Luke 15.

Luke 15 has framed for me so much of my life and frankly so much of the

impetus and passion behind why our community exists and let me explain it says in Luke chapter 15 verses 1 and 2 now the tax

collectors and sinners all drew near to hear Jesus.

And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying,

this man receives sinners and eats with them.

Let me read this to you in the Message Bible, if I can,

those first couple of verses.

It says by this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around

Jesus.

Maybe you've never heard this about Jesus, but he attracted a lot of men and

women of doubtful reputation, which is to say a lot of people that did not go to

church were attracted to Jesus. They were hanging

around him listening intently. Wow, Jesus had a draw to him.

And the pastors, the preachers were not pleased at all,

because these weren't church folk. They didn't smell like church. They didn't look like church. They didn't talk like church. Their favorite words were not church words.

And so they were not pleased and they growled and grumbled and they said he takes in bad

people or sinners and he eats meals with them treating them like old friends

treating them like old friends and their grumbling triggered this story.

In other words, the pastors and preachers of Jesus Day could not understand his friends.

They could not understand his social circle.

Now a lot of people today, we throw out the name of Jesus and the person of Jesus and he is portrayed in a lot of a number of different ways

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