Good morning and welcome to the daily SOAP from New Hope.  This is Tara Prather and our reading for today, October 28th comes from the book of Mark Chapter 2.  I encourage you to go and read the entire chapter but I will be focusing on verses 14-17.

I’ll be reading from the New International Version

As he walked along, he (Jesus) saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth.  Follow me, Jesus told him and Levi got up and followed him.  While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples for there were many who followed him.  When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

Tax collectors were considered the lowest of the low in Jewish society in the time of Jesus.  They were seen as traitors because they worked for the Romans to take money from the Jews.  So, in the passage, Levi is considered a hated outsider  &  the worst of all possible sinners.  But, when Jesus calls him, he immediately follows. 

Our mission here at New Hope is to make more and better followers of Jesus Christ.  Sometimes it’s easy for the church to turn inward…focusing all of our energy and efforts o the people that are already in the pews.  And, while our regular members and attenders are vital to the life of the church, we need to always remember to look outward to those who do not know Jesus.   I think that we also need to be very careful about judging people based on how they look, or what they do, or how they act.  After all, even us regular church goers fall short of the glory of God.  We are all sinners and Jesus died to save all of us, not just those of us sitting in church on Sunday mornings. 

Let us pray….Dear God, forgive us for the times that we have turned inward and turned our backs on those searching for you.    Help us all to see the struggling & needy around us and to show them the way to you.  In Jesus’ holy name, Amen.