All Past Reflections

Eighth Sunday after PentecostRev. Brent Gundlah"Choices" First Reading (Amos 7:7-15, NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (John 6:1-21, NRSVUE) I don’t know if you’ve noticed but pretty much every Sunday, right after I’ve finished reading the gospel passage, I say those same five...

Seventh Sunday after PentecostRev. Brent Gundlah"Going Home" First Reading (Ezekiel 2:1-5/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 6:1-13/NRSVUE) Jesus delivers. And by “delivers,” I don’t mean that Jesus frees anyone from captivity or constraint (like God did for the Israelites...

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost"Why Are You Afraid?"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Job 38:1-11, NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 4:35-41, NRSVUE) “Why were you afraid?” Jesus asks his disciples near the end of today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel. And, at least at some...

Fourth Sunday after PentecostThe Power of a ParableRev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Ezekiel 17:22-24, NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 4:26-34, NRSVUE) Over the past month or so we’ve been working on a little project at home, which has been… fun. Because water is, as we...

Third Sunday after PentecostHide and SeekRev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Genesis 3:8-15, NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 3:20-25, NRSVUE) The neighborhood in which I spent my elementary school years was a pretty awesome place (even if I didn’t appreciate it at the...

Second Sunday after PentecostPride SundayRev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (2 Corinthians 4:5-12/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 2:23-3:6/NRSVUE) At the last church I served, there was a box sitting on a table in the Sunday School classroom with a sign on it that said:...

Trinity Sunday"A Proper Community"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Isaiah 6:1-8/NRSVUE)Second Reading (John 3:1-17/NRSVUE) Okay, so here’s something I never imagined I’d be saying out loud in church (or anywhere else for that matter): Listen now to the word of God as...

Day of PentecostRev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Ezekiel 37:1-14/NRSVUE)Second Reading (Acts 2:1-21/NRSVUE) Creatio de novo is a theological term that means “creation without the use of any preexisting materials” or “creation from the new.” Because the early church...

First Reading (Acts 1:1-11, NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Luke 24:44-53, NRSVUE)The Ascension of Christ — Rev. Brent Gundlah Today’s just one of those days — or, to be more accurate, it’s three of those days; and therein lies a problem. You see, today we get ourselves a trio...

Sixth Sunday in Easter First Reading (1 John 5:1-6, NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (John 15:9-17, NRSVUE)"Love One Another" — Rev. Brent Gundlah In 1949 the legendary comedian Groucho Marx decided to relinquish his membership in New York’s prestigious Friars’ Club. As the...