A Letter from Pastor Erlandson Dear Friends, Happy birthday, Church!  How does it feel to be 120 years old?!  Seriously, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer was founded in 1890, and so on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, we celebrated the 120th year of the congregation – with birthday cake!   As Pentecost is the “birthday of the Church”, begun on that day when the winds of the Holy Spirit blew on the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, it seemed a good day to celebrate what God has done with us for the past 120 years.  It was also a day to look forward to the present and future promise that God holds for us as a congregation in this community. On that first Pentecost, God’s Spirit empowered a group of fearful disciples waiting in Jerusalem for a “sign from God”, into a Church – an assembly of believers – who would bring the good news of God’s love for the world, shown in the person of Jesus Christ, to all the world.  This mission from God for the Church continues to the present day.  Redeemer is but one congregation, commissioned to be a witness in this St. Paul neighborhood for the good news of Jesus.  We started as a small group of German immigrants who wanted to worship in English and teach the Christian faith in English to their children.  Over the years we have been witnesses for God’s mercy and grace to thousands of people in St. Paul, and we are no longer defined only by our German ancestry.  It is more our Lutheran heritage that defines us now, along with our hospitality, our grounding in the scriptures and in the liturgical worship tradition, plus the richness of our diversity in this multicultural urban community.  For now people of many nations have come to St. Paul – we do not share one ethnic heritage.  So we find that our focus on the scriptures and our grounding in liturgical worship what gives us our unity and brings us together.  That, with our passion for showing the hospitality of Christ to all who worship with us, and for accepting and reconciling with one another as brothers and sisters. Now that we have entered the Pentecost season, which will last from now until Advent, we are also defined by this feast of Pentecost which birthed the Church in witness to the nations.  We may not be “Pentecostals”, but we are evangelical – part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  This means that our identity is found in sharing the good news of grace that we have received in Christ our Lord with our neighbors.  The future, then, will be like our past – continually expanding the boundaries of our witness to include new neighbors, and welcoming the stranger.  By being faithful to our witness, we are assured that the fruits of the Spirit will be beyond what we can imagine today.  120 years down the road we are a much different congregation than we were when we were founded.  This will always be true.  So the rich promises of God continue for us today, that our witness will always bear fruit when it is based on the grace, mercy and love of God in Christ Jesus.  So let’s continue our witness, in Jesus’ name. Peace in Christ, Pastor Jim Erlandson