It is hard to start over.
It is easier to start over when everything is lost, when we up and leave and go some where else, new people, new jobs, new friends, a new spouse, new children. But those habits of the heart are carried with us and we tend to rebuild the same old life all over that we left or lost.
Starting over is especially hard to do when everything around us stays the same, the same home, the same people, the same job, the same commitments, the same Church.
The only way to start over is to start our hearts over, to really start over, not just rearrange all the externals, but to face the habits of our heart.
That is the only way to truly start over.
The people of Israel, had been slaves in Egypt, held captive in Babylon, been occupied by the Greeks and then the Romans.
They knew all about being left out, left behind, powerless, vulnerable, having no choices available, having their choices taken away, having their choices made for them.
They knew about being strangers in a strange land, about needing and being dependant on the hospitality of others.
They knew about all these things, as their land and their heritage and their population was juggled and jerked around.
They knew what it was like to go further and further in debt while those that had more grew richer and richer.
They knew what happens to those who live on the edge, on the margin. They fall off.
They started their life over and over again, but they carried the same old habits of the heart with them, and the life they rebuilt was always the same old life as everyone else, the strong grew stronger, and the weak grew weaker, no different than animals, the usual Darwinian culture.
But here is the difference, they knew better!
The Word of the Lord had spoken to them, it was written on their hearts, it was in their dreams, a world of not the same old thing over and over, the rich man dances while the poor man pays for the band.
They knew of Sabbath years, and Jubilee years, the year of the Lord’s favor.
Years of starting over, of debts being cancelled, of slaves and prisoners being set free, of property, wealth, land, cattle being spread out evenly, a level playing field reestablished.
It was meant to counter the habits of our hearts to recreate Egypt over and over as each of us strives to be Pharaoh owning everything and everybody, controlling others, tearing down others to build up ourselves.
Now all this was easy when other folks took everything, when everything was lost, when some one else makes the level playing field, the dream was beautiful then.
But it is hard to do when we have to do it ourselves, when everything around us is already by our choice, when the only thing between us and starting over is our own heart.
Needless to say, Israel never practiced the Sabbath Year or the Jubilee year, the year of the Lord’s favor was always dreamed of but never practiced.
But they knew better, the dream was there, of a different world, governed by grace, by gift, by thankfulness, by hospitality, by reaching out, where the folks on the edge, on the margin didn’t fall off, were not forgotten but rather they fall in and are remembered, who are sought out, and treated like royalty.
They knew better, the Word of God was etched into their heart, the dream lived in them.
On the Sabbath day they would hear it over and over again, how God reaches out, how God had reached out to them, how God would reach out with God’s Kingdom, God’s future, God’s reign when all those chains would be released.
Jesus stood up, opened to Isaiah, to the passages on the year of the Lord’s favor, the year of forgiveness, of release, of healing, of freedom, and he read it the people.
He then rolled the scroll back up, handed it over.
Then it was time for his sermon.
And all he said was that the dream has come true, it has arrived, just now the Year of the Lord’s favor begins right here, right now.
This is how Jesus begins and defines his ministry, the ministry of release, of being set free, from all that enslaves, all that diminishes, all that denies, all that forsakes our God given humanity.
It is hard to start over.
When Jesus read that scripture he said that we are starting over, from now on no one is forgotten, no one is left out, from now on no one is on the edge, no one is on the margin, because the new world doesn’t work like that.
From now on the world belongs to God.
So here we are, a long time later, and the world seems about the same, the habits of our hearts keep building a world that forsakes all those whom God holds precious.
The words have been etched into our hearts, we know better.
So why are there still all these shackles? Where is the Lord’s favor?
It is hard to start over. Our Lord’s words, our Lord’s dream has been etched into these old hearts, that is where the trouble seems to be.
It is hard to start over with the same old heart. The Word of the Lord, the dream of God, just hasn’t gone deep enough to change our habit of making the same mistakes over and over, of rebuilding the same world over and over.
It is time to pay attention to our hearts, to cultivate the Word of God, to fan the flames of God’s dream, slowly those habits of the heart do change, slowly we build a different world, slowly we start over one day, one moment at a time.
Until one day, until one day.
Until then, we reach out like it already has come true.
Until then, we live as if the year of the Lord’s favor is the rule of the land and of our hearts.
Until then, we bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight for the blind, the oppressed go free, until then our work is laid out before us.
Until then we make our life an offering to God and a blessing to those whom we can reach.
It is hard to change.
It all comes down to the habits of the heart.