Read or download the text from past sermons. The most recent sermon is typically available online by 3 PM each Monday.
Sermons
Download PDF (83.11 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
January 29, 2023
Based on Matthew 5:1-12. Blessing the Un-Blessable.
There was a time in my life, maybe ten years ago, when things were really hard, and I could not see how they were going to get better. Lots of people gave advice, as people want to do, and some of it was well-meaning, and some of it was awkward, and some of it was downright bad. In the midst of it all, one piece of wisdom was so profound I return to it every time a whiff of despair whirls my way:
Download PDF (78.64 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
January 22, 2023
Based on Matthew 4:12, 17-23. One fish, two fish, Jesus calls us human fish.
It seems so obvious in hindsight. Jesus strolling along the seashore, collecting one follower after another, the way you and I collect seashells on vacation at Rehoboth Beach. Telling them to fish for people - and they do! - as if somehow that makes any more sense to first century Galileans than it does to us today.
Download PDF (87.63 KB)
Shepherdstown Presbyteian Church
Debbie Romano
December 25, 2022
Our lesson this morning comes from the Gospel according to John. Chapter 1, verses 1-4. Listen to these words and may we hear a word--of transformation:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came into being through him, and without him, not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
Wait, what? This is the scripture for Christmas Day?
Download PDF (79.17 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
January 8, 2023
Based on *Genesis 1:1-2 and Matthew 3:13-17. Creation and Re-creation
*Liturgical Reading Below
A few years into pastoral ministry, a mentor of mine checked in to see how things were going.
Download PDF (74.43 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
December 24, 2022
Based on Isaiah 9:1-5. No More Suffering
A beloved Hasidic tale, as told by the author, Holocaust survivor, and Nobel Laureate Eli Wiesel, goes something like this:
When the great Rabbi Israel Baal Shem-Tov saw misfortune threatening the Jews it was his custom to go to a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished and misfortune averted.
Download PDF (95.9 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
December 18, 2022
Based on *Matthew 1:18-21. An Angel Appears to Joseph
*incarnational translation below
One Christmas Eve, without knowing it, I assigned the Lesson in which the angel Gabriel visits Mary to an active duty police officer.
Download PDF (85.1 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
December 11 ,2022
Based on Isaiah 35.
If you pay attention to the latest CNN poll of American adults, things are going badly in our country, at least according to sixty five percent of us. By and large this grim outlook is financial, as the cost of living has skyrocketed and most of us have cut back major expenses in response.
Download PDF (86.07 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
December 4, 2022
Based on Isaiah 11:6-9. Wolves and lambs and snakes, oh my!
Those of us who came of age in the height of the Cold War in the mid-1980s might remember the lyrics of the English songwriter Gordon Sumner, also known as Sting, from the song titled simply “Russians.” As Khrushchev and Reagan and Thatcher sound the drumbeat of nuclear war, Sting sings: We share the same biology, regardless of ideology. What might save us, me and you, is if the Russians love their children, too.
Download PDF (99.75 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
November 13, 2022
Based on *1 Peter 5:1-4. Wisdom for “Church Work”
*incarnational translation below
When I was just starting out in the ministry in my early twenties, and having a bit of a hard time, one of my mentors offered words of wisdom that remain relevant to this day: Keep the faith. Do the job. Ask for help.
You can almost hear the author of our Lesson today shouting Amen, Sister! from two thousand years away.
Download PDF (77.79 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
November 6, 2022
Based on Acts 1:6-14. Jesus Tells the Apostles to Take the Long View.
It helps, now and then, goes the prayer (mis-)attributed to Oscar Romero, to step back and take a long view.
Hence, the celebration of All Saints Sunday, when we humbly acknowledge the very thin veil between all that has come before, and all that will come after, and all that comes in this present moment. Also known as the eternal now.
Download PDF (64.35 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
October 30, 2022
Based on Luke 19:1-10. Zacchaeus Finds a Friend in Jesus
Imagine someone you despise. For, you think, very good reason. Maybe that person has, you believe, caused great harm to your community. Perhaps even this community. I will not ask you to name this person – or group of people. Simply bring them into your mind’s eye.
Download PDF (125.38 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
October 16, 2022
Based on *Deuteronomy 26:1-11. Moses Institutes The Ritual of First Fruits
*incarnational translation below
The words that emerged from my lips last week when I tore my hamstring are not fit to speak in this sanctuary. Let’s just say the Lord’s name was taken in vain!
Download PDF (114.74 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
October 9, 2022
Based on *Deuteronomy 5:6-10. The First Commandment
*incarnational translation below
The story of deliverance is the central event of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Although this direct quote belongs to scholar and writer Thomas Cahill, anyone who takes the Bible seriously could say the same thing.
Download PDF (94.8 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
October 2, 2022
Based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Seasons of Human Existence
There is something beautiful to be observed about life here in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia where, comparatively speaking, four seasons come and go in a rhythmic cycle that makes sense of the world. Three distinct months of Spring, followed by three distinct months of Summer, followed by three distinct months of Autumn, concluding with three distinct months of Winter.
Download PDF (77.57 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
September 25, 2022
Based on Psalm 139:1-18. God as a Knitter/Weaver/Seamstress
Download PDF (133.58 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist\
September 18, 2022
Based on *Luke 1:46-55. Mary Claims Her Power.
*Incarnational translation below
The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart.
Download PDF (82.9 KB)
Based on Revelation 12:1-6. Protecting and Nurturing Hope
A supernatural sign appears in the sky:
A pregnant woman clothed with the sun,
standing on the moon,
wearing a crown of stars,
crying out in the torturous agony of childbirth.
Another supernatural sign appears in the sky:
A huge fire-colored serpent,
with seven heads and ten horns
and seven royal crowns.
His tail sweeps across the stars
and casts a third of them to the earth, in cosmic upheaval.
Download PDF (76.73 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
September 4, 2022
Based on Jeremiah 18:1-6. The Prophet Meets the Potter
Thou art the potter, goes the old familiar hymn. I am the clay.
Which can be comforting, if we think about it. Imagining the patient, tender, competent hand of God molding us and shaping us into a beautiful creation. Witness the communion ware and baptismal font sculpted by our own Del Martin. This is who we are, the prophet says, sculpted by the hand of God.
Download PDF (102.09 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
August 28, 2022
Based on *Luke 14:12-14. A Real Sunday Brunch
*translation below
Imagine through a series of unfortunate events, you have landed in southern Turkey in the late 1930s, in a race against Nazis, your father - Sean Connery - mortally wounded, and his only hope for help buried deep inside a cavern guarded by deadly booby traps that no one has been able to pass for 700 years.
Download PDF (95.15 KB)
Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist
August 21, 2022
Luke 13:10-17. Jesus Heals a Bent-Over Woman.
She does not ask to be healed.
Did you notice?
This woman in our Lesson from Luke, bent over by a “crippling” spirit, does not reach out in desperation, as so many others do: clinging to a garment or clamoring through a roof or crying out in anguish for help from this traveling preacher turned healer of body and soul.