Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 2 verse 17:
[Jesus] said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
This is the verse that made me a Christian.
On the first night of youth camp when I was 16, I heard this story of Jesus going to a party at the house of a tax collector named Levi. Tax collectors were despised people in that day and when Jesus showed up there was a house full of them, along with other "sinners". Soon the Pharisees, the very religious folks, were grumbling about the company Jesus was keeping. Jesus' answer: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have come not to call the righteous but the unrighteous." I was 16 and, well, let's just say somewhat acquainted with unrighteousness; and Jesus was calling me.
Years later, when I got out of seminary and into my first church as a pastor, I decided the church I was at needed to be a Levi's house kind of church - a church where everybody, including the most unrighteous, was welcome. So I set out to welcome as many sinners into the church as I could.
What I didn't know was that the sinners were already there! About three months in I realized the church was already full of adulterers, racists, drunks, tax evaders, back biters, gossips - you name it. And I found myself looking around wondering how in the world a bunch of unrighteous folks like these could wind up in church. In other words, I had started out thinking I was going to be like Jesus, but come to find out I was really a lot more like the Pharisees in the story.
You have heard it said, "If you ever find a perfect church don't join it because you'll ruin it." Well the truth is you won't get that chance - because if there ever was a church that was perfect Jesus himself already ruined it with the folks he invited.
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