The Compass

A Daily Personal Reflection & Small Group Discussion Guide

by John Hay, Jr.
Senior Pastor, West Morris Street Free Methodist Church

Series: Isaiah for the 21st Century
Week's focus: "Jubilee, Anyone ?"
Scriptures: Isaiah 61
Week of: February 26, 2006

TRACKING THE WORD IN WORSHIP
Explore God's Jubilee intention for would-be Kingdom people

5 Facts about Jubilee based on Leviticus 25 & Luke 4

1. Jubilee is God's plan for spiritual integrity, equal opportunity, economic recovery, and social restoration.

2. Jubilee calls for radical redistribution of wealth once a generation.

3. Jubilee forgives debt, releases debt prisoners, guides free trade practices, restores property to its original guardians, and returns balance in the community.

4. Jubilee was neglected by Israel because those who accum-ulated wealth and power were unwilling to let go. Jeremiah 34:16-17

5. Jesus declared Jubilee to be fulfilled in Him, making it the guiding practice for His followers and His Kingdom. Luke 4:18-21

4 Principles of Jubilee in Isaiah 61

1. God is a Jubilee-declaring God.

2. God's Jubilee is intended to empower His people to reflect His grace in a broken world.

3. Jubilee people are into anchoring, restoring, interceding for, and blessing the communities in which they live.

4. When we embrace Jubilee we anticipate the future God is bringing near.

4 Ways to Live and Share Jubilee

1. Fully accept Jesus' declaration of your own Jubilee-be free from sin, guilt, and shame; free to love God and neighbor.

2. Get into the habit of forgiving and releasing people from your grip of indebtedness, anger, fear, and/or expectations.

3. Emphatically assert God's ownership over all you "possess"; shift fully into stewardship mode.

4. Exercise Jubilee with weekly acts of compassion, blessing, redistribution, justice-bearing, and people- and place-restoration.

MARKINGS LEFT BY PREVIOUS TRAVELERS
Selected quotes on Jubilee

ACTING IN KIND. "Jubilee is rooted in a joyous response to God's gracious liberation and deliverance. As the people recalled how God had redeemed them out of slavery, the only logical response was to pass that liberating freedom on, forgiving debts, releasing slaves, and redeeming the land." - Donald Kraybill in The Upside Down Kingdom

FREEDOM FROM, FREEDOM FOR. "Freedom from ourselves-from apathy, fear, anxiety, self-reliance-is freedom for creatively loving others, understood as the historical project of the kingdom of God. Kingdom-ministry calls for a conversion, but this conversion is not understood as a ticket to heaven or as an entrance into a lifeboat, so to speak. Conversion to the kingdom of God is the liberation of human creativity for the sake of a new community on earth." - Bryan Stone in Compassionate Ministry: Theological Foundations

A PRAYER FOR OTHERS. "O Father of mercies, grant that I may look on the defects of my neighbor as if they were my own, that I may conceal and be grieved for them; and that making Thy love to us, O blessed Jesus, the pattern of my love to them, may I above all things endeavor to promote their eternal welfare. Amen." -- a prayer of John Wesley from John Wesley's Prayer Manual

ABOUT POVERTY. "The most complete Biblical understanding of addressing poverty involves solidarity with the poor and protest against poverty. One does not accept poverty as good; one opposes it by commitment to, and alignment with, its victims. Sharing material goods in the early church was not a question of erecting poverty as an ideal, but rather seeing to it that there were no poor." -- Robert McAfee Brown in Unexpected News

RESPONSES & OPPORTUNITIES TO ENGAGE
Want to explore The Compass with others? Have questions?

If you'd like to connect with others who are working weekly with The Compass, e-mail me or call the church office (317.632.8311)

If you have questions about Scriptures or some of the questions, or just want to share what your are discovering through The Compass, you are welcome to e-mail me.

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