Saturday after Ash Wednesday -- February 16, 2013
Saturday after Ash Wednesday Luke 5:27 – 32 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” I’m struck today by the sight of this table at which Jesus reclined. Around the table were persons of disrepute, those who were considered crooks and traitors, and some who were known “sinners.” Yet, there was a place for all of them at the table of Jesus. I am dismayed by the lines drawn in contemporary life that polarize and cre...