5th Sunday in Epiphany, 2-5-25

   This Sunday’s gospel text (Lk 5:1-11) is one of my favorites. I devote eight pages to it in HARP, discussing it as a demonstration project of the divine abundance of Creation amidst the engineered scarcity of empire. At a moment in which the plutocratic Trump administration is everywhere cutting funding and programs designed to aid poor and working folk, let us not miss the opportunity this week to push back by proclaiming and practicing this rollicking Sabbath Economics tale, in which nature provides mutual aid to peasants in crisis!

For today’s blog, I want to share a few expressions of this call, through different media:

1. Our friend Rev. Scott Claassen—musician, Episcopal priest, ecowarrior and fellow surfer—invited Elaine and me to preach this amazing story exactly three years ago, during the last Year C cycle. Here is the text of that sermon, an example of how we recontextualized this tale on that day in that place. (You can also tune in to a webinar I’ll do on April 23 with Faith and Money Network focusing on this text.)

2.  Below is an image of a gorgeous 1993 artistic rendering of that magical gospel moment by another dear friend, the late genius John August Swanson’s “Great Catch.” It is an almost psychedelic explosion of the joyous, teeming abundance of Creation. John’s life reflected this kaleidoscope of generosity, solidarity and Sabbath Economics: he would freely give to those of us doing gospel justice work his elegant (and otherwise expensive) prints, cards and posters to share around and adorn our homes. How I miss poring over John’s art with him in his L.A.-based studio!

Here Ted talks about his cover pyrography for HARP (15 min);
Here we reflect on the costs of controversial preaching and the importance of recontextualization (14 min); and
Here I discuss the Luke 5 text (8 min).