Calling All Sinners!
Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him. Luke 5:27-28
She worked as a stand-up comic and talks freely about her past of alcoholism and drug abuse. But God got hold of her, and now, as a pastor, best-selling author, and speaker, Nadia Bolz-Weber is a leader helping the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America form a vision for the future. With her unconventional background, Bolz-Weber has much in common with Levi, the tax collector whose profession made him a pariah among his own people. Yet in Levi Jesus saw potential. It’s a pattern Bolz-Weber describes in her book Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People (Convergent, 2015): “Never once did Jesus scan the room for the best example of holy living and send that person out to tell others about Him. He always sent stumblers and sinners” (p. 30). We are all “stumblers and sinners” when it comes to holy living, and God calls every one of us to work for God’s priorities in the world.
We are not perfect but God is - His love, plan and purpose for our lives fill every day with hope and meaning. We don’t need to fear failing because through the presence of the Holy Spirit, God will accomplish the work He has given us to do.
Holy God, you call us, imperfect as we are. Help us to be your faithful disciples. Amen.
Inspired by A Christ In Our Home Devotion