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
January 21, 2024
Based on 1 Corinthians 7:29-31. Paul Prepares for the End of the World
One of the most beloved prayers in the recovery community, that is not often known beyond that community, is termed The Set Aside Prayer.
God, the Set Aside Prayer, says, help me to set aside everything I think I know about addiction, about recovery, about myself, and even about you, God, so that I might have a new experience with all of these things.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
January 14, 2023
Based on Psalm 139:1-18. The Beauty of the Body
Early in my ministry, as many of you know, I worked with college women around the country to claim a Christian faith that empowers women. Many of us had experienced a Christian faith that does not empower women, or people of color, or the LGBTQIA+ community, or people who live in poverty, and on and on. Much to the chagrin of Jesus, I would suggest.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
January 7, 2024
Based on Genesis 1:1-3 and Mark 1:9-11. Water, Spirit, Word, and Light
The most effective tag line in American Protestant history, in my opinion, comes to us from the United Church of Church: God is still speaking …
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
December 31, 2023
Based on Isaiah 61:11, adapted.
The earth will bring forth its shoots and a garden will cause what is sown in it to spring up.
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Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
December 24, 2023, 8 p.m.
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
December 24, 2023, 8 p.m.
Based on Isaiah 9:2, 6. Shining Light in the Darkness.
We cannot sing tonight of a child born in Bethlehem without hearing the cries from that city this Christmas.
Gone are the massive throngs who normally congregate in Manger Square. Gone are the feasts and the parades, the carols and the candles, gone is the festive celebration announcing the birth of the Prince of Peace.
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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.