Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Listen again to the words of our Old Testament text: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, 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. As our readings revealed to you last Sunday, this season of Epiphany is all about the Light of Christ shining in the darkness of a sin-riddled world. You remember John the Baptizer s words, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and how his words were epiphinal, revealing, light-shining, to the two disciples. It follows, then, that our scripture readings for today should continue with this theme of epiphany, of light, and most certainly they do. In the Old Testament, the great prophecy of Jesus coming as the light to the people living in darkness is proclaimed, foreshadowing Jesus and his walking along the Jordan river near the Sea of Galilee. And in our Gospel reading, this prophecy coming true as Jesus, the light-bringer preaches the Good News to the people in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, along the Jordan and the sea as calls His disciples. Now who s doing the proclaiming? Not just some prophet, not just some overly zealous preacher standing on a soap box calling out fire and brimstone. But it s Jesus, our Emmanuel, it s our God with us, walking, preaching, teaching, and yes, even healing the sick and casting out demons it s He who is bringing the Good News, who is shining His light in the darkness. And is there any such greater news? No! God with us is the best news we can have.
I mean let s face it, we ve tried and tried to make our own gods and objects of worship. We ve tried to make food our god, money, good works, careers, family, cars and possessions, intellect, knowledge, maybe even the very gifts and talents given to us by God maybe we ve tried to make these things our light shining in the darkness, trying to save others by showing them who WE are rather than who Christ is. But look, look whose walking on the shores of Galilee, proclaiming the Good News, calling us to repentance, drawing our attention to the reality that the true kingdom, the Kingdom of God is near. And what IS the Kingdom of God that Jesus the light-bearer has called us into? Sometimes when we think of a kingdom, we think of land, of region, of nation. Maybe in our minds we see a nation or empire with red lines around its borders separating one kingdom from the next. But in our text, the word for Kingdom is more than mere location. The word also denotes ACTION. A king rules and reigns, a king governs a kingdom, but also works and acts to protect, uplift, and even advance that kingdom. Jesus kingdom, the Kingdom of Light, is a locative kingdom, but is also an action kingdom. The kingdom exists someplace, but in order for it to BE a kingdom, it acts and does and moves. When Jesus was speaking of the Kingdom of God being near, He was speaking of Himself. He was speaking of Himself.
He is the Kingdom, and His Church, His body, is the Kingdom. It is a universal kingdom spreading from person to person, from church to church, from generation to generation, all over time and space, and at the very center is Christ, ruling and reigning in the very hearts and lives of His people. And His Kingdom is established and built by His very actions and deeds. The Kingdom of God came near when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. The Kingdom of God shone into the darkness, step by step, word by word, sign by sign, as He went about and preached the Good News to the people. And the Kingdom of God triumphed over sin and the kingdom of death when He died on the cross to take away the sin of the world. And as Jesus walked with His disciples, he taught them how to be fishers of men, light-carriers, kingdom movers, how to take the message of repentance and eternal life He proclaimed and continue to proclaim that message from generation to generation, until the end of time. For Jesus, it wasn t enough to disciple 12 career-minded men, fishermen, tax collectors, street protesters, and bankers. It wasn t enough for Him to build a kingdom of just a few people. He desired to build His kingdom to span generations, to blanket nations, and to truly go where no kingdom had ever gone before. The fact is that all people, since the fall, were walking in darkness. We have all walked in darkness, living in the shadow of death, unable to see, unable to comprehend anything. We were blinded by sin, led easily astray by the mutest of idols and the most glistening of false lights, seeking only those things which filled our bellies and scratched our backs and tickled our ears.
But the light has come to shine in the darkness of our hearts, to reveal the truth, to open our eyes to the reality that this fallen world has nothing good for us, and only leads to death and damnation. The light has come to shine repentance into our hearts, calling us through the waters of Holy Baptism to an illuminated life of faith, trusting that God hears our confession and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. The day to day grind of life may tempt us to close our eyes, stop, forget, neglect, and become lazy in the kingdom. And in such times, we must remember Christ s words: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. For in those times of laziness, neglect, passionless, going through the motion, shadowed living, Jesus is still walking with us, calling us to discipleship, proclaiming the Good News of repentance and the kingdom, and giving us our daily bread of forgiveness and salvation. And the wonderful thing about the Epiphany light of Christ it doesn t shine out to the prestigious, or the devoutly religious, to the selfproclaimed saints who deserve, or to those in high towers. It shines out in the low places, the lost places, shining upon the people far from righteousness, far from good, far from what many might think deserving. Galilee was certainly not a favored place for the Jews; there was just too many Gentiles there. But there He was, walking on the shore, proclaiming the Good News, and then calling four very unlikely, very unexpected men, fishermen, to become fishers OF men. The priests and the scribes were furious, the religious leaders beside themselves, that this man, this Jesus, the son of a carpenter, had the audacity to call Himself the Great I AM, to forgive the sins of those who came to him, and to proclaim salvation by grace through faith and not by works;
something Peter and James and John and Andrew certainly hadn t heard in a long time, probably never. And who of us in this room are extraordinary people, deserving of His light? Who of us has earned from God salvation, favor, and life eternal? Even so, Jesus, the light of the world, shines in our darkness, not asking from us great things, much sacrifice, perfect lives or unwavering devotion, but instead calling us to true repentance, acknowledging our wavering dedication, our imperfect lives, acknowledging our weakness and our tendency to flee to the darkness, so that He might flood us with the perfect light of forgiveness, covering us, robing us in HIS righteousness, HIS strength, HIS perfect devotion to the Father. Yes, we tend to become clouded, and our hearts start to wander back to a time when we so quickly thought the worst of one another. When instead of seeking reconciliation and peace with our brothers and sisters, we build barriers, walls of division, hoping and praying that others fail so that WE can be the victors. But we are not victors, and in such sinful, selfish behavior there is no victory. When we leave the Kingdom of God in order to prop up our own kingdoms, all that awaits us is crumbling ash. But in the Kingdom of God there is reconciliation. We are reconciled first and foremost to our Heavenly Father, the enmity and strife taken away, so that we might be drawn near to Him just has He has come near to us in Christ. The Kingdom of God is near. And in the Kingdom of God, reconciliation is between one another as well. When you say the words The peace of the Lord be with you and respond to one another saying, and also with you, these are not just words, but this is the holy proclamation of peace given to us from God the Father and shared amongst us, his beloved children. His Kingdom is
mortared together with peace. This church family must be built, held together, with the bond of peace and love. When we look out into our world, and especially this past week, we don t see that peace; we don t see His Kingdom. How easy it would be for us to uncaringly turn and walk away. How little effort it would take to see the world suffering from sin and darkness, and to hide the light of Christ deep under the veil of apathy, indifference. We are called, as His beloved disciples, we are called to cast the net, to throw the net of the Gospel of our Lord out into the dark sea of this fallen world. There may be things in that murky water that we don t want to catch, fish that we don t like, beasts which threaten to harm us if we pull them in. Perhaps we fear the uncertainty, the embarrassment, the exposure of putting ourselves out there with nothing but the words of Jesus. The fact is that we never know what we ll pull in from that deep sea, but everyone that hears and comes is loved by God, is desired by God, and through the saving waters of Holy Baptism becomes a part of His Great Kingdom which will last forever. Our great commission is to make disciples of all nations it s the net we cast, it s the Kingdom of God advancing. Brothers and sisters in Christ, as our Lord s disciples cast the net and pulled us out from the deep and into the light of His Holy Church, may we be fishers of men, casting the net of the Gospel to all nations, so that by His grace alone the lost come to the light of faith and salvation through the waters of Holy Baptism and the preaching of the Kingdom. Amen.