Sunday Worship
Welcome to our Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish. Our services are at the usual times of 9.15 am at St Agnes' Church, and 11.00 am at St Thomas'.
Today we also have a service at 4 pm at St Thomas' for All Souls, where we pray for the dear departed known to us. All are welcome to join us, or to ask our prayers for their loved ones.
If you're not able to be with us in person, the Gospel reading, a reflection, and prayers are shown below so that you may worship at home.
Our first hymn this morning is "Do Not Be Afraid, For I Have Redeemed You"
Today's Gospel
Luke 19:1-10 Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."
Reflection
It’s strange how some occupations are mocked and even vilified. Many years ago, when I worked in Glasgow, I regularly caught the plane rather than drive, especially during the winter. One Friday evening in the airport lounge, whilst waiting to board my flight home, I was joined by a man who I immediately recognised as the First Minister of Scotland. He started chatting and asked me what I did. I somewhat reluctantly replied, that I was a banker. This was just after the collapse of some of the banks and the turmoil that ensued afterwards. He looked and me, smiled and then joked, “well laddie, a banker and a politician, not the most liked professions, but it could be worse, we could be journalists.” A couple of days later, I was watching a TV quiz and one of the contestants said that he worked for the Inland Revenue. There was an instant response of booing from the audience. I thought back to conversation at the airport, and it occurred to me that none of us had jobs that were illegal or morally wrong - so why do folk recoil at the thought of some jobs?
There are many references to tax collectors in the New Testament and Jesus mentions them several times in his parables. They were seen as the ultimate sinners and many were ex-communicated from the synagogues. But why were they seen as such pariahs in society?
Todays parable partly answers that question when Zacchaeus, admits that he may have defrauded some people. But frequently the tax collectors did far worse. They were Jews who were working for the Romans who subjugated the Israelites. They taxed people not to provide education or welfare services, but just to get rich. Not only that, the practices they used to extract taxes were far from ethical or fair. They would overestimate the value of peoples assets so they could get a bigger percentage of tax, or they would invent reasons to apply a tax on the spot. It was not unheard of to be taxed several times as you journeyed between villages or provinces. Furthermore, their methods of collecting taxes were cruel, they would bully and harass families whenever they could and if they couldn’t pay, they would lend them the money at extortionate rates. They also stole from the Romans by skimming a portion of the taxes for themselves.
The message of this parable is quite simple and echoes the parable of the lost sheep, (Luke 15), which Jesus told after he was criticised by the pharisees and scribes for eating with sinners and tax collectors. Jesus comes to save us all, especially the lost and the sinners. Not only does Jesus come to bring salvation, he actively seeks us out. He wants us to hear to message of the good news of God’s kingdom and he wants us to follow Him and share his good news too. We don’t have to climb a tree to do that, we just need to open our hearts to his endless love and like Zachaeus, Jesus will seek us out and call us by our name. Paul
