Dear Friends,
This morning we baptise and welcome into the Church Hollie Girvan and Isabella Girvan. And we welcome their family and friends as they gather with us today.
Thank you to all who contributed to the lovely commemoration of All Saints last Sunday, and then All Souls on Tuesday. It was good too to have some visitors from far and near. Tomorrow some of us will represent the Parish at the funeral of Maurice Goodall, sixth Bishop of Christchurch, and a former City Missioner.
This week the country comes to town for the Show and the Races. We can hope that the weather will behave and that Show Week will display Christchurch at its shining best. It is good at these times if we can have the church open for the visitors who are usually about. On Labour Day we were able to welcome about 20 visitors! If any of you are at a loose end and could spend an hour or two minding the church on Friday or over the weekend, please tell me. It can be a time to do some praying, as well as an opportunity to meet and give hospitality to visitors, local and foreign. Several of our congregation joined S. Michael’s because of the kindness and helpfulness of those minding the church on such days.
I share with you this take on the Zacchæus story, from a little book called Sensing the Crowds, a theological reflection on the behaviour of crowds. This extract is by Martyn Percy.
[In today’s Gospel] Zacchæus is portrayed as either fraudulent or as a collaborator with the occupying Roman government. The reaction of the crowd bears this out. They all ‘murmured’ that Jesus had gone to be the guest of a sinner. Zacchæus meanwhile has responded to Jesus’ visit by giving half his goods to the poor. Then comes the hidden sting in the story, for he adds that if he has defrauded anyone of anything he will restore it fourfold. If. That ‘if’ must be one of the most important two-letter words in the Gospels. That Zacchæus is despised by the crowd is not in doubt. But nowhere in the story does it say he was dishonest. He is simply hated for what he does, but he almost certainly acts with honesty and integrity.
What then does Jesus’ action signify? Simply this: that in the midst of a crowd bestowing their adulation he refuses to side with their base prejudices. Zacchæus is affirmed for who he is. He does not repent, contrary to how the story is usually read; he has no need to. Rather a person who is despised is allowed to flourish, and he is now seen as a person of generosity. He has after all given away half of what he has.
Consistently, Jesus sides with the ostracised, the rejected, the unclean, the impure, the alleged sinner, and the half-breeds. He is no crowd-pleaser, he is their confounder. Even before the palm branches are stripped from the trees, and the cries of ‘blessed’ are heard, Jesus is a disturber of crowds. He does not want their praise; he wants their commitment. And they will make him pay for this, this failure to deliver what they promised themselves.
May God bless you all.
Fr Peter Williams
Vestry Notes
- $2,500 donated to the Bishop’s appeal for Haiti, and the parish to assist the Roumanian Church with repairs to the Church of the Good Shepherd (thank you to Dave McFerran for the work he has done there).
- New appointment to the Parish Trust: Richard Peters, a lawyer and member of our choir.
- Next Deputy Principal of S. Michael’s School: Tony Kendrew, Year 7 teacher.
- Concert at S. Michael’s on 25 November: Jules Riding, Christian song-writer and performer.
- Jane Evans to convene a working party to begin planning for the parish’s 160th anniversary celebrations next year.
- Thank you to Anthony Coulter for his work in compiling a photographic record of earthquake damage to the church.
