Timothy B. Tutt
Pastor, United Christian Church
Sunday, August 12, 2012
10:00 AM Worship
11th Sunday of Epiphany
(Lectionary Year B)
“The Shortest Sermon You May Ever Hear”
Matthew 22:34-40
34 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced
the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked
him a question to test him. 36 ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is
the greatest?’ 37 He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38 This
is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: “You
shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40 On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets.’
.
[Note: This was my final sermon to preach as senior pastor of the United Christian Church in Austin, Texas.]
Love God and live
like it. It’s that simple and that
difficult.
Love God and live
like it. That’s all you have to do.
After 11 years, 572
Sundays, 132 council meetings, 132 newsletters, dozens of funerals, weddings
and baptisms, and approximately 2000 dishes that I have sampled at Wednesday
Night Potluck Suppers, that is what I hope you will remember: Love God and live like that.
Everything else is
just extra, and there are lots of ways to say it, but at its core, that is the
call of the Gospel: Love God and live
like it.
No matter who you
are or where you go, Love God and live like it.
If you are young
or old or gay or straight, if you are rich or poor, or a Republican or a
Democrat, if you live to be a 190 and sit in these pews every Sunday for the
rest of your life, or if you never darken the door of a church again, that is
what I hope you will remember: Love God and live like it.
Love God and live
like it.
Benediction
Friends, as you go
forth from this place, hear the Good News:
God loves you.
Do not be
afraid.
Be kind to everyone
you meet.
And remember: God
loves you.
You are loved. You are loved.
You are loved.
Amen, amen and amen.
