If we declared a Year of Jubilee in the whole world. Imagine Moses standing on a rock, leaning on his staff. He is surrounded by kids who grew up in the desert and have never eaten any food except Manna. After forty years, they are about to actually cross into their Promised Land and start all over again. Moses spends three days telling them how to build a godly society. (That is the whole context of the book of Deuteronomy.) In chapter 25, he tells them how to handle their money. “At the end of seven years, cancel all debts.”

Whoa! What if we did that? What if, on January 1st 2011, every nation was forgiven their trillions, every state its billions, every bank its millions, every credit card holder their thousands, every mother-in-law her hundreds, and every paper boy his twenties? I suppose the economy would totally crash. (As if the cable on that roller coaster isn’t frayed most of the way through, anyway.)

And, I suppose we wouldn’t learn our lesson. Instead of taking a deep breath and then dancing in the streets, most of us would probably prance right down to the Mega-Mall and pick up a flat screen t.v. I’m afraid we still wouldn’t get it.

But, the economy aside, what if we just decided this Christmas to cancel all the other debts in our lives? Those tiny little grudges we still hold against the boss who did us wrong. The right-to-pout-when-you-ignore-me card we hold over our spouses. Even the smidge of envy we feel when our neighbor pulls into the drive with his new car.

Maybe we could declare that kind of Year of Jubilee. I’m pretty sure it would be worth some dancing in the streets.