22 The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. ²³Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. ²⁴ When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth— ²⁶ when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. ²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, ²⁸ when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, ²⁹ when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, ³⁰ then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, ³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

When you hear the sort passage that we have this morning where the Spirit of God is ‘rejoicing in the world’ and ‘delighting in the human race’ it should cause you to pause for a moment and look around at the world that we have created. It causes us to look around at the creation and think, "well, if that’s where we started, then we have really fallen, and fallen hard."

Part of what we believe in the theology of the Church is that humanity has fallen from grace, that we have sinned against God and our neighbor. That is what those stories right at the beginning of the book of Genesis are about. I’m not speaking of the Creation stories literally. However, those tales help to explain how we started out, and where we ended up. Humanity started out in Eden, started out in a state of perfection, and then was thrown out because they were tempted and ultimately couldn’t follow the rules that had been put into place. That is absolutely part of what we believe. We are sinners.

At the same time, there have been too many sermons declared by too many preachers (and I’m sure that there have been times when I have fallen into this sort of description) where they only deal with the sin. It’s like getting hit over the head with a Billy Club. ‘You’re a sinner, you’re a sinner, you’re a sinner.’ And then that’s it.

Now how do we normally respond to that sort of repeated bludgeoning? We go, ‘Alright already! That’s enough! I get it!’

So, I’m not going to talk about how far we have fallen. Simply put: that’s not in question. What is in question is what are we doing to get headed back in the right direction, a direction that leads us to be closer to who God would have us be?

Because too often we get caught up either in the process of bemoaning the fact that we do mess up as much as we do, or acting as if there is nothing that can be done to adjust or correct the negative things that do exist. Both of these stances do no good in terms of how you live. In the case of the former all your doing is complaining (which gets you no where), and in the case of the latter you’re giving up hope (which is flat out contrary to the faith that we have been called to live out).

So what do we do? Let me float a premise out there and see what you think. Our scripture this morning, speaking from the perspective of the Spirit of God, talks about the majesty of creation. If God can do that, why can’t God help you to recreate yourself so that you start heading back in the right direction? Why not?

The answer is that there is no reason why God can’t, and for that matter won’t help you, to take those necessary steps. We worship here today before a communion meal that reminds us, over and over again, just how far God will go to bring us back into the sort of relationship that humanity was created to be in. If God the Father is willing to sacrifice God the Son for our sake and our sin, then God will absolutely send the Spirit to call us back from the brink that we constantly go careening toward.

That understanding pulls us back to the beginning of the passage where we hear the Spirit saying, "To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live." The Spirit is calling for us to turn around and begin to head in the direction of the Triune. The question is, are we listening?

Are we listening to that still small voice that whispers inside us as we know that we are on the edge of doing that which is contrary to who God would have us be? Because as complicated as we like to make our minds and emotions out to be, I think that all of us have that moment when, for lack of a better description, we’ve got the little angel on one shoulder and the little devil on the other. It may not be a long moment, but it’s there. That split second when you make the choice between doing what you should and doing what you shouldn’t. The Spirit is calling out, to each and every one of us, "you’ll be more than alright if you head toward God."

But so many of us think that the only way that we’ll be okay is if we take care of it. It’s the whole mentality of self-preservation where we pretend that nobody cares for us except for ourselves. That isn’t true! And we need to stop living as if it is. The Spirit is calling out the love and contentment that is found in the Triune. We need to listen to that voice because if we don’t we will end up becoming so calcified in our brokenness that we will think there is nothing that can be done.

A quick story: a few years ago I knew a pastor who, on the surface, was saying all the right things. He was talking about the power of God and how that power can be felt in people’s lives. That’s what he was saying when he was in front of the congregation. Behind the scenes, this pastor was incredibly and horribly bitter toward the world. As you listened to him, when he spoke behind the scenes, he told stories of how people were just leaches and because they were so horrible that they didn’t deserve anything but the bare minimum, because if you gave them anymore than that, then they were going to end up abusing you. In his case, he listened so much to the little devil that he began to see, more than anything else, the negative in people (maybe it was because of his own self-image), and because he did that he, himself, just kept heading away from God.

While that story tries to illuminate the point by looking at the negative side, the same can absolutely be done to the positive. During my time in college I met a guy who absolutely fought with making the right (and wrong) decisions, the decisions of God and the decisions of the world. During his first semester and a half he did what a lot of college students did when they get that first taste of freedom: he went nuts. While he didn’t go out drinking and parting every night, on the whole, he was out more than half the week.

As he described it, he woke up one cold February morning, not sure how he got back to the dorm, and thought to himself, "is this it? Is this the best that I can be?" From somewhere within him he heard the answer, "No, you can be so much more."

From that day on he did his best to listen to that still small voice, the voice that I tend to identify with the Spirit of God. Now I’m not saying that he was perfect, or that he never had another drop of alcohol, because I absolutely know that is not the case. However, once he decided to listen to that voice and began to head back in the correct direction his life was absolutely changed, because he was changed. But he had to listen, and respond to that little voice.

I have no doubts that each of us knows someone, maybe the someone who we see when we look in the mirror, and think, "if only they could get going in the right direction, their life would be so much more". Here’s the thing, in God it’s never too late to listen to the voice that is calling you to begin to head in the correct direction. It’s never too late. Listen to that voice that is of the Spirit of God and allow the God of all creation to recreate you into who you were created to be!

Holy God, it is so very easy to tune out the voice of Your Spirit and think that we are all alone and that the only choice that we have is a choice to walk farther from You. However, this is so far from the case, for in Your triune glory, it is never too late. Help us to listen for Your Spirit’s voice and the courage to follow it where it calls us to go, to follow it as it leads us back in the correct direction. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.