Stephanie and I have had an ongoing conversation for nearly ten years now. After September 11, 2001 we wondered if the adversity of terrorism would have a purifying impact upon Christians rebooting their priorities and values and to help bring a renewal to the reality that the “Gospel is the power of God to salvation!” We wondered if the church, the hands and feet of Jesus in this generation, would emerge stronger than ever, knowing Christ and making Him known in this generation. A major reason for thinking in this way is that adversity, trial and persecution have proved pro-growth catalysts for Christian’s in history. Paul experienced this saying, “God’s strength is perfected in weakness”. Our conversation really picked up as economic challenges worsened over the last few years.
What I am beginning to wonder is, if such challenges are revealing “Older Brothers”– who saw Christianity as a means to an end. I’m beginning to wonder that a purifying has in fact taken place, but “the crowd is gathering on the outside!?”
Here’s what I mean …
Luke 15:11-32 records the story commonly known as the “Prodigal Son” but the story is not just about one son, it’s about two sons and a father. While the focus is more often on the lil brother who wasted his resources on materialism and sensualness, never finding what he was looking for. In truth, both sons were lost, the core of which was an absence of relationship with their Dad a type of the Heavenly Father. They saw their Dad as merely a means to an end. When the younger brother returned home from his long journey his father ran out to meet him calling for a feast, while “Older Brother” refused to enter the party, remaining on the outside, despite his father’s persistent plea’s.
The “Older brother” was bitter! His expectations were not being met. The “Older Brother” believed that a moral performance(or religious) would result in more favorable realities aligning for him. After all, in his mind, he deserved them! When the lil brother repented and returned home and his father gave him what he did not deserve, to the “Older brother” it was just not fair.
A friend of mine told me of a business partner who was attending church and naming the name of Christ but when the business went sour he remarked, “Why would God do this?” and walked away from his faith. But did he really walk away from genuine Christianity? Christianity is not a means to an end. Jesus didn’t say, “I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to “Money” or “Materialism” or “Convenience” or “the American Dream” but by me!” No, He said, “…no one comes to the FATHER but by me!”
Has this decade revealed “big brothers?” Has it revealed that many merely saw Christianity or the evangelical church as a “means to an end” (i.e. namely material and circumstantial) and because their expectations have not been met, their on the outside looking in? Has it revealed that they never really had a relationship with the Father?
The “feast” is a metaphor for relationship with the Father through the Son. That’s what Christianity is. Christianity is stepping into the feast of God’s love and grace in Christ. C.S. Lewis put it this way: “Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
The Heavenly Father is pleading for an intimate and beautiful relationship with you! 🙂
