My side of Dauphin Island sits at the intersection of the Intercoastal Waterway, the Gulf of Mexico, and Mobile Bay. Mobile Bay is larger than I expected, full of ship traffic and oil rigs , at least where I look out. I have been reading up on Mobile Bay, which is full of history. I also learned that Mobile Bay is the site of an annual jubilee.
The jubilee is neither Mardi Gras related nor associated with any human-caused event. This jubilee is the mysterious appearance of fish and other seafood along the shorelines on the bay’s east side. Most years, between June and September on a full moon, crab, shrimp, eels, and fish swarm to the shallow waters. The fish who come ashore are likely oxygen deprived due to organic matter breakdown farther out and are in search of air in the shallower waters! Then the fish get trapped between the shore and the oxygen-deprived water. The incoming tide brings them close to shore. Thousands, millions maybe. People ring bells to notify their neighbors and everyone rushes down to the shore to collect the abundant food source. I read accounts where folks collected 400 pounds of flounder in an hour. Mobile Bay and somewhere in Japan are the only two places in the world that experience this naturally occurring event.
Rick Bass wrote a haunting short story (in the book“Lives of Rocks”) that took place during a Mobile Bay jubilee. I thought the author made it up until this week, when I read about the local jubilee–it is a real thing.
So who named the event a “jubilee”? I could not find the answer, but I already know the reason they chose jubilee for the phenomenon. In the Old Testament (Jewish Scriptures) a jubilee year occurs every 50 years. That year, sins are automatically pardoned, debts are forgiven, slaves and prisoners set free. This is mandated in Leviticus 25, which says,
“You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you.”
The jubilee year was a year of favor and brought great joy while restoring a sense of freedom and abundance, feelings certainly shared by those who collected the bounty of seafood. The connection is easy!
As the Catholic Church developed, Popes declared jubilee years but they often carried conditions, such as undertaking a long pilgrimage, being truly repentant, and/or showing their commitment by visiting shrines regularly. However, long before the Popes supported jubilee-year freedoms, someone else drew on the concept of a Jubilee Year. That would be Jesus. I call Luke 4:17-21 Jesus’ Mission Statement, because it is there he defines his ministry.
“.. and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
When Jesus said that he came to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”, he was referring to bringing a jubilee year. He tells us here and elsewhere that he came to set us all free for good, to bring light into our lives. But it was not just for a year, it was forever.
At Christmas most Christian traditions say that the light has come into our world again. That is, the light shines in to free each person of whatever enslaves, whatever hinders, whoever holds us back from being our best. We are set free again, released from bondage of all kinds and living “in favor”.
Our religious leaders and creditors don’t practice the idea of Jubilee anymore, darn it However, we can see remnants of the concept in our culture. Naming the fish event a jubilee is one example. The idea of a jubilee year is also reflected in the action of pardoning, most recently used by Obama. Clinton promised to set young people free from crippling student loans. New Year resolutions are a jubilee-like list that we hope will make us better people, set free from smoking, over-eating and whatever else we need to stop. Jubilee is also a character in the X-Men series, but not one that bears biblical values!
I like to look at a period of abundance as a jubilee, like the Mobile Bay folks. This winter, I have an abundance of free tangerines, oranges, tangelos, and grapefruit. I accepted bags full but turned down even more because my frig is still full of luscious citrus. I also have an abundance of time, something I never had before. In retiring I am set free from full-time work stresses, difficult people, and institutional religion. This is a serious jubilee year for me in terms of abundance and bring set free.
Abundance is more of a Thanksgiving theme. Christmas is a great time to remember Jesus’ mission statement and to reflect on both the state of our internal freedom and the extent to which we reflect and participate in that mission. That is what being faithful is all about. It is not going to church, which is typically a social club, but living the teachings of our great Scriptures in the world, every day.
Merry Christmas!
Note: I am on the other side of Mobile Bay but will be listening for those bells announcing another fish jubilee!
