All Past Reflections

Fourth Sunday of Easter"The Good Shepherd" — Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Ezekiel 34:1-10/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (John 10:1-11/NRSVUE) One summer when our daughters were very young we took them to a local carnival where they wanted to play one of those games of...

Second Sunday after Easter"Doubt" — Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Acts 2:14a, 22-32/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (John 20:19-31/NRSVUE) Anyone who’s been around church for a while could tell you that the Sunday after Easter, the Sunday after Christmas, Sundays of...

"A New Beginning"— Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Colossians 3:1-4, NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Matthew 28:1-10, NRSVUE) About this time of year back in 1957, Elvis Presley — the “King of Rock and Roll” — released a song that was number one on the Billboard Top 100 for...

Palm SundaySixth Sunday in Lent"The Good News Is...Inspiring Us to Act"— Rev. Brent Gundlah Zechariah 9:9-10Matthew 21:1-17 The story of Palm Sunday is one of the toughest a preacher has to deal with all year because it’s so familiar and so simple. Jesus rides into...

Fifth Sunday in Lent"Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness" — Rev. Brent Gundlah First Gospel Reading (John 8:2-11/NRSVUE)Second Gospel Reading (Matthew 23:23/NRSVUE) Today’s first reading from John’s Gospel is a really good story in and of itself, but there’s more to it...

Fourth Sunday in Lent"The Alien, the Orphan, and the Widow" — Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Deuteronomy 24:17-22/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Matthew 19:13-15/NRSVUE) Karl Barth was a minister in the Swiss Reformed Church and is widely acknowledged as being one of the...

Third Sunday in Lent"Impossible?" — Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Ephesians 3:20-21/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 6:32-40/NRSVUE) When I left the finance business to do this ministry thing I thought I’d also left behind that industry’s obsession with numbers, but I...

First Sunday in Lent"Surprises" — Rev. Brent Gundlah First Gospel Reading (John 2:1-11/NRSVUE)Second Gospel Reading (Matthew 13:31-32/NRSVUE) Not long after I decided to become a minister, both of my daughters made it very clear that they don’t want me to officiate...

Transfiguration Sunday"Being Change" — Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Exodus 24:12-18/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Matthew 17:1-9/NRSVUE) There are moments in all of our lives that provoke us into seeing things differently than we had before. And moments like these can...

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany"Let Your Light Shine" — Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (1 Corinthians 2:1-12/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Matthew 5:13-20/NRSVUE) One night not long ago I woke up at about three a.m. and just couldn’t to get back to sleep. After about a...