What is Sabbath-Jubilee Economics?

An excerpt from Living Justice: Revolutionary Compassion in a Broken World (Barefoot Ministries, 2007) by Jamie Gates and John Middendorf (Download the PDF)

Consumption, the Market and Eucharist

A challenging article by theologian William T. Cavanaugh in The Other Journal: http://www.theotherjournal.com/article.php?id=52

“The Eucharist places judgment in the eschatological context of God’s inbreaking Kingdom. There is no gradual immanent progress toward abundance which the market, driven by our consumption, is always about to -- but never actually does -- bring about. The Eucharist announces the coming of the Kingdom of God now, already in the present, by the grace of God. Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium affirms the eschatological dimension of the Eucharist in these terms: "In the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims..."¹¹ In the Eucharist, God breaks in and disrupts the tragic despair of human history with a message of hope and a demand for justice. The hungry cannot wait; the heavenly feast is now. The end-less consumption of superficial novelty is broken by the promise of an end, the Kingdom toward which history is moving and which is already breaking into history. The Kingdom is not driven by our desires, but by God’s desire, which we receive as gift in the Eucharist.”

When Enough is Enough: Why God’s abundant life won’t fit in a shopping cart, and other mysteries of consumerism

A challenging article by theologian William T. Cavanaugh in Sojourners: http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0505&article=050510

“The Christian task in a consumer society, then, is to create economic spaces that underscore our spiritual and physical connection to creation and to each other. We must strive to demystify commodities by being informed about where they come from, who makes them, and under what conditions. We should support products, such as fair-trade coffee, that pull back the veil from the production process and offer a sustainable life to their producers. We should attempt to create local, face-to-face economies, where consumers and producers know each other well enough that their interests tend to merge. My parish’s connection to a local cooperative of family farms (www.wholefarmcoop.com) is a hopeful example.”


Sabbath Economics Collaborative
 
www.sabbatheconomics.org/

The SEC is a national, membership-based network that encourages cooperation and communication among theologians, economists and activists who are working with contemporary issues of faith and economic justice. We are committed to:

A Jubilee Economics resource page
 
webhome.idirect.com/~equalnomics
 


Jubilee Economics Ministries resources
 
Sabbath-Jubilee Economics in Brief: A grassroots, global-local alternative to neo-liberal, corporate globalization.

www.jubilee4justice.org
 

John Wesley’s sermon on The  Use of Money

But let not any man imagine that he has done anything, barely by going thus far, by "gaining and saving all he can," if he were to stop here. All this is nothing, if a man go not forward, if he does not point all this at a farther end. Nor, indeed, can a man properly be said to save anything, if he only lays it up. You may as well throw your money into the sea, as bury it in the earth. And you may as well bury it in the earth, as in your chest, or in the Bank of England. Not to use, is effectually to throw it away. If, therefore, you would indeed "make yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness," add the Third rule to the two preceding. Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then "give all you can." (Download the PDF - The Use of Money)