Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. (Leviticus 25:10, NIV)
In Sunday's sermon, Pastor Sam took time to speak of the father wound: there are some of us whose experience of fatherhood has been an experience not of compassionate support, but of abuse, neglect, or rejection.
We bear the risk of expressing the negative behaviors to which we have been exposed. The father wound is found in us as we live lives of apathy, anger, or alienation toward those around us. As Pastor Sam said, "The devil has conspired with history so as to produce a people who have to protect themselves by not feeling... it is the manifestation of the reign of sin."
However, there is good news: God our Father has promised healing to us! And for Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene in particular, as we celebrate our fiftieth year of ministry, there is a sense of kairos: we are in a jubilee season where God is pouring out wholeness and healing and grace. Our pastor made a wonderful point concerning Psalm 27:10: God steps in "...when father forsakes me...and when the Lord takes me up, that is going to represent healing to the father wound."
In the Jubilee year, ancient Israel experienced a profound shift in status. Debts were released. Lands were restored. People were set free from bondage. It happened then, and it can happen now. Today, as we submit ourselves to the Spirit of God, His presence and power releases us from our own bondage to apathy, anger, and alienation that had been built into our spirits.
God, our Father, is the Lord of Jubilee. Let your burdens go, and let your Father carry you into His grace, healing, and release.
Do you want to be free? Lift your chains, I hold the key!
All power in heaven and earth belongs to Me:
You are free!
(Mark Hall/Bernie Herms)
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