St. Luke tells us that at the dawn of Pentecost, "Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among (the disciples), and a tongue (of flame) rested on each of them." When I picture that, I picture those twelve as human birthday candles. And why not? After all, today we observe the birthday of the Church. And I picture them not only as human birthday candles ... I envision the kind you can't blow out. When the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit blew into their lives ... well nothing this side of God's Kingdom could extinguish their faith and enthusiasm for Jesus. Happy birthday, grand old Church. Almost 2000 years old and counting.

Every once in awhile we have a group of people visiting the church for a conference of one sort or another, and I'm asked to recount the history of Grace. In a rather corny introduction, I usually say something like, "The Church began on a bright sunny morning in the city of Jerusalem, in the year 33AD, Anno Domini, the Year of our Lord. This branch office at Curry and Gomer began some years later, in 1964 to be exact." The Holy Spirit gathered those people into that Church, so long ago, just as clearly as the Holy Spirit established this congregation, not-so-long ago. It is a bit corny. I admit it. But even corn contains at least, as it were, a kernel of truth!

Can you imagine? All those people in Jerusalem, from all those countries speaking all those languages? I don't think Jerusalem has ever been as united as she was that day. I don't think the Church has ever been so united since that day of her birth.

You know how it is when a baby is born. Dad starts calling a circle of family members and friends. "Hi - this is Danny. She's here. She's healthy. Ten fingers, ten toes. What a miracle!" Whatever the family dynamics - whatever petty discords that exist among the in-laws and between the siblings - the birth of a baby brings everyone together! "Hi - this is Danny. She's here. She's healthy. Ten fingers, ten toes. What a miracle!" I'm anticipating such a phone call in four months from my son Christopher.

On this Day of Pentecost, the message from Scripture is somewhat similar, "Hi, this is Luke. The Church is born. She's healthy. Twelve apostles; twelve tongues of flame. What a miracle!" Or, to use another analogy, the Holy Spirit whooshed the disciples on the backside and tells the world, "Congratulations. It's a Church!"

William Sloane Coffin once described the church this way. "It seems to me," he writes, "that in joining the church you leave home and hometown to join a larger world. The whole world is your new neighborhood and all who dwell therein - black, white, yellow, red, stuffed and starving, smart and stupid, mighty and lowly, criminal and self-respecting, American or Iraqi - all become your sisters and brothers in the new family formed in Jesus. By joining a church you declare your individuality in the most radical way in order to affirm community on the widest possible scale." Coffin has a way with words, doesn't he? "By joining a church you declare your individuality in the most radical way in order to affirm community on the widest possible scale."

Now community does not mean we all believe and act in the very same way. When the Elamites, Parthians, and Medes each heard in their own language the message of Pentecost ... they did not immediately begin to speak one common language, and adopt new dress codes and traditions. They did not lose their identities as Elamites, Parthians, and Medes. But, but - on that day of Pentecost, those who became members of the Church of Jesus Christ found themselves members of a new community - one that defined them from that point on. So that even when they returned to Elam, and Parthia, and Media, they possessed a greater loyalty than that of family and flag ... their loyalty to Jesus Christ. The power of Pentecost is a message that transcends human loyalties and national boundaries and binds us together as people of faith. Not all on the same team (think denominations), but all in the same league (think the Church of Jesus Christ).

One of the most remarkable things about this Pentecost story is the fact that the Elamites, Medes and Persians all heard the disciples preaching ... in their own mother tongue! For the most part, these disciples were bright men ... but with little education, and almost certainly no knowledge of foreign languages. And yet they began to speak, not in Aramaic, their mother tongue, but in foreign tongues, and yet with a clearly recognized Galilean accent! The Word of God is seldom heard with perfect heavenly diction ... whatever that means. No, the voice of God is heard from human tongues with human accents.

On this Holy Day and holiday, I'd like to speak briefly to the holiday: Mother's Day. I've been using the phrase "mother tongue," to describe how we usually hear the voice of God. I would guess that for many of us, and I know it was true in my family, my sisters and I first heard the word of God, meaning the word about God, in our mother tongue, English, and from our mother's tongue. In my earliest recollections, it was not, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Rather, I knew Jesus loved me because my mother told me so. Later, it was confirmed for me in more detail in the pages of the Bible. Initially though, it was through a human voice with the accent of Mother.

I know some of your stories and I know that for some of you your experience does not mirror mine. Maybe at a certain point in your life you picked up the Bible cold, as it were, and were brought to faith by the written word. If it happened that way, God has blessed you. But for most of us, we first heard of God's love in our mother tongue, and often from the tongue of our mother. May God bless all parents, and on this Mother's Day, may God bless mothers with faith, love and the accent of God!

Now I'll leave the holiday and get back to the Holy Day ... and what it means for you and me and our life together in this community called Church. A few weeks ago, as reported on ESPN (the sports network), two college softball teams were playing for the opportunity to advance to the next round of the playoffs. One team from Oregon and the other from the State of Washington. The winner advances; the loser goes home. An Oregon senior, five-foot-two Sara Tucholsky, hit the first home run of her four year career. She was so excited she missed first base and immediately turned to touch it ... and fell to the ground as she blew out her knee. None of her teammates could touch her, or else the home run would be only a single. Her first home run, giving her team the lead in a crucial game ... and she could not run to home. The star of the other team, also a senior, asked the umpire if she and a teammate could carry Sara around the bases. The umpire said that was allowed, so they picked up their opponent and carried her to second base, and gently set her down to touch the base. They picked her up and carried her to third, and gently set her down to touch the base. They carried her to home plate, and set her down to make the home run official. Oregon won the game but that begs the question: who are the winners? A hint: there appear to be no losers.

This is how I see the Holy Spirit - it is the presence of Almighty God upon the lips and in the lives of those who are gathered together in this community we call the Church. And in this fallible human community, you and I pick each other up, and inspired by the Spirit, we support one another all the day long on our journey toward home. That might be just as corny as my history of Grace. But remember - even in corn there's a kernel of truth.