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GA BICENTENNIAL FUND MEETING
CINCINNATI, OHIO

OCTOBER 19, 1991

JOHN M. BUCHANAN, PASTOR

FOURTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

nyRsi
Scripture
2 Corinthians 1:12-22
John 21:16
—e it might legitimately be asked,/Why us Why now? Why
in the world is the Presbyterian Chureh U.S.A.) ing about

raising an enormous amount of money, $150 million, now, of all

times?

The American economy is flat, at best. (rs may be emerging
from a recession but it is not a dramatic energence. | In fact it
is not visible among most’ of the people who sit in Presbyterian

pews these days. Why now?

' Furthermore, 1 Vuine tre tes are not exactly at the top of

ES

our gaiie these days. ||Like the baseball team which plays closest

to the neighborhood where I live and move and have being, and to

whom I have ‘given my heart —yin spite of common sense and the

harsh schoolmaster of history, the Chicago Cubs and the Presbyte-

se

rian Church look better on paper than in real life:} both exist
~~ a ii.

with high hopes, noble aspirations and inconsistent pitching. (4

Both live with the dreary recent past by way of an undying escha-

“ Wi lost ae jor bed 7

1 Fr
po tet moe loot BH v
_ pp lack 2 FG Oe) ean

bie swf chun by Cy-Lib:, Mell bul qe

/

tological focus - "wait till next year!" eye tom as far as

that metaphor will go, I suspect.

And yet we Presbyterians and the Chicago Cubs have been here
. Pa
from our respective\beginnings, charter s of the league.

— —.
SSS,

ly as glamorous and
frayChises || When the media

wants a story about a supér~Gperch in Seeage it's Willow Creek

Community and not fourth Aplanyteniy +». which it seems to me is

the ecclesiastical equi ing a world series in some

place God did not me played - like Toronto.

For twenty years we have been lamenting the slow decline of

c

na mainline oneness our culture. We have been engaging in
corporate hand-wrihiging for as long as I've been an _ ordained
minister. We“Are reduced to cheering whenever the rate of de-
cline sl ha a bit. So why a church-wide campaign to raise $150

million?

And on top of it all, when we finally found ourselves back

==,

in the center of things reeentby, the subject of front page

newspaper attention, fina even the nétwork evening news, it wasn't

because of our commitments to peace and facial justice, or our
eee ms MS -

good works and brilliant theology, but because we were talking
——

out loud about aee| You'd think we'd lie low for a while,| lick
ae | se

our wounds,\get our act together and reorganize ourselves a_ few
—_— _=Ko_

ee.

more times, before we stuck our corporate neck out ara” pakent tal

~~

4 L ts wea
| PULA WAS ee ae | te aides ah

fides — CSS tpt GS satel 4 es gp een
Qk toh eh - i, YO Wetoantne Hote D>
— >
thy . eo willow
maser Wa ere doeryil
Thewamsumr has to do with our(Faith at its deepest

a level so deep in the soul of this church
|

&
and so deep in your heart and mine that there are no words elo-

=<

| ee a 4
é &
quent enough to express it. | x is our basic attitude | ow funda-

mental world view: [ wnat the Germans call “weltensha un ":[as men
Me age

—

and women whore lives have been touched, whose very being has
SS a ceicaiot

=e ss. eee

been reshaped by God's love in Jesus Christ. | It is best ex-
<= a eee teen a ey

pressed perhaps in one three-letter wo

Scr
wy script

St. Paul, clearly | struggling to say what he means with

clarity and not getting the job done very well, I think gives up,
Pe = Ae Sool

|

puts his systematic, Pharisaical-logic aside, and says it this

way, finally: 4

=? "the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was not 'Yes and no,' but in
him it is always 'Yes.' For in him every one of God's promises
isa 'yes.1") 12 Corinthians 1:20]
Cea
We were sitting in my study talking about the Bicentennial

Fund with an advertising man who is employed by one of the large
see | a -———ey

Chicago agencies:| a concept and design man, who among other
=

things created the/"Nut and Honey" TV ads.

cs areel ni

He's a good churchman, knows the Bible. | We agked him to

help us with our Chicago campaign. \ Roy said he didn't know much

See
about church fund raising and wondered where to begin...]| So he
— — —
went home and of all things got out his Bible and wrote down the
—_S4 L i]

New Testament, passages that struck him and related to this

etfort. [nen we met next we sat in my study and the ad man read
e

—
us verses from his New testament, [and he said this is what I
Ty eae”
have been thinking - and this is what I propose our campaign

——

theme ought to be, and he pulled out two small posters- One said

"Yes, we can” and the other simply sai es)
—~ Our Wa we ~ Utes — Yes Wn Cam

We have set ourselves to the task of raising $150 million

for the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. | we have set out to
(tee ee

give this church of ours the opportunity to renew and rebuild
‘Qomec, ex Toa

itself after decades—of diminishing..numbers, \ aiminishing hope,
Ce a

diminishing confidence.\ we have set out to do some new things,
[a em nae,
to fix up some existing projects and to think anew about being

In the Bicentennial
—— |

Fund we have set out, in the face of a ersistent, negative

chorus of "no's," "what if's," and "yes but's," to

can do something in our day that will provide a Presbyterian

witness for our children and their children for our country and
EE ey, 6m Fo oa!

God's Presbyterian people in a new century.

—

our world... which I am Presbyterian enough to believe would be
= a ==

infinitely poorer without the feisty faith of Presbyterian men
[ot

and women.

‘Dor Worst hy oe =e
aa} if *\ { 4
wa hy oslade 3 GA New
rl Van My - ,
pS ~ ‘ha 7 iy, “ Lay

lpcal—> Catary —

a

You haWe set out ei raise fa} million-with a llenge goal
of $1.6 wittion #itnin your own fa in th esbyt of Great

7 ———__.
Fs

Rivers. / A) of lh "x

a

What an exciting pro ctus - balanced, but ambitious!

money that will remaing wl in this Presbytery will dos ie very
good things, some cr ativp and navative, e ideas, Mivich look
to the future with ODe. Jana Avni h expréss the very best of our
Presbyterian Sragfe yon: | a pain and compassi Cease spirit, an
educated laity, bd co itmént to shelter the homeless,

to visit the pris@ner and/to stahd, squarely in the name of Jesus

Christ in the midst of human need.

_ > he fact that the Presbyterian Church nationally, and
\WWA _—————

yew? here in this presbytery, \have dared to_dream a little, and

=,

hope a little, have dared to stop wringing our hands over the ae
dé plorab state of the ar actually spend alittle of our

time and energy asking about what new things God may be calling

us to do, is in itself a aye life-giving a

We a

cal Lt Nov - ute.

im

andes Petre se Fe v's SMHS very Presbytertatn=.in

CY But i oie be ari It is not an easy time in the church

oe

kinds igs | (Avd—pecr Eo be taken seriously in
. 4 fll So

re codi

iT laetew teas

style of his,

(He,says: "There is no 9 hope. aie

"There is ani Gompggaton.

Aa
He says\ "There is wi Geren. " c=

She says: "Shere is“he future." V ao Me Vly
(te says: "Thera is only chaos." prs

\euly isolation.”

rel

deepair'. "

She says: "thére

He says: "There is on

ra
ghe seys: "I could talk to\your forever!"

He says: "You really turn me on!"

———> The editor of a major newspaper wrote an editorial recently
on the pessimism and depression he senses in the American spirit.
The newspaper editor calls it

———s -
narcissism from which we preachers ‘got-so much mileage.

e New Cynicism, after the new

He writes:/ "As America mopes and the economy falls in the nine-

ties, cynicism soars."
EEE

Echoing the late Bert Giamatti's thesis that the best way to

understand a culture is to. obseryé_how it "plays." | This commen-
tator proposed sndK popurny/certainoont always reflects the

amaetices e
(Semen health of a culture - and he finds ours to be over-

whelmingly pessimistic and ugly. (‘Hard cépy," "Unsolved ~Myster-

ies," | "eae A ; fi : . eieidiaeas —
= 3 = a = Hit tio =. [ : Ho —— c ere ——- —— onan so at a no
rules, no punishment, no regre fasts no hope. d
Did 5 ET: 34 Sa kegres> MA wae ~ pies
Simpsone*” wi belch \jokes and “pathraai titers.

ri i ieee

—
‘ep wy on eynically (nnooiePas thatxwe can't change the world,
we gan a, ee a ee

—— Yes we can?| Not an easy word to say and be taken seriously.
ein [aati es

Ag

iN

But the saying it is, I believe, critical. \re is what I believe
ee ————

_ ——————

God calls us to say - YG »-qmiweeagn.

President Henry Copeland at the College of Wooster began a

—

fine opening convocation last fall by telling the Aesop Fable -

Belling the Cat:

| "Long ago, the mice held a general _ council to consider what

measures they could take to outwit their common enemy, the

Cat..."/The discussion waxed and waned until they finally agreed
SESS mm SS

=

that their life would be much safer if they simply had some
qe

warning when the cat was about \ soneone should affix a small
be ee eee

bell around the cat's neck. \ When the cat approached, the bell

would ring and the mice could niae.\ The proposal met with gener-

=

age =o
al applause. \ what a wonderful notion...("Belling the Cat." 7

But there is an unhappy ending to Aesop's apie. | A wise old

[a

mouse gets up and says:(“what an admirable notion, but who will

ea tae |
bell the cat?" The mice looked at one another and nobody
=e Sie ey
spoke... \ No one was willing to take the risk of assuming respon-
a
sibility.

Copeland observes that the notion of responsibility has not
ae =

fared well in our tine. ( "On a personal level, given a _ choice,

many of us prefer narcotic pleasures that dull the mind and quell

See tm,

the search for meaning."
ho

And then, for me the crux,|"Toward our institutions we
cultivate a stance of ironic distance and to the extent possible

a ——__

avoid becoming responsible for their_well-heing."j) The "politics

of blame" has become the predominant mode, rather than caring for

a) i eed
our institutions."
Ler
/ ;
I was reminded of Juergan 's devastating analysis
aa — 2c =,

that ("over the developed and-affluent Western societies, there

a

seems to hang a banner which says "No Future..."
————h — ee

And of sslie Newpeg ites recent caveat enat (en religion
— ak —— pa

loses its ability to hope for a different future all its energy
a, ==

disappears into private eschatology" J[The Gospel in a Pluralis-

tic Society] And of current thought-shapers Sally McFagute,

ey
Models of God, and uglas Jolin HalY, The Steward, arguing elo-
[ee

See

—

quently and passionate a new ethicgof responsibility.
/ Cn
wat of clengal = (Geler ¥
Prva Wim, lo aud a ‘0 ep
led

I was reminded of Coceion penn allah 's observation that
ae
eo

enmmmmepensinenst™ —_ )
"the sin of respectable people is running from responsibility"

anid the way he personally lived out the truth_that Christian

people are called by God to accept responsibility as citizens of
the world were God places them.
Mmm REIT teceellh

And I was reminded of how easy it is to look at the state of
ee

the church \ and blame the people in Lguisvilte,\ or the people

—— SS

before them in New York city, or Angela Davis, \or the Presbytery,

ad
or the seminaries, \or the liberals, or the conservatives, or the
ee 2 ae , ee al
social activists, or the evangelicals, or the members of the Task

Force on Human Sexuality.

I conclude it is time to stop and to assume responsibility

for this church of ours ; [eo stop blaming others, \to stop wringing
ee ee eae)

our hands -} not to stop arguing and discussing and studying,

fl

that's what we do best...| maybe in the broad ecology of the Holy
acini

Catholic Church, asking and exploring the tough questions is our

We A

particular Presbyterian assignment. \ In any event, we've certain-

ly become expert at it!
eo

It's time, not to stop arguing, but to stop blaming and in

the blaming backing away from responsibility for this precious

institution.

Ang TL Weleur teh mMaucdel fate

——_....,

WW 5 early Jn poy & \ la You rim all 7

4 (TSOVECR --

you ret aa see ora the. 47-year-old
ardor thathped coup,

Thy

puseten geo leur teacher who joined the younger people building
and standing on the »arricades protecting the Russian parliament
from Soviet tanks? / After it was over a reporter asked him why he
had done it - put his life on the line, starring down the barrel
of tank guns and automatic weapons. He said|"a man sooner or

later has to decide who he is. I decided who I was a long time

ago, but just now had the chance to show it."
~ ae
a,

_ a

In bag Hannarskjold's diary, Markings, there is an entry for
ae

Whitsunday 1961°="which continues to be one of my favorites and
aE DY

has sustained me over the years:

a eal
| "I don't know who - or what - put the
question. | I don't know when it was put. I
aaa

don't even remember answer ing. ( But at some
moment I did answgf ‘Yes! to someone or
something - and from that hour I was’ certain
that existence is meaningful and that, there-
fore, my life in self surrender, had a me

[p. 205]

The issue finally is a personal one... For each of us who
——— Sy ——_ =e

has been asked to do a job,|for each who has been called to

ministry; | it is a faith issue cinaity. || sesus Christ is God's
[SES
"Yes" to the world and to the church and to you and *me. NG
=a, ns eS [ee

In
him," ) st. Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth, “everyone of
— =

God's promises is a 'Yes,'"

—_—

f mat same Jesusd- standigg/Sn the beach, inthe early morn-

ing, confronted Peter a atked the ultimate faith question - the
b a ra
only faith question reality ~ "Do you love’ me?"

é
7
é

And Peter's, answer was "Yes; yes, Lord. You know I Love

you."

af

i /

fe said ~ "Feed my sheep "

es So - "ves. ™ ves we can do it. | Yes we can actually love one

eee ——m

another. | Yes, we can love the world am

Yes - by our personal responsjpility - for church and world -

you and I can make a airterence..\ And in our_doing, be part of
er Lacniaaininiitimiins |

*
Cabal Fongoing task of redeeming and renewing the Church and the

whole creation...
ee

YES. YES LORD.

ALL -PRATSE-TO_HIM.-—ANEN.

——"

il

"THE SON OF Gop, JESUS CHRIST, WAS
NOT ‘YES AND NO,’ BUT IN HIM IT IS
ALWAYS ‘YES.’ FOR IN HIM EVERY ONE OF
GoD’sS PROMISES Is A ‘YeES.'" [2 CoriNn-

THIANS 1:20]

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