Adult & All Age
Continue to build the Lenten garden.
Continue to build the Lenten garden by adding a tray of earth and sowing some grass seed in it. Alternatively, create a display by covering a table with some brown, earth-coloured, rough cloth. Drape some green fabric across the centre and some wheat-coloured fabric across one end to create a colour progression from earth, to green shoots, to ripened wheat. Scatter some seeds across the cloths.
Today we are challenged to nurture our faith
God is constantly renewing the promise or covenant with us. Jeremiah tells us that it is written on our hearts. In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells the story of the grain of wheat dying in order to grow. Today we are challenged to nurture our faith, so it grows and changes in response to the situations we confront.
Children & Young People
Lay out fruit, vegetables and one seed.
On a cloth in the middle of the floor, lay out a number of items of fruit and vegetables – between about 10 and 20, if possible. Also place one seed on the cloth. Don't let anyone touch the display, and don't mention the seed!
Ask the group to sit around the fruit and vegetable display. Talk to them about which is their favourite. Do they know what they all are (especially if you put out something unusual)? Now explain that you're going to play an observation game. Ask everyone to close their eyes as you move the objects around, and remove one from the display. They open their eyes and guess what has been taken away. Play this game several times, moving the fruit and vegetables around, and removing a different one, but leaving the seed where it is each time. On the final turn, remove the seed. Let the group try to guess what is missing and then show them the seed and explain it’s been there all along.
Explain that all the fruit and vegetables have come from seeds, and that Jesus used a seed to illustrate his own death, as being a source of life for others.
We come to God, who wants us to grow
We come to God who wants us to grow.
We come to God who created everything.
We come to God who knows us all.
God, who loves every tiny part of creation,
we gather in your name today.
Amen.