All Past Reflections

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost"Salt of the Earth"Welcoming New MembersRev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 / NSRVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 9:38-50 / NRSVUE) This particular Sunday in the middle of the long season after Pentecost is the only...

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost"Ask and You Shall Receive"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (James 3:13-4:3, 7-8/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 9:30-37/NRSVUE) Aleksander Solzhenitsyn was a Russian author and dissident whose writings shined a light upon political...

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost"Names"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (James 3:1-12/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 8:27-38/NRSVUE) The Fields Medal is one of the highest honors that a mathematician can receive; indeed, it’s often described as the Nobel Prize of that...

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost"Faith Works"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (James 2:1-17/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 7:24-37/NRSVUE) Have you ever wondered whether Jesus, having said or done something, later wished that he’d said or done something different? I...

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost"Deceiving Ourselves"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (James 1:17-29/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23/NRSVUE) Do you hear that? If you listen really carefully you can hear Martin Luther speaking words of disapproval from...

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost"Safety in Numbers"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Ephesians 6:10-20/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (John 6:56-69/NRSVUE) I was looking at the volume controls on the sound board back there earlier this week and noticed that they only go up to...

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost"Simple Wisdom"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Ephesians 5:15-20, NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (John 6:51-58, NRSVUE) Our family recently converged in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park for vacation. It may seem to you like a strange...

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost"Members of One Another"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Ephesians 4:25-5:2/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (John 6:35, 41-51/NRSVUE) I won’t be so presumptuous as to speak for you, but all of Jesus’s talk about bread lately has made me really...

Tenth Sunday after PentecostRev. Brent Gundlah"Bread" First Reading (Ephesians 4:1-16/Common English Bible)Gospel Reading (John 6:1-21/NRSVUE) Just a few weeks ago, on a hot and humid Tuesday night in Arlington, Texas, Major League Baseball held its annual Midsummer...

Ninth Sunday after PentecostRev. Brent Gundlah"Going About Our Business" First Reading (Jeremiah 23:1-6 / NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 / NRSVUE) When we last checked-in with the apostles a couple of weeks ago, Jesus had just decided to “send them out by...