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Luke 5:27-32

It was a lonely place, sitting at the tax booth. Sure, plenty of people would come and go, but they weren’t exactly thrilled to see him. In fact, Levi counted himself lucky if a day went by when he wasn’t spit upon…or worse. Then the stranger came, a man named Jesus, and invited him, “Follow me.”

It was less lonely at the banquet. Levi held a feast in Jesus’ honor and many like Levi were invited. They too were people considered less than acceptable, tax collectors like him, ne’er-do-wells, the ones Levi 
considered his community. Jesus sat among them.

The religious objected. “Why do you eat with such rabble?” they demanded. Jesus softly responded, “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance. God’s grace is sufficient for them too.”

We sometimes come from lonely places. Yet at the table of Jesus we are welcomed, welcomed to sit among the proud and the lowly, welcomed to be part of the community who taste the goodness of his forgiving love, welcomed to receive God’s sufficient grace for all.

Open your arms to welcome us, Lord, just as we are. Amen

Pastor Scott Hedegaard 
Redeemer Lutheran Church, Great Falls, Montana