All Past Reflections

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost"All Saints"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Ecclesiastes 3:3-11/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (John 11:32-44/NRSVUE) A couple of weeks ago, Valerie and I got to spend some time down in the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands...

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost"Storybook Endings"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Job 42:1-6/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 10:46-52/NRSVUE) The Disney animated movie The Little Mermaid made its way into theaters back in 1989. If you’ve been living under a rock —...

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost"Inheritance"Rev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Job 23:1-9, 16-17 / NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 10:17-31 / NRSVUE) I remember standing there in the middle of the track behind my middle school during gym class waiting to take my turn...

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost"Good People and Bad Things"World Communion SundayRev. Brent Gundlah First Reading (Job 1:1; 2:1-10/NRSVUE)Gospel Reading (Mark 10:13-16/NSRVUE) Have you ever been mad at God? I know I have. About this time last year, my sister died....

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...