Tax Colectors and Sinners

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” Matthew 9:9-17

Tax Collectors and Sinners

Joining with a group of righteous ones
one must pass through a thick screen
of judgements and conemnations
tongues wagging and cruel glares.

Entering into a gathering of sinners
there is welcome and loud cheers
folks move over and make room
someone shout souts your name.

I would so rather be with the ones
like me who know their own faults
who are excluded from the circle
never called the high and mighty.

The Divine embraces one and all
we cannot keep love from enfolding
come sit at the table of pain and need
be swallowed up where love can thrive.