Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ who has come into our world to teach and preach his salvation and to heal diseases and sickness. Amen.

Lord of the Church, we bow before you in humble thanksgiving for the blessings you have bestowed on our congregation. Bless the work of those servants whom you have called to lead us into a deeper understanding of your Word. Preserve the spirit of unity and peace among us. Stir up our hearts to become your fishers of men. Let your kingdom come, and let your will be done among us; for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Two ardent fishermen met on their vacation and began swapping stories about the different places they had fished, the kind of tackle used, the best bait, and finally about some of the fish they had caught. One of them told of a vicious battle he once had with a 300-pound salmon. The other man listened attentively. He frankly admitted he had never caught anything quite that big. However, he told about the time his hook snagged a lantern from the depths of a lake. The lantern carried a tag proving it was lost back in 1912. But the strangest thing of all was the fact that it was a waterproof lantern and the light was still lit.

For a long time the first man said nothing. Then he took one long deep breath. "I’ll tell you what I’ll do," he said slowly. "I’ll take 200 pounds off my fish, if you’ll put out the light in your lantern." Fish stories. Gotta love ‘em.

We have a fishing story of sorts today. Peter, Andrew, James and John were out fishing in the Sea of Galilee. I don’t know if they caught anything that day, but Jesus caught them. Jesus went to the Sea of Galilee to go fishing for them. He was recruiting his first disciples. He then made these four raw recruits into fishers of other men.

Today we see that our mission as Epiphany Christians is to fish for souls as Jesus did. We are fishers of men, women, and children. The "bait" we use is our message. We are the messengers, the fishermen, casting our nets and fishing lines into the sea of despair of this world looking to "hook" people for Christ.

What is the message of our church? Our message is presented very clearly in our sermon text. Our message is Jesus Christ, who is the Light of salvation. Matthew tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 9:1-4): "… Galilee of the Gentiles – the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." (Matthew 4:15-16)

Darkness symbolizes wickedness, ignorance and unbelief. Most of the people in Matthew’s day did not know the way of salvation. But then, Jesus, the light of the world, came to Galilee. Galilee was a place where both Jews and Gentiles, believers and unbelievers lived. In that respect, Galilee was much like Racine. Though we have so many churches in our city, still we have so many unchurched people. The people in our community are also "living in darkness."

There are people lost in darkness and wickedness. In our world today, millions are spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, and spiritually dead. I’m not just thinking of foreign lands held under the sway of the devil posing as Buddha or Mohammed. I’m also concerned about the people right here in our community – right in our own neighborhoods. Think about those people who only live for the weekend, whose only joy in life is whatever they can buy or drink or get pleasure from? They are leading spiritually shallow lives. How many people in our area do you think will die this year without seeing the light of Christ in their life? We might think, "There’s no one like that around me." And if there were, we might be tempted to think, "It’s none of my business."

Jesus’ own countrymen lived in darkness, just as many of the people of our community live in the darkness of their sin and unbelief. Our message to these people is that Jesus Christ is the Light that shines in the darkness. He is the Savior who takes away sin. He is the Son of God who has come into our world teaching and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God, and healing the diseases and sicknesses of his people. (Matthew 4:23)

Our message to people who are caught in the darkness of their sin is that Jesus is the Light of salvation. To those worried about death, Jesus died to take our place and he rose from the dead to give us eternal life. To those who are weak in the face of temptations, Jesus gives the power of forgiveness in his Word and sacraments. To those who feel lost and alone, Jesus sends his Holy Spirit who never leaves us alone.

Then why don’t we do more to give people this soul-enlightening message? Size is not our problem. Time is not the problem. Not even money is the problem. It is sin. Sin troubles both the people to whom we are trying to minister and it troubles the people within this church. What would happen if we in this church cared enough to speak this message to others? If only lost and dying souls offended us as much as the silly little insults we think we’ve suffered at church! If only we were as concerned about precious souls as much as we are concerned about our precious budget. If only we were bothered by lives dirtied by sin and unbelief as we are bothered by a church or school that isn’t cleaned. What then? If only we just couldn’t stand our own comfortable silence, our own complacency, one more Sunday without seeing someone new any longer! What then?

Our problem is our failure to love as we have been loved. Now, I’m not asking you to fix the problem, try harder, or do anything to make up for our shortcomings. Just learn to be sad and troubled for the right reason. Don’t be upset crying out, "What more can I do," but instead "We have sinned."

To those of us who have sinned – and isn’t that every one of us – our message is "Repent! And come to Jesus for forgiveness and healing, light and salvation!"

Now we know the message. But who are the messengers? Last week we heard about how Peter and Andrew followed Jesus. But, for about a year, they just followed him part-time. Matthew tells us that the time had now come for these men to give a deeper devotion to Jesus.

Andrew, Simon, James, and John had no special qualifications to become Jesus’ apostles – his messengers. They were fishermen. They weren’t "college-educated." They weren’t trained in public speaking or philosophy. They were common, everyday, "blue-collar" laborers.

Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher. It was the practice of rabbis to gather a circle of disciples to learn from him. However, this call was not just for them to learn, but also to do. These men would cast out the net of the gospel. They would harvest souls for the kingdom of heaven. They would be fishers of men and women.

You, too, have been called to sit at the feet of the Master Teacher. You are called to learn his teachings of salvation and love. You do this in Bible study, devotions, and worship services. But you are not just called to learn, but also to do.

You aren’t specially trained for the job Christ has for you. You are ordinary, everyday people – just like Jesus’ first disciples. Still, you know enough to do the work of being fishers of men and women. You and I are the messengers, carrying the message of a loving, crucified and risen Savior into the darkness of our community.

Evangelist D.L. Moody had once given a presentation about his work, when he was approached by a lady who had attended. She criticized him for his methods of winning people to Christ. He replied, "I agree with you. I don’t like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?" She answered, "Oh, I don’t do it." Moody then replied, "Then I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it."

You are the messengers. You are the fishers of men and women. Just cast out the net of the gospel and let the Holy Spirit bless your catch. I have a fishing hat that reminds me, "You catch ‘em; God cleans ‘em." How true that is.

Most of our witnessing is likely to happen in passing moments of conversation—those occasions when we show, in relatively minor ways, who we are and to whom we belong. I think of a suburban woman who was playing tennis with her nice, but quite secular friends. In a conversation break between sets she began referring to something she had read that morning. It would have been easy to say, "I read something this morning…" Instead, with no attempt at piety, she simply introduced one word: "In my devotional reading this morning." It was not a major soul-winning engagement. It was, however, a true sowing of seed. By a word, she had opened the door for some further conversation.

Perhaps our greatest problem in becoming Christ’s fishermen is that we are not dedicated enough to grasp the opportunities that come to us; or we are so consumed with the idea that we must say something dramatic and far-reaching that we fail to say the small, immediate and potentially significant thing. To put it in the language of our lesson for the day, most of us really don’t act as if we even have a call to "fish." We’re out in the waters of human need every day, but we don’t seem to know it.

The issue is not that we should become more aggressive about sharing our faith. We simply need to be more sensitive to the needs of the world around us, and more sensitive to the subtle prodding of the Holy Spirit.

Tom tells the story of an encounter with a group of young people in a Barnes and Noble store. He had just settled into an armchair to read when he overheard the conversation at a nearby table. Six university students were hotly debating a trivia question. "What was the name of the skipper on Gilligan’s Island?" As the debated raged, Tom leaned over and said, "I know."

Everyone stared at him, waiting for the answer. Tom knew this was his moment to find value in all the time he wasted watching television in junior high school. He explained that the full name of the character played by Alan Hale Junior was Jonas Grumby. The Skipper’s name had only appeared in the pilot and two other episodes. The students were amazed. "You must be old," they said.

Tom used the opportunity to pull up to the table and talk to the group. He chatted with them about his life, and asked them about theirs. Tom says, "By midnight I’d discovered that not one of these kids could identify the historical significance of Easter. Two could do Christmas, but the others didn’t understand why anyone would celebrate the birth of a ‘mythical’ Jewish carpenter."

After the store closed at 2 a.m., everyone exchanged e-mail addresses and said goodnight. As he walked home Tom kept asking himself, "Who’s going to reach these people? What voice would they listen to?"

We live in a post-seeker age. That means that people are not consciously seeking religion or a church or even God. People may not be seeking faith, but we can be the ones who are seeking them. With our small and simple witness, we may become the voice that they listen to. The Bible encourages us: "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." (Colossians 4:6) "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." (1 Peter 3:15)

Don’t wait to listen to others. Don’t wait to speak to them about Jesus. The Bible reminds us: "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work." (John 9:4.) So let’s go at once and share the good news.

Remember, Jesus didn’t wait for us to come to him. He came to us. He made a plan to reach out to the lost souls of humanity and rescue us. He came to us in his humble birth, in his perfect life, in his sacrificial death, and in his glorious resurrection. Jesus came to us. He didn’t wait around for us to come to him. In the same way, we cannot wait around for people to somehow find their way into our church. We are to go out looking for them.

I’m not much of a fisherman, but I do know that you can’t catch fish by expecting them to just jump into the boat. You have to go out looking for fish. You have to spend money for fishing equipment – a boat, tackle box, lures, and one of those cool fishing hats. You have to plan and be patient and work hard to be a good fisherman. It is exactly the same way when fishing for souls. It takes effort. People are not usually going to just jump into a church. As God’s fishermen, we have to invest the time, the energy, and the money to reach out with the gospel to lost souls. We must plan and be patient and work hard and never quit trying.

I’m not much of a fisherman because I despise fishing. I love fish, but I can’t stand fishing. For me, it is almost mind-numbingly boring. And yet, there is nothing more exciting to me than fishing for souls. It is the greatest calling that God has given to all of us. God caught us. Now he is using us to catch others. Amen.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. Amen. (1 Corinthians 16:23)