All Past Reflections

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost"Burdens"Rev. Brent Gundlah When I was in seventh grade, my parents adopted two brown and white baby goats named Annabelle and Phoebe. It seemed like a good idea at the time; we had a barn in the back of our property that already had a...

Fifth Sunday After Pentecost Rev. Brent Gundlah Many years ago, shortly after Valerie and I moved to New York, we were invited to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving dinner. This would be the first time she’d be spending a major holiday with my family, which was...

Fourth Sunday after PentecostHope Springs Eternal Rev. Brent Gundlah In baseball, a player’s “batting average” is calculated by taking the number of hits a player has and dividing it by the number of that player’s at-bats. The result is reported out to three decimal...

Third Sunday After Pentecost Rev. Brent Gundlah Many fathers and father-figures tend to dispense advice — sometimes with complete disregard as to whether it was actually solicited from the recipient in the first place. And I must admit that I am one such father; this...

“Roll With the Changes” — Rev. Brent Gundlah You don’t hear many reflections about the prophet Haggai these days. But since I just went through the trouble of reading names like Zerubbabel and Jehozadak, and since the folks who put the Bible together chose to include...

Trinity SundayRev. Brent Gundlah Happy Trinity Sunday, everybody! Whoa! Try not to get to fired up about it. Seriously, though — today is a big day for the church because it’s when we celebrate one of the things that makes Christianity unique: an understanding of the...

PentecostRev. Brent Gundlah Many years ago, when we were younger and bolder, Valerie and I drove out to the easternmost point in Maine in order to look at a house that was for sale. Sure, it would have been one heck of a commute between there and our jobs in New York...

Rev. Brent Gundlah I have a confession to make — don’t worry it’s nothing too bad. As you were listening to today’s gospel passage, it might have sounded familiar and, if it did, that’s because it’s the same one you heard last week. This wasn’t by design; it’s what...

Home — Rev. Brent Gundlah The pandemic experience caused me to look at many things in my life from a different perspective, including my own house. Like everyone else, I spent a whole lot more time there than I ever had before. It  was no longer just a place to...

Rev. Brent Gundlah If only church could be the way it used to be. Has that thought crossed your mind lately? Sure, we’ve come a long way since the throes of the pandemic, when pastors were preaching into cell phones in empty sanctuaries, when our interactions were at...