Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 9, 2025 (Epiphany 5C)


The Miraculous Draft of Fishes (1308-1311), tempera painting on wood by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319). Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Siena, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

God’s call to serve is a command so powerful that it is difficult to resist. In Sunday’s Lectionary readings we see this at work in God’s call to the Prophet Isaiah; the Psalmist’s conversation with a faithful God; Paul’s call as an apostle of Christ, and Jesus calling his apostles at the Sea of Galilee. In our first reading, Isaiah is granted a terrifying vision of a gigantic God on a throne surrounded by six-winged seraphim. This vision is so majestic that Isaiah fears for his life, declaring himself an unworthy creature of unclean lips. But God sends a seraph to touch Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal, burning out his sin. Isaiah then eagerly accepts God’s call, responding faithfully, “Here I am! Send me!”

Psalm: Psalm 138

Psalm 138, a hymn of thanksgiving, reminds us that communication with God can be a two-way conversation: God responds when we call, the Psalmist tells the people. God loves us and is faithful. We often pray when we’re in need. In time of trouble and fear, we call out in our helplessness and beg God to come to our aid. Although the kings of Earth praise God, God cares for us, the lowly: God keeps us safe when we walk in the midst of trouble. The love of the Lord endures forever, the Psalmist sings. God will not abandon the works of God’s hands.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

We have come to the final chapters of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Turning to the good news of Christ’s resurrection, Paul places it in the center of Christian theology: Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised on the third day, and was then seen by the Apostles and by hundreds of followers. Acknowledging his own unfitness to serve Christ because he had persecuted the church, Paul declares himself the least of the apostles, the last to see Christ, but now forgiven in spite of his sins. Paul was not chosen to serve thanks to his own merits, he says, but through God’s saving grace that comes through the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Gospel: Luke 5:1-11

Encountering a huge crowd near the lake of Gennesaret (Galilee), Jesus got into a boat owned by a fisherman named Simon so he could address the people from offshore. When Jesus finished teaching the crowd, he told Simon to head for deep water and put out his fishing nets. Simon was doubtful, knowing that they had come up empty after fishing all night. But he trusted Jesus, and to his surprise, caught more fish than the nets could hold. Peter, in a response that might remind us of Isaiah’s fearful plea to God, dropped to his knees and told Jesus to leave him, a sinful man. Jesus told him not to be afraid; and then, when Jesus called Simon and his partners James and John, they eagerly left everything behind and followed him.