Romanticization of the land: Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, year 'C'
The Reverend Helen Dunn
I once went on a canoe tour of the marine coastlines along Burrard Inlet with Takaya Tours of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. It was pouring rain. Seth George was our guide. He told us it was the wettest day of the year! We nevertheless went out in the 35-foot traditional style ocean-going canoe. We listened as Seth shared legends, songs, and stories of his family. Afterwards, Jenn Ashton, the Indigenous Cultural Sensitivity Leader at my church emailed and asked how it went. I told her that while I enjoyed the tour very much, I was disappointed with the weather—that it hadn’t been the picture-perfect day I had hoped for. I could almost hear her smiling. She reminded me that stormy seas are what early Indigenous people would have braved—with or without waterproof rain gear! She was right. I had to revisit my romanticised view of the land.
The scripture readings for the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany invite us to revisit our romanticised views of the land. In the reading from the Hebrew prophets, a piece of hot coal (literally a burning piece of earth!) is touched to Isaiah’s lips. In the psalm, we learn that thanksgiving is a form of resistance. Could giving thanks be a powerful tool for land defenders and those who bring awareness to the devastation caused by climate crises around the world? In the reading from the first letter to the Corinthians, we’re told that resurrection is not for the faint of heart: that, before Jesus was resurrected, he was buried—his body returned to the land. Finally, in the gospel of Luke, we push out into the Sea of Galilee and bring in a big, stinky catch of fish. Meanwhile, Jesus describes discipleship as ‘fishing for people.’
Commentary
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V. 1 - The image is a positive one of a fat God too big for their robes. This is a God who cannot be contained in a building; rather, their robes are big enough to cover the whole earth.
V. 2 - More-than-human creatures guard the Divine. Seraphs are something akin to snakes with wings.V. 3 - The late Herbie O’Driscoll, priest and writer, tells the story of his childhood rector in Ireland opening the prayer book to these words (commonly called the Sanctus) and telling those in attendance, “If you listen carefully to these words and if at the same time you keep looking at the window over the communion table, you find your imagination being drawn through and beyond the window itself. Sometimes when I lead you all on Sunday morning as you say these words, I find myself looking out at the whole of creation: every conceivable kind of being God has created, from great shining archangels to the tiniest and most humble creatures you can think of.”
Vv. 4-7 Coal is dead plant matter which has decayed into peat. The peat is buried deep underground and after being exposed to high temperatures and pressure for millions of years is converted into coal. It is the coal (a literal piece of burning earth) which purifies Isaiah’s lips and makes him ready to speak for God.
Vv. 8-10 The punishment is losing the ability to experience the natural world with one’s senses.Vv. 11-13 The land empties itself of human inhabitants in order to heal itself. The desolation of the natural world occurs as a result of the people’s inability to care for the land which they know is all around them because they see, hear, and experience it with their senses. “The holy seed is its stump”: nurse logs come to mind, fallen trees that, as they decay, provide shade, nutrients, water, and protection from disease for seedlings. Alternatively, controlled burns of a forested area to reduce wildfire risk or improve wildlife habitat could be another theme explored here.
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Psalm 138 is one of the foremost hymns of thanksgiving in the Book of Psalms. It demonstrates the power of giving thanks. Even the consciences of kings are transformed. Gratitude is a powerful thing!
V.1 - While there are many competing priorities for the psalmist’s gratitude, they choose to devote their thanks to the Lord who reigns over the whole of the created order (c.f. kings in verse 4).
V.2 - The thanksgiving imagined here is corporate—a community gathered in praise as a congregation would gather for worship. Interestingly, the psalmist is bowing down “towards the temple” as if to suggest they were worshipping outside.
Vv. 3-4 - Thanksgiving has the power to transform even the hearts of the most powerful rulers of the earth.
Vv. 5-7 - Giving thanks in the presence of one’s enemies is a form of resistance.
V.8 - Humans are the work of God’s hands, just as the whole earth is the work of God’s hands. “Steadfast love” refers to the sustenance the people of God received while in exile from their lands. Psalm 138 was composed after the return from exile. With the recent ceasefire announced in Gaza, we might wonder what hymns or songs of thanksgiving Palestinians are offering as they return to the lands they have been exiled from and, in some cases, the lands they have been exiled within. -
Vv. 1-4 - Jesus’ resurrection is dependent on his burial, on his body first being returned to the land.
Vv. 5-8 - The approach that Jesus takes in appearing to the disciples is a terrific example of one of the key principles of community building: to ‘move at the speed of trust.’ Further, it would be interesting to explore how many of Jesus’ appearances to the apostles were outdoors.
Vv. 9-11 - What would it look like to respect and listen to every living organism on earth as though they were apostles entrusting the gospel itself from creature to creature, as Paul did in spreading the message about Jesus among the early churches? Sylvia McAdam writes as much in her afterword for a collection of essays titled Unsettling the Word: “And so it’s with an incredibly heavy heart that I know this ‘fight’ to defend and protect our lands against ongoing colonial theft and resource extraction will not end with me. It will continue for as long as the colonizer covets these lands for profit, for as long as they see mere resources, instead of living relatives.” -
V.1 - The Lake of Gennesaret is the Sea of Galilee. Gennesaret, heavily populated, was the coastal plain region between Magdala and Capernaum.
Vv. 2-5 - The fishermen were of Jewish origin living in Roman occupied territory. It could be that the portion of the Sea of Galilee they were allotted by the Roman authorities was overfished leaving them with very little to feed their communities. It could be that it remained a plentiful fishing ground that once supported luxurious homes built for Jewish families living in that region, homes and land that were now occupied by the Romans.
Vv. 6-9 - The profit from the catch of fish would have been seized and taxed by Roman authorities. The catch is too big for the nets (c.f. Isaiah 6 and the God who is too big for their robes).
V. 10 - Jesus is poking fun at Simon, as if to say, “Don’t worry, from now on you’ll be catching people; but, you’ll be using nets that will keep them alive— unlike this catch of fish!” It is not uncommon for animals in scripture to feature in a joke in order to highlight the author’s point.
V. 11 - Gracie Morbitzer has compiled and illustrated a series of essays called Modern Saints, wherein she depicts the saints in contemporary (Western) clothing, imagining what they would look like if they were alive today. In her entry for St Luke, she notes that in iconography the symbol for Luke is an ox or a bull, “because these animals were traditionally used for sacrifice, and Luke greatly stressed Jesus’ sacrifice for the world.” In Jesus’ time, the ox and bull were the single most valuable animals one could own. So, to give up an ox or bull for a ritual sacrifice was to make an extravagant offering to God. Here, too, for the disciples to give up such an extraordinary catch of fish was to give up their livelihood in order to follow Jesus.
Preaching and teaching ideas
1. Revisiting our romanticisation of the land
We tread miles and miles of land underfoot every year. When we pause to reflect on our natural surroundings, often it’s to comment on the beauty of a sunset or the warmth of the sand between our toes on a much-needed sunshine getaway. But, what if we were to set aside for a moment our romantic notions of the natural world and consider first and foremost the earth’s theological power—power even to purify sins?
It’s the coal (a literal piece of burning earth) that is touched to Isaiah’s lips and used to purify him from his sins so that he is ready to be used as a mouthpiece for God. The apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians that Jesus’ body is first laid in the earth (a tomb) before resurrection can take place. And, it was a stinky catch of fish which Jesus pointed to when describing the life of a disciple.
In her book, Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Reading and Writing Metrical Verse, Mary Oliver writes: “Our experience with the physical world is assumed — a fact which may, alas, soon be no longer true for some of us. Keat’s bright star, or any star, is hardly visible now from many cities, and daybreak is an hour on the watch face rather than the illumination of rosy fingers over the village.”
In what ways can our congregations begin to reconnect with the natural world, not only for the warm, fuzzy feelings (which cannot be overstated!), but also for the land’s power to transform our spiritual lives? Could lunchtime be an opportunity to head outdoors to read a psalm while observing the sun’s placement in the sky rather than staying indoors to fire off one more email?
Perhaps taking the earth seriously as theologian might also inspire us to read scripture with an ecological hermeneutic? In her book, How to Eat Bread: 21 Nourishing Ways to Read the Bible, Miranda Threlfall-Holmes writes: “Ecology is more than simple biology. As a science, it’s about not just looking at individual plants and animals but paying attention to their interactions with other organisms and with their wider environment. A weed, for example, might be revealed to be an essential part of an ecosystem. Perhaps that weed flowers at a time when nothing else does, and so is critical to the survival of bees and other pollinating insects, without which other plants that are critical to the food chain would be unable to reproduce. . . . Ecologists think in terms of five layers or levels of increasing complexity. Individual organisms; populations; communities; ecosystems; and, finally, biosphere. . . . At each level ecology looks for emergent properties, things that are greater than the sum of their parts because they arise (emerge) not from the individual components themselves but from their interactions.”
How is ecology a kind of hermeneutic—a way of interpreting scripture? How does the psalm interact with the gospel or the new testament reading? Which parts of the readings for this Sunday might seem inconsequential, but in the context of the whole of the readings appointed, actually play an essential role in the larger ecosystem of the Bible?
2. Giving thanks and activism
Canadians are sometimes stereotyped as being overly polite, saying ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’ for everything! We know that when we apologize or rattle off a thank you without much thought, it appears trite or meaningless. What if, together with the psalmist, we were to reclaim the power of giving thanks? What might thanks-giving have to offer our efforts towards climate justice? Of the psalmist’s praise in Psalm 138, Matthew Stith writes, “Their testimony of God’s saving response to prayer stands as a witness so compelling that the greatest powers of the Earth join in the celebration. . . . When God’s people make a priority of giving thanks for what God has done, the word gets out, and all sorts of people come to know and extoll the Lord’s glory.” Giving thanks is powerful stuff. We are more likely to care for the things we have named as being grateful for. What if we were to give thanks more intentionally for aspects of the natural world in our prayers?
Sources and Resources
adrienne maree brown. Emergent Strategy. AK Press (2017). As quoted in: Kate Foran, “Education: Learning at the Speed of Trust” in Sandbox Revolution: Raising Kids for a Just World. Edited by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann. Broadleaf Books (Minneapolis, MN: 2021).
Fr. George Corrigan, OFM. “The Book of Nature and the Book of the Word.” Accessed online on January 26, 2025 at Friar Musings.
Laurel Dykstra. “A Run of Salmon” in Wildlife Congregations: A Priest’s Year of Gaggles, Colonies, and Murders by the Salish Sea. Hancock House Publishers (Surrey, BC: 2024).
Peter Elliott (compiler) and Thomas Roach (illustrator). Listening to the Stirrings of the Spirit - Within Us and Within the Body of the Earth. St Clement’s, North Vancouver. Silent Retreat. January 20-24, 2025 at Rivendell Retreat Centre.
Sylvia McAdam, “Afterword: We Need our Lands” in Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization. Edited by Steve Heinrichs. Illustrations by Jonathan Dyck. Mennonite Church Canada (2018).
Gracie Morbitzer (editor and illustrator). The Modern Saints: Portraits and Reflections on the Saints. Convergent Book (New York, NY: 2023).
Herbert O’Driscoll. I Will Arise and Go Now: Reflections on the Meaning of Places and People. Morehouse Publishing (New York, NY: 2021).
Mary Oliver. Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (New York, NY: 1998).
Hugh R. Page Jr. “Isaiah” in The SBL Study Bible. Harper Collins Publishers (New York, NY: 2023).
Matthew Stith. “Commentary on Psalm 138” in Working Preacher. Accessed online on January 26, 2025.
Miranda Threlfall-Holmes. How to Eat Bread: 21 Nourishing Ways to Read the Bible. Hodder and Stoughton (London: 2021).
Tsleil-Waututh Nation: People of the Inlet. Takaya Tours.
Where Olive Trees Weep. 2022. A film that follows, among others, Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass. Accessed online.
Author bio
Helen Dunn is a priest in the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, serving as rector of St Clement’s in North Vancouver, BC located on the unceded and traditional territory of the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Helen played a small part in the grand opening of Creekside Commons, a wheelchair-accessible outdoor meeting space that gathers human and more-than-human creatures alike. Creekside Commons gets its name from Acts 4:32: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.” “[H]eld in common” is understood to include rewilded gardens that encourage the flourishing of plant life native to the watershed as well as the care for and preservation of a salmon-bearing stream.
You can read more about Creekside Commons online.
Image description: “Great Catch” by John August Swanson (1938-2021). Swanson was Roman Catholic. His mother was Mexican and his father, Swedish. From artist’s notes: “The image projects unity in the almost circular net. The teeming fish and waves form a variety of colorful [sic] patterns almost quilt-like. The sun is the symbol of light and life. The sunlight reflects on the clouds, the sail, and the faces of the fishermen. They are weary yet surprised and excited to see this abundance of fish of every size and color [sic]. In the upper right corner, the moon pulls in her net of stars to symbolize the night leaving. In the center [sic], the sun rises as the birds soar above the boat.”