We sit at table

From today's reading: And as he sat at dinner in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples for there were many who followed him. Mark 2:15

One complaint I heard just the other day was a common complaint about church - "I don't go because its nothing but hypocrites there." In our lesson today, the scribes are complaining because Jesus is sitting at table with tax collectors and sinners. According to the Christian teaching, we are all sinners, so it would be a little hard not to find hypocrites among the sinners in church. The grace is that God sits with us anyway and invites us to come in and stay. First Corinthians 3:16 tells us, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" Isn't it amazing that God can use sinful people - you and me - as his temple here on earth? Created in the image of God and yet sinners in the flesh - and God invites us to come in and sit at table with him. God wants to fellowship with us regardless of who are and what we have done. And when you look at the person next to you, remember that they are just like you - sinners in the flesh, yet still loved by God.