Feb 12, 2005

Feb 12, 2005 Lincoln's Birthday
Lk 5:27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me."
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus said to them in reply,
"Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."

Jesus ate and drank with the undesirables of his time. He even asked one of the lowly and despised tax collectors, Levi, to follow him as a disciple. Today is Lincoln's birthday. He was one of the simple, lowly people. Not born to a rich family but poor and self educated. He was once quoted as having said "I don't like that man, I must get to know him better." For me that says it all. The people that we want to avoid or push away are most often the very ones that we are called to be Christ to.