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!!!
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!!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Gusti Linnea Newquist
September 24, 2023
Based on *Ephesians 4:25-32, selected verses. On Anger.
*incarnational translation below
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.
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.
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.
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
"PRIDE-Making Progress
June 4, 2023
Based on Luke 9:1-6. Shaking the Dust
In the early 1960s a man named Johnny Zander found himself out of a job.
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
May 21, 2023
Based on Luke 24:49-53. Jesus Ascends Into Heaven
They were continually in the temple blessing God. Luke’s version of they all lived happily ever after. Even as Jesus really was leaving them. For good this time. And they really would now have to figure out how to do their ministry without him.
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
May 14, 2023
Based on John 14:18-19. Jesus will not leave us orphaned.
In a beautiful description of first century gender bending, Jesus describes himself, in Matthew’s Gospel, as a mother hen, desiring to enfold her vulnerable hatchlings into the protective shelter of her wings to nurture, guide, and defend.
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
April 30, 2023
Based on Acts 2:42-47. The Apostles Practice Radical Hospitality
We Choose Welcome, we say here at Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church. Radical Hospitality, we call it. Insisting that everyone and everything, and every part of ourselves, is included in the circle of God’s love. Including you. Including me.
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church put it this way, in a posting that went viral on Facebook a few years ago:
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
April 23, 2023
Based on Luke 24:13-35. Mourning-to-Hope at the Table
A few weeks ago, our own Mary Anne Hitt found herself in the role of guest speaker on a college campus, speaking to students about her work in the climate justice movement. Her biggest takeaway from the experience was the profound lack of hope so many of the students conveyed.