Dale Cresap's blog

Are you familiar with the story of the wheat and the tares? They grow in the same field, and the tares, which are weeds, were planted by an enemy. The workers want to separate them but the land owner instructs them to wait until the harvest for the separation lest the growing wheat be damaged. The story identifies the tares as being children of the wicked one and the wheat as the righteous. Can humanity be so neatly divided? Can people switch categories? Isn’t this what you would describe as the process of redemption?

What is your approach to evangelism? Are you discouraged if you don’t see results? Do you like to play board games? Typically each player has a playing piece that marks their progress around the board. Each turn is an opportunity to advance. You don’t expect to win the game in a single turn. In like manner, your witness of me may serve as a turn to move someone forward. You are not responsible for the entire process. Ask your friends how many times they encountered the gospel message before they received it. Do you recall that Paul planted, and Apollos watered, and I gave the increase?

I promised that those who seek the truth would hear my voice. This is a strong claim to make. Have you seen this happen? How many people do you think are seeking the truth? There is nothing in this claim that promises that the search will be quick or easy. To really seek the truth means staying with the process while it is difficult or uncomfortable. It means that you must not allow yourself to be taken off course by your fears or prejudices.

Do you belong to the one true church? You can easily think of churches who claim to be The One. Do you find such an attitude off-putting? Is any church entirely free from this? It is admirable when churches take steps to minimize this effect, but at the end of the day, or on Sunday morning, you pull into one parking lot rather than another for a reason. It is preferable to have a strong sense of community rather than a weak one. Can you maintain one without the other? Can you belong to a strongly bonded community that recognizes the validity of my body taken as a whole?

People have made great sacrifices for me throughout time. Implied in the concept of sacrifice is cost, and people have given money and time, and also given up comfort and security and these are real costs. Do you know what sacrifice I am really looking for? The sacrifice acceptable to me is a broken spirit and a contrite heart. You need to have money and resources to make those other sacrifices, but this one levels the field, and comes at the same cost to all. Do you find it easier to give money than to go through the humility of transformation?

Does it seem to you that Christmas has become an entirely secular commercial holiday? Does it seem that it has lost its Christian distinctive when everyone celebrates it in about the same way? Christians present it as the arrival of the Messiah whose real work is yet to come, at the end of his life rather than at the beginning. Yet there is still much to celebrate at my arrival. I had to arrive before I could ascend. Do you see my coming into this world as fully human already validates the human experience even before the cross? Do you see aspects of redemption in the incarnation?

A central aspect of your faith is that you are saved by grace, not works. So a central part of the message is that you don’t need special clothing, you don’t need to pay money, you don’t need to go to a special location, and you don’t need to study to pass a test to enter the Kingdom of God. This means the gospel really is good news. It is available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Isn’t this what you would expect from a loving God who is not willing that any should perish but that all should enter into eternal life? So does this mean that everyone will be saved?

Some of my disciples struggled with the news that I had risen from the dead, despite the eyewitness testimony of their friends. Thomas in particular said that he would not believe until he put his hands in my wounds; hence the term, doubting Thomas. I did appear to him and he did believe. I pointed out that he had seen and believed, and said blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed. In which category are you? Do you know people with powerful testimonies of miracles and other supernatural acts they have observed?

Are you familiar with the account of me walking through a wall after my resurrection? Obviously this is no mean feat. Have you ever done it? What lesson do you take away from it? Even if you can’t do it literally, can you do it figuratively? Do the four walls of your church constrain you as to who is in and who is out? Have you built other walls in your life that serve as barriers between you and your brothers and sisters? These things that exclude others serve to confine you. You can also build a prison for yourself with walls that are not visible.

Do you understand the difference between pride and dignity? Christians should be wary of pride which is condemned as sinful arrogance in the Bible, but dignity is different. Pride is grasping and demanding of external validation because it has no secure identity within. Dignity is internally generated and cannot be conferred by anyone else, but neither can anyone else take it away. Have you seen people with a well-developed sense of dignity? Are you amazed at how durable it is, holding up and even being strengthened by difficult adversity?