Welcome to ROOTS at home for 19 - 25 July 2020

Worship at home resources for everyone linked to Matthew 13.24-30,36-43

ROOTS is a partnership of denominations and other Christian organisations and has been publishing lectionary-based worship resources online and in print since 2002.

Go to: Resources for families; Resources for adults

Copyright

You are welcome to copy this material for use in your own resources e.g. printed sheets or web pages including audio/video recordings. If you do so, please include this acknowledgement to ROOTS:
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd (www.rootsontheweb.com) 2002-2020.
Reproduced with permission.

For families

Introduction

Another parable – a story with a hidden meaning – which helps us to see that good and evil exist alongside one another in the world. This can be one of the big questions we have to grapple with: why do bad things happen?

Bring those questions to God as you worship together today.

Gather

Use this prayer as you begin your time of worship together. Nominate a leader or all join in together.

God of wheat and weeds,
as we gather here today,
from this imperfect world,
help us to take time to
grow in your perfect love.
Amen.

You could learn this song to sing together as you begin your time of worship: A farmer in a field, Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

Read

Share the Bible story using the idea below to help you explore it together.

Bible story

Open the Bible at Matthew 13.24-30,36-43: Jesus tells a story to help us live in an imperfect world.

The ear of wheat

Print off the grains of wheat outlines on which the reading is subdivided (template), and carefully cut out each one. On a large piece of paper draw a stem on which the wheat grains will be stuck.

Invite different peeople to have one grain each and to read these in order. Then, in turn, they stick their grain to the stem, so that once the story has finished, the whole ear of wheat is complete.

View print version

Jesus told the crowd another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is a bit like someone planting his field with good seed. He is very happy, but at night, when everyone is sleeping, his enemy creeps in and plants weeds among the wheat, then sneaks off again. So when the wheat starts to grow, the weeds grow too!

‘The servants then go to their master and ask him, “Sir, didn’t you just plant good seed in your field? So where have all the weeds come from?” When the master tells them that an enemy has planted them, they ask, “So, shall we pull up the weeds?”

‘But the master replies, “No, because if you pull up the weeds, you might pull up the wheat as well. Let them both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I will send in the reapers, and then the weeds can be collected up, tied into bundles and burned. The wheat can be harvested and put in my barn.”’

Later, Jesus explained the parable to his disciples: ‘Listen carefully. This is the story of my world. The master is the Son of Man, that’s me. My friends are like the good seed, and my enemies are like the weeds that the devil has planted. The harvest is like the end of time, and my angels are the reapers who separate the wheat from the weeds in the field – the good and the evil in the world. All the evil is thrown away, like weeds on a bonfire, but all the good will shine like the sun in God’s kingdom.’

Glossary

reapers people who cut down the wheat at harvest time;

Son of Man a title from the Old Testament Book of Daniel, used by Jesus to describe himself;

devil a personification of evil, also called Satan or ‘the evil one’.

Activities

You may wish to use these additional resources to worship together and/or the activity sheets for children.

Harvest time

Play the game Ker-plunk™ but imagine that the yellow sticks are wheat and the green ones are weeds.

Divide the group into two teams. The object is to ‘harvest’ the wheat, while collecting as few marbles as possible.

The teams take turns until all the wheat is gone, and the one with the lowest marble score wins.

Wheat from weeds

A game of discernment

You will need: the ‘Wheat from weeds’ template, from which to print, on card, one full set (8 cards) per pair of players.

Beforehand, download the card templates, print them on card and cut them out.
Invite people to work in pairs. Distribute one set of cards (8) to each pair and explain that they need to decide whether the picture on each card is of a weed or a good plant. Invite all pairs to sort them into two different piles.
When everyone has sorted their cards, go through the answers with them – hold up the cards and encourage everyone to shout out whether they think it is a good plant or a weed.