The Arctic Terns were attacking all of the invaders, pecking at their hats as they walked slowly up the wooden boardwalk. The birds shrieked to warn the onlookers not to get too close. The birds flocked and busied themselves with nesting and feeding their young. One chick was falling out of the nest because of the cramped conditions nesting right on the cliff it was soon dead.

Solomon 2:12

The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land.

Life is harsh in the wild, what may seem cruel is the natural state of things. Left without human intervention the worlds life and growth would thrive I am sure, but we must put our two-peneth in, have our say in how we can help. But truth be know this earth would be a wonderfully green and pleasant place without us – it would thrive.

Right at the creation of Earth God sent his Holy Spirit down to shape and give purpose. Humankind was the last thing to be created and was supposed to be the reason for the earth, so that we could enjoy it, look after earth and all within it.

Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

God created, but it was without purpose! He sent his Holy Spirit to give it purpose. God created man & women and breathed his Spirit into them as an ember of the Spirit of God to help and sustain them through creatively, imagination and many other gifts. Humankind turned their back on God, dis-connecting that ember from the pilot light.

Jesus re-connected that dis-connection.

The Spirit which arrived at Pentecost re-ignihhted that ember that dwells in all. Despite the news reports, I believe truly that we are in the time of re-ignition. The reconnection has already happened and awaits your decision to join Jesus and live life to the full under the command of the king of all.

But what is needed is a re-ignition of that ember by the Holy Spirit!

On our holiday today we visited the farne Islands and I was amazed at the life that is going on far away from human intervention. Yes there are many humans visiting but when it matters – humans are banned. The national trust clearly recognise that we do more harm than good.

If we have accepted Jesus as Lord and saviour, and all that it entails, then we will receive the Holy Spirit. But what do we do then, ignore its prompting?

Think about it – God is within us and we ignore him for most of it!

By banning humans at various times it suggests that humans are, deep down wrong, we are deep down sinful!

This is the crux of it!

Without this recognition that we sin there can be no redemption. To have Jesus as Lord and saviour we have to accept that we sin.

He will send the Holy Spirit then to guide us. But we must take him up on the offer to follow. Pentecost is about following Gods Spirit. I don’t dwell on my sin, but I try to dwell on God. Satan wants to turn us to dwell on sin, but eventually he will fail.

Will he fail or succeed in convincing you to follow the promptings of the many wooden plaques being sold in tourist shops in Seahouses.

“The meaning of life is to do what makes YOU happy!”

This may fool some, or the young, or may even be true to a small extent – but there comes a time when sacrifice is mentioned, when sacrificing ones life for others makes one happy.

In 1838 on the farne Islands Grace Horsely Darling rescued nine sailors with her father in a small rowing boat in conditions too bad for the lifeguard and could they could have died doing such a thing. Did she do such a thing to make herself happy?

Perhaps this spirit breathed into each of us gives us each a higher calling than merely doing what makes us happy? It calls for sacrifice of ones self when reason would tell us to leave well alone. It calls for duty, and that duty of sacrifice has been shown in both young and old. Grace Darling was 22 when she set spied the wreck of a boat already half smashed through the relentless sea and decided to help with her father.

Pius yet pure, modest and yet so brave. Young and yet so wise, so meek yet resolute. – inscribed on the chapel on the farne Islands.

Do the Artic Terns attack humans constantly to make themselves happy or to help their offspring? They sacrifice their own safety for their young.

So God sacrificed his one and only son for the offspring he adopted through Jesus, through his Spirit. We are in turn called to sacrifice our life for others, to show love through sacrifice for Gods glory.

Dear Lord, fill us with your Spirit as you did to Jesus’ disciples at Pentecost so that we can love one another and love you to the end.

Through Jesus Christ

Amen.