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Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany — February 9, 2025

Rose Schrott Taylor reflects on God’s boundless abundance and the risk of transformation.

A graphic with the words "Looking into the lectionary"

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13),1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11
Year C

While picking berries, Robin Wall Kimmerer found herself surrounded by Cedar Waxwings, Catbirds, and Bluebirds. She laughed as the birds cackled, and together they gorged themselves on the thick clusters of red, blue and purple fruit. Kimmerer was filling her pail at her neighbor’s invitation. The birds were there at the berries’ behest, filling their bellies and spreading seeds. There was enough for everyone and joy at the unexpected bounty.

Kimmerer, an Indigenous botanist and bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, tells this story in her latest book The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World. Building on Indigenous tradition and the wisdom of the natural world, she wonders if the concept of scarcity, which lies at the backbone of capitalism and Western civilization, is socially constructed. In this book, she asks: What if we built ourselves around a gift economy, where the goal is mutual flourishing, gratitude and reciprocity?

I found myself lingering on these themes of scarcity and bounty as I read the Bible passages for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany. Isaiah 61:1-8, Psalm 138, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, and Luke 5:1-11 all tell the story of revelation and abundance. They each, in their way, push against the common Western wisdom that power is something to be hoarded, traded and manipulated for your benefit. There is a larger order to the universe, these passages tell us — one that calls us to put God’s will, which is love and relationship, at the center of all we do.

In today’s gospel text, Jesus encounters Simon Peter, James and John in their workplace. Using the skills and tools at the fishermen’s disposal, Jesus reveals that, through him, there is abundance beyond what we can even imagine. Where there was no catch, Jesus demonstrates that God provides more fish than our boats can hold. This revelation takes some risk on behalf of the disciples. Their nets – the symbols of their identity and livelihood – break in the process of reeling in the fish. But this realization opens them to a new identity, a new way of being. The fishermen humble themselves (Luke 5:8,11) and they follow Jesus in his ministry.

Similarly, the Isaiah and 1 Corinthians passages also tell stories of encountering the magnificence of God and responding with wonder and humility. Isaiah sees the Seraphs, covering their faces and feet as they sing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). He is cleansed and volunteers to go where God sends him, no questions asked. Paul tells his testimony of encountering Jesus on the road. He is the last of the apostles – the last, by his account, to encounter the embodied, resurrected Christ – and the “least” of the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:8-9). God’s power is surprising, inspiring devotion.

Isaiah, the fishermen and Paul remind us that God’s abundance is rousing. It offers new identity. It provides for the community. And it requires risk — the risk of leaving behind the known, the risk of being guided by a promise, the risk of being ignored or discounted.

This last point is explicitly named just beyond the bounds of the recommended Isaiah passage. In response to the prophet’s pledge of devotion, God replies: “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’” Charles L. Aaron, Jr. notes in his Working Preacher commentary on this passage that the Hebrew grammar suggests that Isaiah’s preaching will cause the people not to hear. “The powerful God allows the people to ignore the message,” he writes. “God tells the prophet to proclaim the message despite the unwillingness of the people to hear it.”

We, too, have a message to proclaim: one of right relationship with God and one another, one of divine abundance. We, too, can be humbled and inspired by God’s magnitude, the unlimited nature of our Creator’s glory and love. The stories in the lectionary readings are our stories as well.

While it is unlikely that we will encounter Jesus in the office lobby, on the road, or in ominous visions, the fullness of God can still be found if we look. Julian of Norwich imagines the glory of God encapsulated in a hazelnut writing, “God showed me something small, no bigger than a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed to me, and it was as round as a ball. … I thought because of its littleness it would have suddenly fallen into nothing. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and always will, because God loves it; and thus everything has being through the will of love of God.”

God’s Spirit and the ongoing story of salvation surrounds us – in a free feast of berries shared with birds and neighbors alike, in the perfection of a hazelnut, in the physical, repeating patterns of life (look to the mirroring of riverbeds, trees, and our respiratory system, to the pattern of our fingerprints and the shape of spiral galaxies). We are connected to each other and to nature in a divine web. There will be ears that do not want to hear this news, who prefer the fabricated comfort of possessing, but we are nevertheless called to proclaim and be changed by God’s staggering, wild abundance.

Questions for reflection on Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

  1. What stories of scarcity surround you? How do you internalize and perpetuate those narratives?
  2. What stories of abundance surround you? How do you internalize and perpetuate those narratives?
  3. adrienne maree brown writes, “What we pay attention to grows.” What do you pay attention to? What does your church pay attention to?
  4. Consider how you and members of your congregation encounter God’s abundance. How can you tell those stories?

View the corresponding Order of Worship for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
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