Read or download the text from past sermons. The most recent sermon is typically available online by 3 PM each Monday.
Sermons
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
Septermber 8, 2024
Based on Genesis 2:18. God sees the need for human community.
It was just another day at the ballpark in Hagerstown when peals of joy leapt from the throat of young Abigail Barnett, beloved child of SPC.
Look Mom! she said. All my church friends are here!
And we were.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
September 1, 2024
Based on Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Way back in June, I polled the folks who gather for Bible at the Bar on what should be the next topic of discussion. What about marriage? someone offered.
Others cringed.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
August 25, 2024
Based on John 6:63 and “Ode to Bread” by Pablo Neruda
Friends, it has been a month!
I had no idea when we began this sojourn through the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, and its discourse on Jesus as The Bread of Life, that we would land where we have landed from one week to the next.
As I shared with one of you mid-week, it seems as if the sermons this month have been preaching me, rather than the other way around.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
August 18, 2024
I will confess it has been challenging to reflect this week on a biblical teaching telling us that to eat this bread is to live forever when, in fact, so many in our community seem to be dying - of cancer, mostly.
We have been eating this bread all our lives, we might retort, and yet we are emphatically not living forever, and it feels like Jesus is lying to us, and it really is not fair, and we really do not like it.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
August 4, 2024
Based on John 6:35 and Ode to Bread by Pablo Neruda
Many of you know I spent part of my time away last month on an eight day silent retreat, filled with prayer and yoga and meditation.
On the one hand, it sounds idyllic - and it was, in part. I posted a photo of the experience on Facebook, which included the quote: some poor phoneless fool is probably sitting by a waterfall somewhere totally unaware of how angry and scared he’s supposed to be. Yes, that was me … eventually.
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Eva Barnett
July 28, 2024
Based on 2 Samuel 11: 1-15 and Psalm 14
The Power of Love Versus the Power of Lust
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July 28, 2024
Based on 2 Samuel 11: 1-15 and Psalm 14
The Power of Love Versus the Power of Lust
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Good morning. My name is Than Hitt, and today I will be reading from John 6 verses 1-15.
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.
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Christa Mastrangelo Joyce
July 21, 2024
Based on Philippians 4:4-9 NRSVUE
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Guest Reflections “Parents of SPC” July 14, 2024
Morgan Wisniewski
Based on Psalm 85: verses 8-13
8: Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
For he will speak peace to his people,
To his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
9: Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
That his glory may dwell in our land.
10. Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
July 7, 2024
Based on Luke 4:6-9. Jesus Preaches Good News.
Back in the mid-1990s, when I was working for the national church as a recent college graduate, I shared the same anti-institutional religion sentiment that is so prevalent among so many of us today.
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Brandon Dennison and Jacob Hannah
Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church
June 30, 2024
Beauty from ashes. I grew up surrounded by ash. Whether it’s the mountains of coal-ash piles of Mingo county that once employed 3 generations of my family. Or the ashes of my home, engulfed from opioid-related arson. Or the ashes of my father’s church in Wayne county, an attempt by others to cease the serving of the poor.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
June 23, 2024
Based on 2 Corinthians 6:4-10. Virtue Through Suffering
Our Lesson today brings us to the most theologically fruitful time of life for the Apostle Paul, with wisdom gleaned from many years of devotion to ministry with all too human congregations served by an all too human apostle (meaning himself).
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
June 9, 2024
Based on Mark 4:30-32. The Kingdom of God is Like a Mustard Seed.
I must confess I do not much like mustard.
Even the plain old French’s yellow version holds too much spice for my palate, not to mention the more flavorful Grey Poupon or Creole or Chinese versions of the condiment.
But here goes Jesus comparing the realm of God to a mustard seed, so I suppose I must try to pay attention.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
June 9, 2024
Based on Galatians 3:27-28. Baptism Beyond Binaries
It is a stunning reversal from the Paul we think we know: the one who is quoted in his letter to the Corinthians as telling women to keep silence in the churches; the one whose condemnation of idolatry in his letter to the Romans is misinterpreted to condemn faithful and loving same gender relationships.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
June 2, 2024
Based on Mark 2:23-27. Gleaning Grain on the Sabbath.
When and how do we eat?
The most basic of ordinary questions for Ordinary Time, for every living creature, human and more-than-human alike. From the cry of a baby for its mother’s breast to the roar of a lion for a piece of meat to the plucking of grain from the fields surrounding Capernaum for a few of the earliest disciples of Jesus, the most basic of ordinary questions for every living creature becomes when and how do we eat?
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
May 26, 2024
Based on Isaiah 6:1-8, selected verses. The Call of Isaiah.
Over the past couple of weeks several of you have asked how I am doing with all the transitions going on at SPC.
Truth be told, I have to laugh at the irony of the question. It seems, in hindsight, my very arrival as your pastor has brought nothing but transition!
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
May 19, 2024
Based on Psalm 104. The Spirit Renews the Earth.
Just about everything we do in the church, if we trace it back far enough, can be attributed to the wisdom of the earth.
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Debbie Romano
“Blessing the Distance”
May 12, 2024
Our lesson this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke chapter 24. I will offer a reflection on several verses in the chapter as we listen for God’s word in scripture and in Spirit.
(50-53) “Then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God.”
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
May 5, 2024
Based on Psalm 98. All Creation Sings with Praise
I wanted to have a hymn sing today. You and I lifting our voices in grateful song with the psalmist and the earth, the rivers and the hills, the world and those who dwell in it. Then came Tuesday, with its escalation of student campus protests against the war in Gaza. And I am compelled to speak in response.