Living here requires sharing, for no one of us can be assured of having all the resources we require at the time of greatest need. I may have food today, but none of us can know about tomorrow, as severe weather destroys a harvest, a sick family member can’t work in the field, a political crisis changes the economic climate and prices rise beyond reach. So, sharing what one has today becomes a kind of savings account for the future.

My experience of living in Haitian community has affected my understanding of ownership and possessions. The distinction between what is “mine” and “yours” is not as clear when living in a community where no one has enough to live independently.

Now when I read the description of Jubilee in Leviticus, it no longer seems like only a custom of old or a dream of right living for the future—it describes how to live in my community now, as one who has more, living with neighbors and friends who have less. In the Biblical account, the year of Jubilee is to be preceded by seven cycles of Sabbath years where everybody lives off the abundance of the preceding year, collectively entering into a year of sharing resources. The forty-nine years between become as important as the fiftieth year, the year of Jubilee.

Seeing the way my neighbors live challenges me to join in and allow “my possessions” to bob around the community in the same way, to not acquire things that I can borrow, and to choose to live in a way that I become dependent on others.

It has become a joke in the Apprenticeship in Shared Living program that when we travel with Haitian friends, we always have the biggest and heaviest backpacks. And at the end of every trip, we evaluate that we weren’t any more prepared than our Haitian friends, for during the course of the trip, we each had to borrow something from somebody else or did without something we would have considered essential.

I am reminded of the verses in Luke 9:3 where Jesus tells his disciples to “take nothing for the journey, no extra staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic.” When we live this way we are free to experience hospitality and community; we remain vulnerable and open and able to experience the richness of exchange and learning. We are not encumbered by our possessions and are freer to live fully. The friendships I have gained through sharing with others are worth far more than any personal possession. In this way living Jubilee is about liberty—mine and others’, too.