What beautiful scripture we have to base this service on today.  Psalm 139 is not a situational reading that only fits into the lives of some. It is not a scripture that only fits into a specific issue or time.  Psalm 139 is each and every one of our lives every day.  Even when we do not remember that God is present, even when our minds are distracted by the obstacles, struggles, and just business of everyday life, this scripture holds true, and active.
Not only is it fitting in our lives, but it is easy to understand; God cares for us, God is with us, and God’s love is all around us.  But what does that really mean? How do we see God acting in our lives?  These are the questions that I never asked myself before I came to DC; I had just known that God was in my life.  I knew that when I fall, I am caught. I knew that when I wobble on my path, I can expect to feel God’s hand upon my shoulder holding me steady.  But that’s all spiritual imagery is it not?  How does God APPEAR in the world?  What does God literally DO that makes me say, “Yeah, God got me through that. He always knows what to do.”?  I knew that I was being guided,  I knew God was putting me where I belonged, I knew the Spirit was providing me with moments of support and calmness,  but I didn’t see how God was working in the world to do this.  That is, until I came here.
Leaving Cleveland and coming here to Washington was a big step, but I had felt that “God opened a door” feeling, and that this is where I was supposed to be, and so I didn’t doubt.  This trust in God is the only way that I am able to make these leaps.  My family and friends see me as a very independent person, but I am never doing this alone. 
So here I am, working in a beautiful church, with amazing people, gaining experiences I never thought that I’d have the chance to. Most of you know that I’ve been working mostly with the homeless population.  Many of you have also been working with them.  It is a rewarding experience.  When I look back on this summer, I know I will look back on Ashley, Jeff, and many of you as my teachers, but I never expected to say that about the people whom I thought I was serving.   This is a group of people who brought me to see God in a new way.  I knew before I came that God was all around me, but I always thought: beauty of nature, the kids playing in the park, and the hugging someone you love.  Suddenly, I’m seeing God in more; I get to see God, in the ordinary. 
When working at SOME or So others might eat in my first week here, something amazing happened.  I was standing on the serving line, enjoying the music, enjoying the opportunity to serve, when I looked up.  From across the dining room I saw a man looking right at me, almost as if he was waiting for me to look at him.  He smiled, and it pierced right through me. 
There was no doubt in my mind, at that instant that Jesus was sitting at that table, smiling at me through that man.  After that, I always looked every person in the eye that I was serving.  I kept my eye out for God because I almost expected Jesus to pop out at me at any time.  Perhaps you can relate to this. 
That man, most likely does not know what an impact he made on my life that day.  But I feel that he played a part in a lesson, maybe the most important lesson that I’ve learned here, and that is that God really is in everything, in everyone.  So with that experience, and this new view, I began searching, trying to find God in everything that I was doing.
That smiling instant was what it took for me to start looking.  A week or two after this, I led the Pilgrimage Walk which some of you went on last week.  This is a great way to begin seeing God in the ordinary world that we see every day, and I hope that you will all have the chance to participate in that journey sometime.
Life is the story of creation, the struggle of Exodus, and the life of Christ. We might not be facing the harsh struggles of Exodus, but we, and those around us are all facing our own obstacles which we must overcome.  These connections, the connections of my faith, and the ordinary, are what I live every day for.  Watching the faces of the pilgrimage groups, teens and leaders alike, as they make great connections between what they are doing here and DC and something in the scripture…. It’s priceless.  I have been lucky to see, and be part of these groups, truly doing service learning.  They are finding God in the homeless, in the poverty stricken, in the hungry.  I hear often down in the pilgrimage: “we came to DC to serve, but we never thought that WE would be the ones being served.”
These groups, and myself are “served” by those we serve every day.  We give them food, comfort, and conversation; they give us smiles, and lessons, and God.
One thing, in my life that has really been affected by my experiences here is a little thing called prayer.  One day, while walking in the park, I saw an older homeless man praising God, arms reaching to the sky, repentance and gratitude coming from his mouth.  Many people would see this as crazy,  and not to say that this man didn’t have some sort of disorder, but because I was searching for God, and in knowing that God has reason for everything, I saw this prayer as something that I was lacking.  It was a lesson taught through someone I didn’t expect to be taught from. 
Many of the homeless have great faith.  If you go out to talk with them, most of them will speak forever about God, the importance of him in YOUR own life.
One day, while productively examining facebook, I came across my favorite quote.  It is by a man named Frank Bianco, and it reads:  “If you begin to live life looking for the God that is all around you, every moment becomes a prayer.”  
What a perfect fit.  God is all around us.  God is the reason for our existence, and knows everything there is to know about us. God is so much a part of our lives in every moment; we just have to learn to see the Spirit within it.  It’s not easy remembering to do this.  When you’re taking the same route to work, to the metro, to the grocery store every day, it’s easy to not notice the God in the things we see over and over again.  Even in the many days though that I forget to see God in the world, looking back, I know God was there. God was there in the homeless veteran on the street, God was there in the power and beauty of the Independence Day fireworks, God can be found in every meal that we eat, and every step we take.   Even when I fail to see God at all, I know that I am not alone.  Even when I’m at my lowest, when I fall into sin, when I am not doing anything for anyone but myself Psalm 139 can draw me back in.  For even darkness is light to Him. 
And when we are confused… we can’t make a decision, we don’t know what to do, we don’t know what we even WANT to do, God is there, and not only there, but there guiding us.  God knows us more than we know ourselves.  If we listen, if we watch, if we’re patient we’ll see where we belong. 
We probably won’t get a parting of the sea to show us our path, but trust that God will open a path, using this world. We just have to be ready to see it.