I have a brother, a brother in need.

I've been reading the parable of the Prodigal Son recently. And I guess, considering this blog has has something of a preoccupation with the idea of Grace, its not going to be massively surprising to anyone familiar with the story that its going to make an appearance here.

After all, isn't this is a story about God's lavish grace, about how he offers freely and generously to take back his prodigal son, who has gone off and wasted his inheritence, and ended up as a pig farmer - pretty much the lowest of the low for a good Jewish boy? Isn't it a great example of how God celebrates whenever one of his children realise they need him and return home to him, regardless of what they have done wrong? What a great evangelistic message there is in that story!

And yet, when I've been reading it, I've been thinking more about the other prodigal son in the parable. Not the younger son, the obvious prodigal, but the dutiful, righteous (self-righteous?) older brother, who never abandons his father, who lives to carry out his every word, and yet has the potential to be every bit as much the prodigal as his younger brother, because he fails to understand and recognise the love that so characterises his family. The story leaves with the father explaining this to him, and giving him a choice... does he embrace his younger brother, and in doing so accept his father's love and grace or does he remain bitter, resentful and cling on to his own understanding of right and wrong...

Isn't that the challenge that we, as Christians face today. There is a world of people out there, many of them with no real understanding of what it means to be in a relationship with God. Many of them live (or have lived) lifestyles totally foreign to us, completely contrary to what we know is the right way to live. And yet, their father loves and accepts them totally, for who they are, and is ready to welcome them home, to celebrate with them when they realise what they are missing, what they need.

But we, their brothers and sisters, do we really want to welcome them in? Or are we happy with our cozy, comfortable way of being church, with our club of like-minded people of similar lifestyle... Are we ready to welcome home the younger brothers, or are we setting off on a prodigal journey of our own?