All Past Reflections

Fourteenth Sunday after PentecostThe Things We Must Do — Rev. Brent Gundlah One thing that became very clear during the recent pandemic is that people really don’t like being told what to do. I mean, how many times over those three years did we hear about all of the...

Thirteenth Sunday after PentecostRev. Brent Gundlah If you ever happen to find yourself in Rome with a few hours to kill, head over to St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican; if you can’t get there in person, that’s fine because you can actually take a virtual tour of it...

Twelfth Sunday after PentecostRegrets — Rev. Brent Gundlah When people come to my office for the first time, the tend ask me about the blue post-it note taped to the door above the inside handle that says “KEYS?” in capital letters. It’s there to remind me to take my...

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost"A Sill, Small Voice" — Rev. Brent Gundlah Behind my elementary school there was a tiny stream that separated the athletic field from the woods just beyond it. It was only about six feet wide and six inches deep — not significant enough...

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Rev. Brent Gundlah Getting people with different perspectives to come together and agree on anything has never been an easy thing to do. This seems especially true these days, when every single issue that comes up results in us running to...

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost "Sowing Weeds" Rev. Brent Gundlah Well, it’s another day down on the farm with Jesus as our reading from Matthew again uses agricultural imagery to explain what God’s reign is like. In today’s parable, Jesus turns his attention to the...

Seveth Sunday after Pentecost “Sowing Seeds” — Rev. Brent Gundlah Once upon a time, I lived and served a church in a rural community in America’s “Heartland” — a place where agriculture anchors the local economy and where people work hard to raise all sorts of things....

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...