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about the 2012 Annual Appeal

“In Remembrance of Him”
John Buchanan’s sermon from October 2, 2011
“. . . There is a personal moral imperative for you and me to trust God enough
to begin to live not out of a sense of scarcity—that there isn’t enough. . .
The personal imperative is to listen to Jesus, watch him, and be transformed,
converted by the grace of God we have seen and experienced in Jesus Christ
to begin to live abundantly, opening our hands, sharing what we have,
confident that our meager resources, in God’s hands, will always be transformed into abundance.

"Anne Lamott said somewhere that when she begins to feel deprived it’s a sure sign that
she needs to start giving. . . . ‘I know that giving is the way we can be abundant,’ she says.
‘Giving is the way we fill ourselves up.’ . . .”

“Holy Waste”
John Buchanan’s sermon from September 25, 2011
“. . . Retirement and scarcity-thinking go together. So when it came time for Sue and me
to make our pledge for 2012, our first retirement pledge, we made a pledge that reflected
our new circumstances: an amount that was doable, comfortable, and certainly reasonable
and sensible. And then I read Dana’s “Priceless” sermon and gave it to Sue to read,
and without much discussion, we tore up the pledge card and made a new one,
to reflect our heart and love.

“The heart of it all, this faith of ours, is love. God’s extravagant love for the world,
. . . God’s love in Jesus Christ— a life unnecessarily, voluntarily cut short,
many might say wasted, by his strong insistence on following his heart,
going to the city, to be arrested and tried and crucified. What a waste that was.
He could have counted up his years, heeded the sensible, rational advice of his friends,
stayed in the safety of Galilee, lived a long and fulfilling life as a popular teacher.
What a waste. What a Holy waste.
That’s the heart of it—God’s love in Jesus Christ—and our grateful love. . . .”

As faithful followers of Christ and active citizens of the world in which we live,
w e are called to share our financial blessings for the greater good
Our generosity is not simply giving, but giving back.  


2012 Annual Appeal for Fourth Presbyterian Church and Chicago Lights