Croftlands Junior School

This morning Sarah and I went to do the assembly at Croftlands Junior School.  It was our first visit of the new school year so Sarah started by asking the children if they had had a good summer and if they had tried anything new - a few children offered answers.  She then explained that I was going to tell a story about a man who had a new experience.  I then told the story of Zacchaeus and how he was a cheat, lier and thief and that he worked for the Romans as a tax collector - I did point out that the Romans were looking after the land at the time and that being a collector of taxes is not a bad thing as they help to provide things like today our education, healthcare etc.  What made things bad was that Zacchaeus charged too much tax and pocketed the difference.  This made him very unpopular with the people of his town so when Jesus was passing through the town one day Zacchaeus couldn't get to see him as he was a short man the crowd won't let him through.  Climbing a tree thought Zacchaeus would mean I can see everything but no-one can see me - wrong Jesus saw him and asked him to come down as he was wanting to stay at his house for some food.   The crowd didn't like this idea at all and no doubt complained about it - Jesus eating food with someone that has done so many bad things.  As they gathered round the house Zacchaeus came out with Jesus and said sorry to them for what he had done and that he was going to give half of his wealth away to the poor and return 7 times the amount of money he had wrongly taken from people. Jesus announced to the waiting crowd that Zacchaeus was a changed man.  Sarah picked up on this idea and talked about how we can all have a new start in life and at the start of a new school year it is a good time to do so.  We then sang So Many Ways to Praise the Lord and Sarah closed with a prayer.