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June 15 It is hard to imagine what it would have been like to hear the parable of the sower for the first time, particularly if you were a tenant farmer in debt to a landlord. To keep and feed his family, pay his tithes, and buy seed for the next year's harvest, a six-fold yield on the crop would just about keep the debt collectors away. A 10-fold yield marked a good year. Imagine them hearing about a harvest in which the crop yields were 30-, 60-, even 100-fold (Mark 4:8). Jesus is emphasizing again the theme of Jubilee, a reordering and redistributing of the good things of the Earth so that all humanity is able to live as God intends. How will this reign of justice be established? Samuel resisted the demands of the people for a king and saw the potential for oppression (1 Samuel 8). Saul fulfilled this prophecy, as did David whose succession promised hopes of change (1 Samuel 16:1-13). Justice can only be established as we refuse to consider anyone by human standards, and to recognize that God's intervention in the human story, through Jesus, is a message of continuous Jubilee, a perpetual year of favor from the Lord (Luke 4:19). Today's psalm is "for the king." If we are to turn it into a prayer for God's justice, we will need to recognize the implicit critique of power that is articulated in the words, "Some call on chariots, some on horses, but we on the name of the Lord our God" (Psalm 20:7). In the last analysis our only hope for justice is that "in Christ there is a new creation." Reflection and Action Who are those that need to benefit from a reordering and redistributing of the wealth of the Earth? How is your church practicing Jubilee? PETER B. PRICE is general secretary of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, an Anglican mission agency based in London, and practices—with his wife, Dee—a ministry of hospitality. |
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From Sojourners Online, copyright 1997 Sojourners. |
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