Does God Hate the American Dream?

This morning I want to talk about the Israelite celebration of Jubilee. I’m sure you’ve heard of it and I know you may have songs that reference the year of Jubilee. But what actually occurred in the year of Jubilee?

The year of Jubilee occurred every 49 years. Throughout the year of Jubilee it was as if all of the injustices and unbalances that occurred in the nation of Israel over the past half of a century were completely reset.

In the year of jubilee all debts were cancelled completely wiped free. Whether you owed one dollar or a thousand dollars, when Jubilee hit, your outstanding balance is reduced to zero.

Not only that, but if your land was taken away at any time during the past 49 years, it is returned. Whether it was taken because you owed outstanding debt or you needed to trade it in order to feed your family, during Jubilee it was returned.

Finally, all slaves in the land of Israel were released during jubilee. The moment the sun rose on the first day of Jubilee all of the slaves in the nations were considered to be free men and women.

What an amazing festival!

And yet, when trying to place this in a modern context, it just doesn’t quite fit. Can you imagine, every fifty years, if banks just wrote off all of the mortgages that were withstanding and returned any land that they foreclosed on. Credit card companies wiping the slate clean every half century.

Or what about you. That friend or family member that owes you money. With the year of Jubilee comes freedom from that debt.

And I know what you are thinking: how can an economy run effectively if every 50 years God pushes the reset button. It’s not fair!

And you may be right. But I suspect that it’s the exact opposite. Maybe the year of Jubilee is God’s way of enacting fairness in a world and a system that is, by design, unfair.

I think God realized that in any economic system there are going to be people who will be trampled upon. That the rich will inevitably profit off the hardship of the poor. That in order for some to make dividends, it means that another group has to go into debt. What if God realized that the poor would never be able to recover from the systematic injustices that are prevalent in our world, and so he built into the Jewish calendar, a reordering of society, a leveling of the playing field, a year in which all debts return to zero.

And to our modern-day American mindset, the year of Jubilee makes us squirm. We don’t like that fact that people get something for nothing. It doesn’t make sense to us that people in debt simply get out of it. That land is just returned to someone who was forced to sell it. How would anyone profit in a society like that? How would anyone accomplish the “American Dream” of pulling themselves up their bootstraps and carve out a living, moving upward in the world and growing in wealth of success.

And the fact of the matter is that you’re right. The American Dream wouldn’t work in society that presses the Jubilee reset button. It would be almost impossible. And here’s why:

In the modern-day American context, the goal is to gain more status, make more money, and get more things. And everything that we do and the way our economy runs and how we live our lives is to meet that goal. The way we treat others and the way we interact with the poor and the unprivileged is in order to meet that goal. People will never get something for nothing because something always “costs” something. If you get something for free it means it’s coming out of someone else’s pocket. If you get something for nothing it means someone else is losing money, and ultimately, we are unable to reach our goal of more money, more status, and more things.

This is the narrative that we find in America today. But that’s the complete opposite of the narrative we find in the year of Jubilee, in the Bible as a whole, in Jesus’ teachings, and in the Gospel.

The reason the American dream wouldn’t work in Israel is because the goal of Jubilee is to maintain the neighborhood, not gain money, things, and status. In Israel, it’s not all about you and your money and your land and your status. But instead, no one is thinking about themselves, but everything is thinking about others. They are looking out for their neighbors. This is why no one had a problem with Jubilee. In fact, they celebrated it! Because they knew it was God’s way of caring for their neighbors and ultimately the neighborhood. It was a way to make right what was broken from the beginning. It was a way to right the systematic injustices that inevitable effected their neighbors. Israel wasn’t concerned with wealth and they certainly weren’t threatened by someone getting something for nothing, but instead they realized that it is the only way to live a righteous and holy life–a life that seeks out dignity and the common good for all! Because we are all made and loved and cherished by God.

I can’t help but think that God isn’t satisfied with the American dream. That an economy in which the rich profit off the poor and the poor and undignified are pushed under the rug or written off breaks the heart of God. A world like that can squelch our abilities to be Christlike people who engage in generosity, and giving, and neighborliness. The the fact that we are so against and disgusted by people getting something for nothing must anger God.

Because didn’t the man who was robbed and rescued by the Good Samaritan get something for nothing. Didn’t the good Samaritan pay the innkeeper more than was necessary and not expect anything return?

Didn’t the poor and those whose land was taken and the indebted and the slaves during the year of Jubilee receive something for nothing?

Didn’t those who were healed by Jesus receive something for nothing? What about the 5000 who Got free food for nothing.

What about those during the virus outbreak who received food and toilet paper and help from others who were just being neighborly. They saw a need and they filled it. Didn’t those in need during this season receive something for nothing?

And what about you and me? Didn’t we receive something for nothing? For all the times we’ve turned our back on God and spit in His face, didn’t we receive a gift of life that we didn’t deserve. Didn’t he cancel our debts and set us free even though we could give nothing in return.

My challenge to you and also to me is that we will see the world through the lens of Jubilee. That it’s not all about me. It’s not all about the American Dream. About more wealth, status, and more things. But instead, can we look at those around us and see neighbors. Can we look at the poor and the homeless and the indebted and see neighbors? Can we look at the community in which we live and see a neighborhood? And may we declare every year a year of Jubilee in Christ’s name. Where debts are canceled, people are freed, where love and neighborliness reigns supreme. I think it’s dreams like that that must warm the heart of God.