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
December 24, 2023, 11 am Service
Based on 1 John 4:7.
Beloved, you should love.
Don’t forget the most important thing, we say to our children at the end of First Pew every Sunday: God loves you! And so do we …
We hope it sinks in. That it really, truly, sticks in their soul. So that when all the lies of un-loved-ness they will inevitably receive in this world tell them the exact opposite, those lies will simply slide off the backs of our children - and ourselves - like so much water down the drain.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
December 17, 2023
Based on 1 Thessalonians 5:16
Rejoice always.
We can tell a little something about the state of the world, this Third Sunday of Advent, Two Thousand Twenty Three, when the headlines out of Bethlehem proclaim: Christmas Is Canceled.
Bethlehem is sad and broken, says the Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, Pastor of the Christmas Lutheran Church. If Christ were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
December 10, 2023
Based on 2 Peter 3:14, adapted
Beloved, while you are waiting, strive to be found at peace.
We begin, as we should, with Beloved.
If you hear nothing else from me today or throughout our entire service of worship, hear this: A great love permeates the universe from the beginning of time through the end. That love has claimed you [insert your name here] - by name! - and simply wants you to be well.
And also y’all, SPC.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
December 3, 2023
Based on 1 Corinthians 1:7
You are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
YOU [insert your name here],
And also Y’ALL, meaning you plural in the Greek, meaning the Church, meaning SPC, meaning the Corinthians in the first century, meaning all of the various branches and denominations and independent sects of communities who follow the Way of Jesus,
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
November 26, 2023
“The Honorable Harvest”
Based on Matthew 25:31-46. The Feast at the End of Time
Whether we have known it or not, you and I here at SPC have been building up to this particular liturgical moment for the entire month of November and even, truth be told for the entire year. Today we celebrate a mythological vision of an honorable harvest at the end of time when all has finally been made well and we can feast at the table in a Reign of Love forever and ever amen.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
November 19, 2023
Based on Matthew 25:41-46 and “The Powwow at the End of the World” by Sherman Alexie, Spokane
It is hard for us, I know, to hear such words of judgment from Jesus. He is supposed to be loving and kind, we say here at SPC, full of grace and mercy - which he is! - not cursing us to eternal punishment in a pit of fire.
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
“Holding Up Stars”
November 12, 2023
Based on Matthew 25:31-40. Jesus Tells Us Who He Is.
Imagine, if you are a parent, and even if you are not, that one day your beloved child leaps off the school bus, bounds into the house, starry eyed, with a gleeful grin and declares, “When I grow up, I want to be … hungry!”
Oh, and thirsty, too!
Don’t forget sick and in prison.
And then with the biggest gleefulest grin of all: When I grow up, I want to be NAKED!!!
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
“Holding Up Stars”
November 12, 2023
Based on Matthew 25:31-40. Jesus Tells Us Who He Is.
Imagine, if you are a parent, and even if you are not, that one day your beloved child leaps off the school bus, bounds into the house, starry eyed, with a gleeful grin and declares, “When I grow up, I want to be … hungry!”
Oh, and thirsty, too!
Don’t forget sick and in prison.
And then with the biggest gleefulest grin of all: When I grow up, I want to be NAKED!!!
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
“Contemplation and Action”
November 5, 2023
Based on Matthew 25:31-40. Jesus Tells Us What Really Matters
On All Saints Sunday, we are compelled to admit things tend to become quite a bit more clear in that moment when death begins to have its hooks in us. All of the things we think are so important suddenly fade: prosperity, prestige, even an ego-driven sense of purpose.
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Rev. Dwight McCormick
October 29, 2023
“Forgiving God”
Sermon on Jonah 3:3-4:10
Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
October 22, 2023
Based on Romans 7:15-25. Paul Admits His Shortcomings
Poor Paul. He really does want to get it right.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
October 15, 2023
Based on Matthew 18:15-17, 21-22. Forgiving Seventy Times Seven.
There was a time, back when school shootings still seemed shocking, that a community’s response seemed more shocking still.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
October 8, 2023
Based on Matthew 6:8-13. The Prayer of Jesus.
The sermon topic request was stark: Forgiveness, it read. HELP!
My guess, although I do not know for sure, is that this plea relates to forgiving someone else. Someone has caused great harm to the one requesting this sermon topic. How in the world can we forgive when we are still wounded by the hurt?
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquistt
October 1, 2023
Based on *Exodus 17:1-17. A Place of Respite in the Wilderness
*incarnational translation below
It is supposed to be a place of rest. This well-known oasis in the wilderness where Moses leads the people, a couple of months beyond their liberation from Egypt. It is supposed to be a spring of living water gushing from the rocks to whet the thirst of all who come, human and more-than-human alike.
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Gusti Linnea Newquist
September 24, 2023
Based on *Ephesians 4:25-32, selected verses. On Anger.
*incarnational translation below
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Gusti Linnea Newquist
September 17, 2023
Based on Exodus 15:1b-11. An Ancient Liturgy of Freedom
Note: One hundred sixty-one years ago, on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day in American history unfolded on the Battlefield of Antietam, turning the sanctuary of Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church into a Confederate hospital, and leading to the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed those who were enslaved within the very walls of SPC that day.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
July 30, 2023
Based on Psalm 22. Praising God in the Church.
With the notable exception of the 23rd Psalm, Psalm 22 is the most recognizable of these biblical hymns. We just don’t know that we know it.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
“Live Long and Prosper”
Based on *Luke 7:18-22. Jesus Confirms He Is “The One”
*translation below
Three weeks ago, on a hot June Sunday afternoon, yours truly practiced what we call “the ministry of presence” during what I hope will become the first annual Guns to Gardens event in Shepherdstown.