Bulletin Announcement       Sunday     April 10 , 2016           

               FranciscansForJustice.org
 
In the early Church, the time between Easter Day and Pentecost was known as the "Great Fifty Days"--a continuous, fifty-day Sabbath. This is especially relevant as we are sailing through what Pope Francis calls the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
 
A crash course on "Sabbath economics:" In essence, Sabbath economics is based on how one lives in the world as if the Resurrection really happened; that is to say, as if God's power over the forces of death, slavery, oppression really exists.
 
Christian author Ched Myers writes: 'At its root, Sabbath observance is about gift and limits: the grace of receiving that which the Creator gives, and the responsibility not to take too much, nor to mistake the gift for a possession. The economic implications of this tradition as it is articulated in the Bible can be summarized in three axioms:
  • the world as created by God is abundant, with enough for everyone -- provided human communities restrain their appetites and live within limits;  
  • disparities in wealth and power are not "natural" but the result of human sin, and must be mitigated within the community of faith through the regular practice of redistribution;
  •  the prophetic message calls people to the practice of such redistribution, and is thus characterized as "good news" to the poor.'
 Today's Gospel includes these verses:  Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you just caught." So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come, have breakfast."
 
Can you see how the actions of Jesus mirror the challenge for each of us to living out Sabbath economics in our daily lives?
 
[Ched Myers is an author, activist, and Co-founder and Program Director, Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries; quote from his booklet "The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics,"  p. 5]

 



                                 
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