Text: Psalm 139:7-12, Romans 8:26-27, Galatians 5:22-25

None of like to think of ourselves as being like Adam and Eve who were booted out of the garden because they lost their innocence trying to be like God, and we certainly do not want think of ourselves as being not like Cain who destroyed his brother. We may not be all we should be, but we do not see ourselves as that bad. After all, we come here to worship. However, all too often we live as though worship is merely a matter of showing up to be an audience at a religious performance. Of course, we know better. It is just that we have been so focused on ourselves and our agenda we have drifted away from God. We believe we believe in God; it is just that we have assigned God to a special place in our lives -- this storeroom we call a sanctuary. Without really thinking about it or even making a conscious choice, we live as if this is where God is.

Focused on our agendas, we fill our days with activities we think will bring us happiness and contentment. We expend our energies trying to make our lives matter the way we want our lives to matter. We say we believe in God, but we live as if God is like the doctor we visit when we or someone we love sick. We say we believe in God, but we live as if God is like the police or the EMS we call in times of emergencies and crises.

Focused on ourselves, we drift away from God and the light of God. We do not see ourselves as sinners, not really. After all we are willing to do good deeds now and then. But focus our living on loving God with all we are and have and on loving all our neighbors as ourselves? Well, that sounds good in church, but it does not seem all that realistic once we get in our cars to go elsewhere.

And so we try to construct our lives the way we build a house. We have a special room where we can store all the God-stuff, the way do our Christmas decorations, until it is time to use it. Meanwhile we go elsewhere, taking care of our agendas, and focused on our desires.

But the Holy Spirit of God refuses to be kept in some storeroom, not even a storeroom as lovely as this sanctuary. As the poet who wrote Psalm 139 declared: "Where can I go from your spirit? Or flee from your presence?... If I take the wings of the morning and settle as far away as possible, even there (you will be)....." There is no escaping the presence of God. It is as though God is singing: "Wherever you go, whatever you do, we're going to go through it together."

Even when we choose the darkness, we cannot escape from God's Holy Spirit. As the Psalmist declared: "If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,... even the darkness is not dark to (God)." There really is no place to run, no place to hide from God's Holy Spirit.

God is everywhere, all the time. This means God is always with us, and God knows all there is to know about each of us -- even more than we know about ourselves. There is no fooling God. We may have been able to fool our teachers, and from time to time have gotten away with it. We may have been able to fool our parents, and from time to time have gotten away with it. We may have been able to fool those around us, and from time to time have gotten away with it. And all of us know, we can fool ourselves. But there is no fooling God.

There is nowhere we can go in life that God's Holy Spirit is not there. Not even when life takes us into the consequences of our sin. Sooner or later, the consequences of our sinful choices catch up with us as the human race or as a nation or as a society or as families or as individuals. But even in the midst of the consequences, even in the midst of whatever hell we have brought on ourselves as individuals or families or as the human race, God's Holy Spirit is there with us. God's spirit, God's grace, is there. In our rebellion we experience God's presence in the tough love we call judgment, and in our repentance we experience God presence in the tender love we call mercy.

And when we repent, that is, when we stop and turn to God God's Spirit is there, helping us make that turn. Paul wrote that when in the midst of our ordeal we cry out to God, it is the God's Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirit making us aware we are children of God. It is the Spirit of God at work within us, moving us to cry out to God. And when in our prayer, we are unable to express our deepest yearnings, Paul tells us that God's Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes with sighs too deep for words. God's Holy Spirit understands; God really understands.

And finally, when we embrace what God has made known in Jesus and our living is shaped by that faith, we discover that even our faith in Christ is really a gift of God's Holy Spirit. It is the power of God's grace, the mystery of God's Holy Spirit, at work in our lives that brings us into an awareness of the love God as revealed through Christ. We are able to love because God in Christ first loved us. It is God's Holy Spirit at work among us and in us that awakens and deepens our faith.

Genesis describes the beginning of the world as a watery, chaotic darkness, with the Spirit of God the wind, the breath of God moving above it all. And out of the chaos, God brought order and created the world and declared it good.

This is not only the way it was; this is the way it is. God's Holy Spirit is with us -- even in the darkness of our chaotic lives. It is because of the presence of God's Holy Spirit that there is light in our darkness. And when by God's grace we turn to this light, the darkness of our despair is overcome and order begins to replace the chaos in our lives. That which was destructive begins to be replaced by that which is constructive; the negative is replaced by the positive; despair is replaced by hope; cynicism is replaced by a willingness to trust; selfishness is replaced by concern for others; and new life comes into being. It is then our living begins to reflect what Paul called "the fruit of the Spirit:" love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

God, as we come to receive this sacrament, may we do more than eat some bread and drink some juice. We pray that your Holy Spirit will move above us, among us and within us so we will take into our being the essence of who Christ was and is and our living be transformed. Amen.

Pastoral prayer:

God, forgive us when we go through the motions of worship without being engaged in worship. Forgive us when in our singing we focus on the melody but ignore the message. Forgive us when we say the words of prayer without praying. Forgive us when we go through the ritual of this holy sacrament with our minds and hearts engaged elsewhere. Forgive us when we call ourselves followers of Christ, but live our lives focused only on ourselves and what we want. God, we need more than merely forgiveness. We need your Holy Spirit to be at work in us so that we are focused on you in our worship and so that our daily living is centered in you. Help us, O God, to be aware of your mercy-filled love that is offered to us. Make us sensitive to the ways your grace is at work in our lives. Motivate us to commit ourselves to living as you intend us to live, saying and doing what you want said and done. Help us keep our focus on Christ and on the cross of Christ so that we do not drift off in some other direction. It is out of our gratitude for him and confidence in him that we pray. Amen.