Miami Beach Community Church

"WHO'S THE GOOD GUY?!"If I were to choose a hymn to go with the Scripture today - Luke18:9-14. in which the hated tax collector is shown mercy and the selfrighteousness religious leader is sent away without any, I would chooseAmazing Grace.Growing up as we do in a tit for tat world, where the good shouldbe rewarded and the bad should be condemned, we just don't understandthe way God does things. God saves those we would damn, and setsfree those we would capture. God restores those whom we might leavebroken. While we set about to be righteous and look down upon thosewho have not climbed to our heights, God is busy blessing the unrighteous,and calling our self righteousness into question. God's Grace IS amazingand downright disgusting - depending upon where we placedourselves in the Scripture. God's Mercy is unfathomable exceptperhaps to those who need it most.The wretched tax collector who collected from his fellow Jewswhat taxes Rome required and a lot more that he could get away with tokeep for himself, fina