Carry On Wayward SIbling

Since the beginning of time siblings have been in competition. It started in Genesis with Cain and Abel and then there was Jacob and Esau, that list could be extended right into your own family . This week we will revisit the story of the prodigal son again and talk about the sibling rivalry that is taking place here. The prodigal son has returned home to an overwhelmed ecstatic father. But the brother does not want in part of this celebration and reunion. His theme for the day is this is just not fair. The brother saked these questions: "Why did he not get a party, why did he not receive nice clothing, and why was the fattened calf not killed for him?" After all he was the one who had fattened the calf. The problem witht the brother is an inward problem that all of us toil and fight with. It is the problem of "whoa" is me. Sometime in life we all feel that we have not been treated equally. We have been shafted, scorned, passed over and left out. The world has not been fair to us and neither has God. We ask the question, "God do I not deserve what they just received." Then we begin to throw all our good deeds at good. He begin to pat ourselves on the back and wear a green peace t-shirt. Not only that, we feel that we have been faithful, tried and true. Let's face it we all at some point just want to yell at the top of our lungs, "This is not fair". But God did not promise anywhere that life would be fair. Had the brother not already received all that he had been promised. The brother had not known what it was like to go hungry or to sleep outside. The only thing that he could say was that his brother had gotten what he deserved and now he was receiving what he did not deserve. You know one day we will all be glad that we do not get what we deserve. Jesus was blameless in the sight of the Lord and yet he got what he did not deserve so that we would not get what we deserve. The point that Jesus is trying to make here is that when someone is Lost and then they are found we need to rejoice that they have been found and not remind them of where they have been. This week we will find out what it truly means to put aside the sibling rivalry that is fought everyday. Not just with our birth siblings but also our brothers and sisters in Christ.