Dale Cresap's blog

In ancient Israel there was an annual ritual in which the sins of the people were pronounced upon a goat, and the goat was driven away, hence the term scapegoat. Do you smile and roll your eyes at this practice? Do you think that this custom is still practiced? It is, although it doesn’t involve a goat. The term is currently applied to people. Have you ever seen one group pronounce the sins of the world upon another group or person? This is still a common practice even if they aren’t able to drive that group into the wilderness. Have you ever done this yourself?

When someone complains about a problem, do you evaluate the situation to determine if they did anything to contribute to it by their own actions? Does this make it easy to dismiss their suffering by saying it is their own fault? Do you see how harsh and judgmental this is? Self-inflicted wounds are still painful. Who could be excluded from such a calculation? Who has perfect self-control and perfect comprehension of the consequences of their actions? How many lead such perfect lives that they don’t need grace and mercy? Would this include you?

Have you received criticisms for your actions? Has this happened even when you were confident that you were doing the right thing? Not all criticism is valid. Critics have their own shadows, so it is possible that their condemnation of your light is an expression of their own darkness. Some people have biases and prejudices and ideological positions. Who is entirely free of this? These are typically polarizing and have extreme forms.

Are you in over your head in your faith? It is easy to think that you have answers to all the questions if you have attended the same church for a long time, but your circle may not be large enough. Certainty is reassuring, but can you eliminate mystery from faith? Would you want to? If you are in control of all aspects of your faith is it faith in you or faith in me? I appeared to my people and they got more God than they bargained for. But you have come to the New Jerusalem, to the city of the living God, and your God is a consuming fire. It is okay to be in over your head.

Do you have a bias for the negative? Disasters and accidents make shocking and sensational headlines, and stories of this type seize and dominate the attention of most people. So do you assume that the overall situation of the world is bad and getting worse? Is this true? Do you have a doctrinal position that affects your perception of world events? For you should have a bias for truth, and understand things the way they really are. What would be a reliable source of information about overall measures and long term trends? Where will you find the truth that will set you free?

Do you like to have money? It seems that everyone wants more, but money is only valuable in the way that it is spent. You are familiar with the proverb that a fool and his money are soon parted, and you have seen people spend money on things that you think are foolish. What about your liberty? This is more equally distributed than money is. Is it possible to spend your freedom foolishly? If you think that all expenditures of freedom are equal, consider that those who seek to save their lives will lose them, and those who lay down their lives for the Kingdom of God will save them.

Do your days fill up with demands on your time so that you are in constant motion to run errands and take care of items on your list? What sort of things do you have on your list? Are they things of enduring significance or do they seem mundane? Do the urgent things that demand your attention crowd out the important things that will matter for the long term? If you were to find an unexpected opportunity for divine encounter, or to minister to one of the least of these, which you know is the same thing, would you have the time available to respond, or would you be too busy?

Do you see the church as a business? You may think this is a sacrilegious comparison, but what lessons can you learn from this? What product is the church offering for sale? The forgiveness of sins? How effectively does it market this product? Is there sufficient demand for this from the potential customer base to keep the church in business? Should the church do some market research to find out what people want and need to find out if there are opportunities to expand the product line? Would the church profit by addressing existential questions about identity, belonging, and meaning?

Have you ever heard of a narrative account dismissed because it is ‘just a story’? This statement reflects an incorrect understanding of stories. People live and die by their stories. Does this statement imply that ‘just a story’ means it is not true? What does truth mean in this context? That it is an accurate description of actual historical events, or that it describes enduring principles of human conduct whether it refers to a specific instance or not? If you have a bias for facts, remember that I taught eternal truth in parables.

I tell you that he who seeks to save his life will lose it, but that he who loses his life for my sake will find it. Does this seem like a paradox to you? Do you understand what it means? Do you desire the transformation that I offer you? It doesn’t matter how much you want it if you are unwilling to let go of what you have. If you think of spiritual growth only as acquisition it explains why you have trouble with this concept. What you currently cling to will oppose your progress. Could it be that you suffer from having too much rather than too little?