Outline for a simple harvest service for all ages
Click for a revised PDF version published in 2023.
This service focuses on potatoes, whose growth is hidden till harvest-time, as a way of exploring the idea that only God knows what the harvest of our hearts will be like.
Leader: We have come together to worship God and to thank him for journeying with us through the year. We have come from our fields and gardens to give thanks for the harvest of our land, and to ask for his continued blessing on the work of our hands.
Leader: Let us come before God with thanksgiving,
All: And sing to him joyfully in psalms.
For he tends the earth and waters it.
He makes it rich and fertile.
Lord of the harvest, all is yours,
The rains that fall, the suns that shine,
The seed once hidden in the ground,
The skill that makes the harvest grow.
Our thanks we bring to you this day
New praises from our lips shall sound.
Behind the loaf is the snowy flour,
And behind the flour, the mill.
And behind the mill is the wheat and the sun
And the rain and the Creator's will.
Teach us our God and King
In all things thee to see,
And what we do in anything
To do it as for thee.
Hymn: 'God whose farm is all creation' (Junior Praise )
Word
Reading: Matthew 13.1-9,18-23
Ask a family to practise this reading from the Dramatised Bible and read it. There is also a version of this story, the parable of the sower, here.
Talk
Talk about potatoes. Say how sometimes what goes on in people's lives is not always as obvious as in the story of the wheat. There, you can see fairly soon what happens to the seed that is planted. Only the wheat in good soil lasts and is fruitful. With potatoes, the story is a bit different. You plant the seed potato (show one) and then wait. The shoots come up, and you know something is happening. The plants grow and you know they are alive, but you don't know what is going on under the ground. Then, they begin to die away, but still you don't know what is happening below the surface. Still you must wait. Finally the great day comes. Out comes the fork, (produce one) on go the wellies, (produce these too) and very carefully you start the lifting of the potatoes. This is the exciting moment. What are you going to find? Maybe the plants didn't look too good, but then there are loads of potatoes. Maybe the plants looked great and you had been very pleased, but then the yield is very small.
Sometimes our lives are easier to compare to potatoes than wheat. Only we ourselves and God know what goes on inside us. Maybe we look very holy on the outside, but our lives are not really fruitful. Maybe our lives look dim and ordinary, but in our hearts, and our own quiet ways, we are being very fruitful in God's kingdom. Only the time of the harvest will tell. As we celebrate the harvest this year, let's remember these word from the Bible
'...wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness, and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.'
(1 Corinthians 4.5)
Suggest that when, later in the service, symbolic offerings of the harvest are brought up in thanksgiving for God's goodness, people use it as chance to offer themselves again to God. They can ask to be like the strong wheat, or the hidden, fruitful potato plant, bringing forth a life of abundant harvest for God.
Hymn: 'Come you thankful people, come' (Junior Praise )
The Thanksgiving
Leader: We thank God for his abundant goodness to us throughout the year.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
we give you thanks and praise
for all the gifts you have given us,
for our life and the world in which we live,
All: Father, we give you thanks and praise.
Leader: For the work we are able to do,
for the truth we are permitted to learn,
for the good there has been in our lives,
All: Father, we give you thanks and praise.
Leader: For the order and constancy of nature,
for the beauty and bounty of the world,
for day and night, summer and winter,
seedtime and harvest,
All: Father, we give you thanks and praise.
Leader: For the boundless store of harvest,
For the fruits of the earth
To sustain and gladden life,
All: Father, we give you thanks and praise.
Leader: For the industry and perseverance of
those who work on our farms,
for those who shape the farmer's tools
and build him machines,
for those who, by their skill and labour
have helped to supply our food,
All: Father, we give you thanks and praise.
Leader: For the comforts of life,
for our homes and their joys,
for our village (or town or city) and its community life,
All: Father, we give you thanks and praise.
Leader: For our communion with you, Father of all,
for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ,
for his life and his death,
for his resurrection and ascension,
for his redemption of all creation,
for the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
All: We give you thanks and praise,
Lord God, our heavenly Father.
Hymn: 'Jubilate, everybody' (Junior Praise )
The Offering of Symbolic Gifts
Invite groups of children to bring up the various symbols.
The offering of the soil
Reader: We bring the soil of our fields,
symbol of all that God has created.
Leader: The earth is the Lord's
And all that is in it.
The offering of the fruits of the earth
Reader: We bring the harvest of our fields and of our gardens,
symbols of our work in partnership with God.
Leader: Yet we know
we shall not live by bread alone,
All: but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God.
The offering of seeds
Reader: We bring the seeds for next year's planting,
symbol of God's promise to provide our daily bread.
Leader: They sow fields and plant vineyards
which give them fruitful harvest.
All: He blesses them and they multiply greatly.
The offering of water
Reader: We bring water,
symbol of our dependence on God for life,
symbol of the new life he gives in baptism.
Leader: God will sprinkle clear water over you.
All: We shall be cleansed from all that defiles us.
The offering of bread and wine
Reader: We bring bread and wine,
symbol of our use of God's gifts,
symbol of his spiritual food,
the sacrament of his body and blood.
Leader: Everything in heaven and earth is yours,
All: All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.
Leader: Heavenly Father, with our thanksgiving,
we ask pardon for our failure
always to be good stewards of your gifts.
Accept this loaf of bread and this wine
as a sign of our gratitude,
and of our desire to dedicate our work
and our lives to your praise and glory.
Amen.
Song: 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow'
Leader: Almighty God,
Our heavenly Creator,
you give us so much,
Give us also, we pray,
loving hearts and
practical minds,
that in the world wide task of caring,
no one may starve while we eat so well.
In the name of Jesus,
the bread of life, we pray.
Amen.
Hymn: 'O Lord my God' (Junior Praise )
Blessing
As people go out of church, why not have a sack of potatoes and give them one each to remind them of the service!