In The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning writes about a dynamic young businesswoman who showed signs of stress and strain. The doctor prescribed tranquilizers and asked her to report to him in a couple of weeks. When she came back, he asked if she felt any different. “No, I don’t,” she replied. “But I’ve observed that other people seem a lot more relaxed.”   It’s true, isn’t it, that we usually see other people, not as they are, but as we are. That tendency is the occasion of the Parable of the Lost Coin. Luke 15:1 says, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.”  Tax...

Luke 15:1 says, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.” “Tax collectors” were the most despised men in Jesus’ day. Conspiring with Roman authorities, they sold out their God, families, and nation for ill-gotten gain. “Sinners” may refer to the notoriously immoral. Or the term may refer to irreligious people who did not live in strict adherence to the religious traditions. The cast of ragamuffins gathered to hear Jesus. Luke says it was “all” of them.  Luke 14:35 says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” These social outcasts and spiritual outsiders took Jesus up on this invitation. They did not come to see a miracle or receive a blessing. They drew near to hear the words that fell from Jesus’ lips.  The famous Chicago evangelist,...