One of my favorite passages of scripture is Mark 2:13-17 which recounts the story of Jesus sharing a meal with Levi the tax collector and his friends at Levi’s house.  While Mark doesn’t give us the details of the conversation, we can imagine the scene as Jesus walks through the doorway and into Levi’s house, stopping to take off his sandals and then wash his feet. The smell of smoked fish and freshly baked bread fills the room. Levi and his friends, most of whom are fellow tax collectors and other societal pariahs, are recounting how much they have skimmed off that day’s collections. One brags about how he drove a poor widow…