Penny Bridge Academy

This afternoon Sarah and I went to do our first assembly at Penny Bridge Academy for the new school year.  It was lovely to see all the children again especially the new Reception class.  Sarah talked to start off about new things, like new shoes, new exercise books, new classrooms, new things in the class room.  This led on to me talking about Zacchaeus and how he had a new start in life.  I told the story without at first telling the children who I was talking about, I introduced him by saying he was a cheat, thief, lier and someone who worked for the Romans.  I did explain what that meant during the time of Jesus - I also explained that paying taxes is a good thing - providing we pay the right amount which today helps to pay for schools, health care etc.  Back to the story and the point.  Zacchaeus would charge people say twice as much tax as he should have and kept the rest for himself.  But one day Jesus was passing through his town and he really wanted to see him, now a large crowd had gathered in the town people who also wanted to see Jesus - I asked if the children had ever been in a large crowd and tried to see someone famous. Zacchaeus by now I had told the children his name had two problems one was what he had done and the other was he was not very tall both things prevented him from seeing Jesus why because he needed to be at the front but the crowd won't let him through because of what he had done.  So he ran on a head and climbed up a tree with loads of branches to cover him he could see Jesus and people couldn't see him....Wrong! Jesus walked straight up to the tree and asked him to come down - What! the crowd all asked - Jesus is going for tea to that man's house...Anyway something happened that day as sometime latter Jesus came out with Zacchaeus who announced that he was going to pay back 7 times the money he had cheated from people and give half his wealth to the poor.  Jesus replied that salvation had come to the house today.  Zacchaeus had made a fresh new start.  Sarah concluded the assembly by summing up what that can mean to everyone at the start of a new school year.  We then sang So Many Ways to Praise the Lord before Sarah closed with a prayer.