an event, but in being a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. The resources are worth spent on an event called Jubilee if it helps the people enlarge their understanding of who Yahweh is and become ethically better. The growth in understanding is to enable the person live more beautifully, ethically correct. To that end if an event to remind the people of the significance of the Jubilee year is organised once in fifty years, it makes sense; otherwise, it makes no sense. It makes no sense all the more if an event called Platinum Jubilee is organised 25 years after the last Jubilee without taking into consideration the purpose of Jubilee as taught and showed to us by Jesus Christ.

( This article appears  @ Hornbill Express on 26th January, 2015) 

Work, Rest and Worship

Work is an essential feature of human lives. A person without work is not really living a meaningful life. The nature of work differs from person to person according to age, location, qualification, gender etc. Some drive, some fly, some act, some plough, some teach, some cook – all performing different kinds of work. The immediate outcome of the work differs just as the remuneration for the work differs. For some the work is enjoying; for others, it is not. For some the work brings good health to the person within and without; for some others the work destroys the person within and without. Some work sixteen hours at a stretch and make meagre amount; while some other work for eight hours and make massive amount. The differences notwithstanding, all must work.

The biblical viewpoint on work is that it is God's design. The first human persons were to care for the 'garden'. Caring a 'garden' would involve digging, planting, pruning and so on; and these activities are work. Even today for many people work is not about driving down to the heart of the city and sitting in a climate controlled room before a computer. For most people work would involve physical exertion and sweating. Human life is not just about sleeping and friendship, but also about acquiring hobbies and spending time in recreation. Music, poetry, art, gardening, philosophy, writing, reading etc. are hobbies and recreational activities that enthrall human souls. For the first humans, to care for the garden – or rather, to work in the garden – would have been activities that enthrall their souls. The work was for them God's design to appreciate and enjoy. But with disobedience – the Fall – came the thorns and thistles; harsh life and death. Work would no longer taste sweet and enjoying. However, the message of Christmas brings hope that Jesus came to reverse the effect of disobedience.

The idea of rest and corporate worship on the seventh day is embedded in the Christian Scripture. Six days we are to work; and on the seventh day, take time to rest and also gather together for corporate worship. Work, rest and corporate worship are part and parcel of Christian living.

For an individual Christian, her calling as a follower of Christ is wholesome. Her work and rest that constitute her engagement for most of her time too are part of that wholesome calling. Given that work and rest are God's design, when she performs her work or take rest, she is fulfilling God's design, God's plan. When she drives, cooks, teaches, flies etc., she is pleasing the Lord. For a person who follows Jesus Christ, except for evil deeds, there is no work that is worldly or bad. Shoe polishing, car washing, rice transplanting, bamboo growing etc. are all sorts of human activities that God takes pleasure to see and be pleased. Expression of human worship to God is not only about singing a hymn in the church or to say a prayer for the sick; to worship God includes pleasing God through our work and rest. God takes equal delight in seeing his children come for corporate worship on Sunday and getting back to field the rest of the week.

Take your given work as part of your expression of your worship and devotion to God. If you are a doctor, your spiritual act of worship includes reporting for duty on time and giving treatment to your patients with care; if a cultivator, sowing the seed or harvesting the corn are expressions of one's worship to God; the same principle applies to all sorts activities that we call call as work. Hair cutting may be an activity requiring monetary transaction in certain cities; while it may not be so in other places. Monetary transaction does not strictly informs us what work consists of or otherwise. Activities that are morally good and those that contribute to human flourishing are God ordained and thus please him. Learning to enjoy one's work to please God is as important as learning a hymn to sing to please God.