Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – 19 July 2020 This material was written before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Worship leaders can use the most up-to-date sources of information and take into account the experience of their communities for creating appropriate worship at this time. The Faith Nurture Forum would like to thank Hannah Sanderson, Church of Scotland Congregational Learning Development Worker, for her thoughts on the seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Our new online music resource is now live: here you can listen to samples of every song in the Church Hymnary 4th edition (CH4). The search function allows you to bring up a list of songs by keyword, tune, theme, author, composer and metre, covering all of the indexes in the hymnbook. The site features Weekly Worship and thematic/seasonal playlists, alternative settings and background information on the hymns. Introduction .................................................................................................... 2 Genesis 28:10-19a ........................................................................................... 3 Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24 ..................................................................................... 4 Romans 8:12-25 ............................................................................................... 5 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 ................................................................................ 6 Sermon ideas ................................................................................................... 9 Prayers .......................................................................................................... 11 Alternative Material ...................................................................................... 17 Musical suggestions ....................................................................................... 22
Transcript
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – 19 July 2020 This material was written before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Worship leaders can use the most up-to-date sources of information and take into account the experience of their communities for creating appropriate worship at this time. The Faith Nurture Forum would like to thank Hannah Sanderson, Church of Scotland Congregational Learning Development Worker, for her thoughts on the seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Our new online music resource is now live: here you can listen to samples of every song in the Church Hymnary 4th edition (CH4). The search function allows you to bring up a list of songs by keyword, tune, theme, author, composer and metre, covering all of the indexes in the hymnbook. The site features Weekly Worship and thematic/seasonal playlists, alternative settings and background information on the hymns.
Introduction In today’s passages we have a choice to precede Romans and Matthew with Genesis and Psalm 139 or use Isaiah and Psalm 86. Different themes and threads emerge across your four passages, depending on which combination you choose. Using the Genesis pair brings a focus on Inheritance vs Consequences. It allows us to examine the parts of these readings that could be seen as more challenging. These verses touch on the idea that there are consequences for the choices we make and/but they also speak about an inevitable inheritance by grace and faith. These readings may make us think about free will and predestination or the juxtaposition of personal discipline and mercy. We will perhaps be left with more questions than answers. Using the Isaiah combination, we begin in a context of an all-knowing and unquestionable God and then Psalm 86 roots us in God’s steadfast love and faithfulness – a God slow to anger. In this setting the Romans passage talks of our adoption as God’s children, and Matthew the assurance of selection and salvation. Using the Isaiah pairing gives us an opportunity to preach a positive and clear gospel message. In Isaiah we see an infallible and lofty God. God who knows best, unrivalled in wisdom. People may find this certainty reassuring; it may bring them to a place of awe and prompt them to respond in worship. The psalm describes a God unparalleled in love. We are assured of constant provision and comfort; we are safe to trust we will receive mercy and grace, and delivery from bad places and people. The Romans passage opens the promises of the psalm to the Gentiles through our adoption. We who are led by the Spirit receive with Jesus His inheritance – the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Matthew reaffirms to us that because we are children of the kingdom, when the time comes Jesus will choose us, the righteous, to join Him in our Father’s kingdom. I ask you to seek God’s guidance on which journey your congregation needs to go this week. I will provide notes for you on the first option – the theme of Inheritance and Consequences, using the readings from Genesis and Psalm 139, followed by Romans and Matthew. One thing that struck me in the Matthew passage is Jesus saying, “Let anyone with ears listen!” I like to think that as well as making a point Jesus was also being funny. We have lots of scriptural examples of word play and we see times where Jesus laughs with others using puns and perhaps even a bit of mild teasing, so I suggest we follow His lead and find some time for puns and laughter in today’s worship.
The Matthew reading can be dramatised as a conversation using three readers (a script is provided on page 8).
Genesis 28:10-19a Inheritance We join Jacob as he runs away from home. After receiving the blessing that was rightfully his brother’s through trickery and deceit, he flees his family (a journey of over 400 miles), probably on foot across the desert. Jacob is between places; no longer defined by the place he has left but not yet arrived at his destination – Where is he? Considering he used a stone for a pillow, I think he fled with very little. Without possessions or family, an orphan alone in the desert – Who is he? This is where Jacob is introduced to God and receives an explanation of who God is. God then roots Jacob not in his own identity but in God’s identity and offers to Jacob the same covenant promises offered to Abraham. It is not enough to be Abraham’s grandson. You cannot have a relationship with God by proxy: whether your mother was a pillar of the community or a minister; if your wife helps at every church event or you ensure your children went to Sunday School; if you perceive you live in a Christian nation; if your name is somewhere on a roll. You cannot have a relationship with God by proxy. God opens up a personal relationship with Jacob. Offers the covenant afresh – one to one. It is your inheritance passed to you third hand but I need you to own it Jacob – inhabit your inheritance. For it to become your identity. God rolls out before Jacob the full spectrum of the inheritance. I am the God of your line – of all that is behind you – of your past. I am Creator God and I give you the land you stand on right now – in the present. I will give you offspring to cover the earth and be with you from this day on – I am your future.
Your inheritance and identity are entwined: they are of Me, in Me and for Me.
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24 Consequences This passage describes the omniscient and omnipresent nature of God. Verses 1-3 describe God as knowing everything we do and think. A God who sees where we go. It makes us think of God as everywhere all at once. This gets us thinking about God and place. Verse 4 gets us thinking about God and time. How can God know what I am about to say before I say it? Perhaps you are one of the lucky people that think long and hard about what to say before you formulate the sounds, and there is room for God’s knowing in those precious seconds of considered filtering. Or perhaps God knows what I am about to say because God is outside my understanding of time – is present simultaneously in the then, now and to be? It throws new light on verse 3 – ‘You comprehend my path… ‘(New King James Version). Does God search and find the path I have already trodden or does God understand not only where I have been and where I am, but also where I will go and when I will arrive? Does our path end where we are, or continue on, ending only at its set destination? This naturally leads us to thoughts of predestination and the distinction between knowing where we will end up, what we will do and say and pre-ordering those things. Some people like this idea, find a certain comfort in it, others find it restrictive – they feel hemmed in. Which are you? When we think of predestination we might like to stay in the comfortable contexts of blessing and provision, but how do we talk about the difficult and dark times of our life – are they pre-known by God or prepared for us by God? If pre-known, did we somehow stray from the ‘correct’ path? How do we feel about the idea that the road of suffering was God’s path all along? Verse 6: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.” Today’s reading also contains verses 23 and 24, David’s plea for God to test, or try (King James Version) him. A test has an outcome, a trial has a verdict. David asks God to see if there is any wicked in him… What if there is?
What is the verdict of Jehovah God, before the mercy of Calvary? What is the consequence of this test for David from omniscient and omnipresent Yahweh? Perhaps David’s expectation is found in our omitted verses – v.19 says: “O that you would kill the wicked, O God.”
Romans 8:12-25 Romans 8 is well known and we often use isolated verses, but looking at what comes before and after our favourite verses can often be enlightening. In this passage we see both themes – consequences and inheritance. Verse 13 bluntly says that the consequence of living according to the flesh is death. We would like this to be followed by a complete assurance that we believers in Christ will live, but we are confronted with a big IF. “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Belief alone is not enough – belief and action (which is faith) will result in the consequence of life. In v.14 we hear that we are children of God and that our inheritance is a spirit of adoption, but even this verse starts with a qualification of consequence: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God…” which leaves us with more questions – what of those not led by the Spirit? Led to what? To action? These two ideas feel at odds to us – are we adopted children, set to receive our unconditional inheritance or not? Is our confusion the result of a clash of cultures? Inheritance in our culture can come unbidden, undeserved, a long-lost aunt you have never known leaves you her estate, not because of your tender care but purely because of who you are. The parable of the lost son shows us that in this culture it was relationship, behaviour and obedience that affected your inheritance. Paul is comfortable to mesh inheritance and behavioural qualifications – seen by the liberal sprinkling of that troublesome IF. Verse 17: “[…] and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” This verse connects with our musings on Psalm 139. “If, in fact, we suffer with him” – what does this mean?
• That God’s plan for us is to suffer? Is suffering part of our inheritance? • Or that God has foreseen but not predestined that we will all suffer? • Is suffering linked with glory? Is that a causal link? Is glory impossible without suffering? • Perhaps it is not about our suffering at all – by becoming one in spirit with Jesus do we
inevitably suffer with Him? Or by accepting that our very salvation comes from His suffering do we automatically suffer with him?
I think we would like it to be this last one – it feels a bit easier and leads to fewer questions, but I don’t think Paul gives us that option because the next verse says, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time …” Paul is clearly talking of actual personal suffering rather than a spiritual affiliation with the sufferings of Christ. Where does this leave us then? Back with our questions.
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 Some of you will be more familiar with this passage using the word tares rather than weeds. What is a tare? A tare is type of Eurasian Ryegrass that looked a lot like wheat, however, it was highly poisonous, inducing sleepiness and nausea (Strong’s Bible Commentary – 2215 Greek). The word for weed is used elsewhere in the Bible so why did Jesus say tare and not weed? A weed looks very different to wheat, easily identified and removed early from the crop. A tare looked like wheat, it grew up amongst the wheat and was difficult to remove. Looking only on the outside the tares were easy to harvest along with wheat, easy to ingest, easy to swallow. Once inside you they made you sleepy and sick to the point of death. You are what you eat. In this passage, like the Romans passage, we see the intertwining of our two themes of consequences and inheritance. Jesus explains this parable clearly: for the children of the evil one the consequence is death, for the children of the kingdom the consequence is to live in the Father’s kingdom. Children and father make us think of inheritance – the tare is a tare because that is how it was made in the image of the evil one. The righteous wheat too grows from seed into the image of the
heavenly father. That is nice and easy isn’t it? No personal responsibility involved in that! But if we look more closely at the text it becomes more complex. In verse 41 Jesus uses the terms “evildoers” and once again we see the meshing of doing and believing. The children of the evil one are not so because they are predestined but because of what they choose to do – evil doers. How does this fit with our understanding of forgiveness? The righteous (v.43) are saved. Surely this leads us to ask – how does one become righteous? Some would say that by grace alone we take on the righteousness of Christ at the point of salvation, so the consequence for the tares is based on what they do. Yet the consequence for the wheat is based on what they believe? That doesn’t seem to flow – this may be down to a lack of cultural understanding because for the Hebrews ‘righteous’ was a doing word. According to Strong’s Bible Commentary – 1342): righteous translates as “observing divine and human laws”. Verse 43 therefore becomes: “Then those keeping the commands of God will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Doers of evil vs. doers of righteousness, each with their consequences. This chimes so well with one of Jesus’ repeated themes – the evil of the religious hypocrite. The tare among the wheat, looks and sounds like a godly person but causes sleepiness, nausea and finally death. Jesus tells us in verses 29-30 that it is not for us to judge from among our brothers and sisters who is a tare and who is wheat. As David reminds us in Psalm 139:19, that is God’s burden alone.
Matthew 13:24-30 (NRSV) - The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat
This reading can be delivered as a dialogue between three people. (N) Narrator (S) Servants/disciples (M) Master/Jesus
(N) Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.”
(S) Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?
(M) An enemy has done this.
(S) Then do you want us to go and gather them?
(M) No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers. Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.
(N) Then Jesus left the crowds and went into the house.
(S) Rabbi, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.
(M) The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will collect out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
Sermon ideas As explained in the introduction we expected to find lots of difficult questions in our exploration of consequence and inheritance. We boldly run towards them, asking the Spirit to help us as we chew them over. Each passage raises its own questions. You might like to break into groups and look at the passages separately and then come together to discuss the joint questions below. Perhaps you could ask everyone to pick one question and make a commitment to discuss it with someone else during the week. Anyone who experiences a real ‘wow moment’ could feed back to everyone at a later date. As the worship leader do you feel able to highlight the questions that you really struggle with and that leave you feeling unsettled? This could encourage others to dwell in a place of uncertainty and seek God in that discomfort. This in turn can build a culture of reflective questioning and remind us that we all have equal access to revelation in our personal relationships with God. Questions to help shape your thoughts for a sermon/conversation around these passages 1. Do you understand Christianity more in the context of inheritance or consequence?
2. What is the role of ‘doing’ in salvation?
• How does James Chapter 2 help with this question? • How does Luke 23:39-43 help with this question?
Genesis Questions 1. What in your self-identity have you inherited from
• your family • your home village/town/country • what you own • what you do • God
2. What has the strongest influence on your choices and behaviours: your past, your
present, or your future?
3. Do you have a unique personal relationship with Jesus? 4. Are the declarations of scripture the foundations of your personal identity?
PUNS In today’s Matthew reading we see two potential puns: 1. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. 2. Let anyone with ears listen! We see a fun side of God in the use of wordplay. There is a homophone with sun/son and a homograph with ears – ears that you listen with after we have just been told we are ears of wheat in the parable. In Jeremiah 1:11, 12 we see God playing with the name of the almond tree to get a message to Jeremiah: “for I am watching over my word to perform it”. The poetical name of the almond-tree was ‘the watcher’, the tree that “hastens to awake” (shâkêd) out of winter’s sleep. Why not have a pun competition with your congregation. You could warn them with your social media or by word of mouth beforehand. You could provide a prize for the best pun using wordplay and a prize for the corniest joke too.
Prayers Approach to God Holy trinity, I come to You as Your child. Not hesitant, not fearful, but full of giddy expectation of what I will learn from You today, what fun we will have journeying together. I run to You like a chick seeking shelter under Your wings, comfort me with Your tenderness, nourish me with what I need to grow strong and protect me with Your fierce love. I have come here today to worship You with my sisters and brothers in Christ. You made me to praise You, may my whole life be a song of adoration. Amen
Thanksgiving Thank You God for all that You are. My maker My parent My friend My saviour. Thank You that You are all these things, all the time. Thank You for Your Spirit who helps me know which face of God to seek and when – today do I need Your comfort, Your challenge or Your company? Thank You that I find myself in You just as You dwell in me. Thank You that my identity comes from who You say I am, not from the world and not through my own broken lens. Thank You for the holy scriptures that tell me that I am Your child I am Christ’s friend I am united with You Lord and one spirit I am redeemed and forgiven of all sin I am a saint, a holy one I am a co-heir with Christ and that I have authority over all the power of the enemy. Thank You for all the building blocks You used to make me who I am. Thank You for my past. Thank you for what I learnt. Thank You for Your daily provision – for my now. Thank You for the peace I receive through knowing You
and the moments of joy in my life. Thank You for my future hope. Thank You for the gift of works to do for You here on earth and the promise of eternal life. Thank You for all I inherit because You have adopted me as Your child. Help me to inhabit my inheritance. Help me live out my identity in Christ for all to see. Amen Confession This prayer is written in two forms. You may like to read the first version through once with just the confessions and then read it again with the responses (in italics). It will have great impact if the response reader is different from the confession reader; if it is possible, have the voices coming from different parts of the room. I confess Lord that sometimes I feel lost
I confess Lord that sometimes the questions are too many
I confess Lord that sometimes the answers don’t come
I confess Lord that sometimes I know what is right and don’t do it
I confess Lord that sometimes I don’t even know what is right
I confess Lord that sometimes I listen to other people more than I listen to You
I confess Lord that sometimes it is easier to be moral than it is to be holy
I confess Lord that sometimes I want to give up – what difference can I make
I confess Lord that sometimes my choices don’t match my words
I confess Lord that sometimes Your mystery scares me
I confess Lord that sometimes I forget that you are a God of action
******* I confess Lord that sometimes I feel lost Find yourself in me. I confess Lord that sometimes the questions are too many Concentrate on how much I love you. I confess Lord that sometimes the answers don’t come I have the answers, don’t worry about that. I confess Lord that sometimes I know what is right and don’t do it I know, I forgive you. I confess Lord that sometimes I don’t even know what is right That’s ok, my Spirit will guide you. I confess Lord that sometimes I listen to other people more than I listen to You Humans tend to do that. Thank you for saying sorry. Please keep trying. I confess Lord that sometimes it is easier to be moral than it is to be holy Look to my Word, it will be a lamp to guide you. I confess Lord that sometimes I want to give up – what difference can I make? You are the difference, you are my plan to love the world. I confess Lord that sometimes my choices don’t match my words I will give you new strength every morning. I confess Lord that sometimes Your mystery scares me Fear and awe is probably the correct response. I confess Lord that sometimes I forget that You are a God of action Don’t worry, I will remind you. I confess Lord that sometimes I feel lost I have found you, I am with you and I love you.
Intercession The response for this prayer is Psalm 141:2 – “Let my prayer be counted as incense before You and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.” Why not ask your congregation to lift their hands as they speak out the response. In this way we are reminded that God is a God of belief, words and action. You might want to print this out to help people follow and respond, but also so they can have a reminder of what they have committed to in prayer. Lord you ask us to pray to You. I know that You see all, know all so what would be the point in keeping back any thoughts or feelings? Help me pour them all out to You. Jonah says his prayers rose to You in the holy temple. Like David, we ask that our prayers be like incense before You. Let my prayer be counted as incense before You and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. Lord, I pray for everyone I know who has lost a positive self-image, for those who loathe themselves, hurt themselves, starve themselves, drug themselves. I pray for all those who stay in places and with people who wound them. Holy Spirit help these people know who they are in You – beloved, forgiven, restored. Help me to help them. Let my prayer be counted as incense before You and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. Lord I pray for a church that has lost a positive self-image. I pray for Your people who see themselves as defeated, irrelevant, weak. Holy Spirit help Your church believe that it is still the bride of Christ – radiant, spotless, holy. Help me to be a hot coal of enthusiasm
and a spring of positive action. Let my prayer be counted as incense before You and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. Lord I pray for a planet that is bruised and bleeding. Help us restore Your creation as the extension of Your glorious and holy self that it is. Let me understand the responsibilities of stewardship You gave us Your people. Let me view loving Your world as an outpouring of homage to You, our creator. Let my choices be part of my daily worship. Help me protect this inheritance for future generations. Let my prayer be counted as incense before You and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. Lord I pray for the redemption of society. When I think about the damaging cultures I see all around me I am angry and sad. Help me make a stand for Your ways in this world. Help me be a force for good, working hard to see Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. Make me an ambassador for inclusion and a bringer of justice, a carrier of forgiveness and a maker of peace. May I be a voice for the silenced and a defender of the weak. Help me be a doer of righteousness. Let my prayer be counted as incense before You and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. Amen
Alternative Material This material has been supplied by kind permission of Spill the Beans and allows you to explore the readings or theme of the service in creative ways that include everyone gathering for worship. New material from Spill the Beans is provided in the latest issues available from their website. Bible Notes Sowing and Reaping in a Chaotic World – Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 This parable is the cousin of last week’s story. Last week the story relied on different kinds of soil. This week the focus is on different kinds of seeds. The image of someone sowing bad seed in another person’s field is a metaphor for us building the kingdom wherever we find ourselves: whether in our community, church or world. When we begin our kingdom work, we have the best intentions to create and build our new plan or programme or building. Somehow, however, when it is brought to life or used regularly, the cracks and flaws begin to appear: the idea, plan or project naturally descends into chaos. We should not be surprised, for chaos is the state to which the universe is attracted. In truth, it is perfection and order that is unnatural and the “normal” chaotic state will always take over. Even with the work of the kingdom this seems to be true. What should we do? Before we think about things we should do, we should recognise that there are various things we ought not to do. Jesus suggests that we not get back at the enemy or fight the reason for chaos because often that just compounds the chaos. Jesus suggests not to think you can take it on and sort it out yourself. Normally when we try to better something like that, we can often make it worse. Trying to make perfection out of something chaotic can make a bigger mess and whatever the result involves the expenditure of vast amounts of energy. There is an important side-line to mention at this point. The weeds are not misunderstood plants. We should get rid of that romantic notion. While they do not seem to have an effect on the wheat in the parable, they are not gathered up into the harvest. They are thrown
out. They do not have a place. It is therefore important to recognise that the parable does not insinuate that we put up with bad or abusive behaviour. This is a parable about the collective experience of the world, the church and the community. It is a reality parable as much as last week’s was. This is what living is like: a mixture of good and bad, of healthy and unhealthy. As that is the case, we ought not to imagine that God is the great weeder of our lives, putting on the gardening gloves to pull out all the weeds that are part of life’s experience. The parable ends, of course, with the gathering of the harvest. The wheat is gathered and the weeds burned. Great! At last we can be clear of these things that are not perfect and speak clearly of the Kingdom of God. While the parable ends there, our understanding must not. The parable is about us and our community. We are the field, not the mixture of wheat and weeds. At harvest time, that which is Kingdom-of- God-like will be gathered and celebrated and given thanks for, and that which is Kingdom-of-somewhere-else-like will be destroyed. This is a parable about the Good News of what we have been able to grow in the name of love. This harvest will be gathered and there will be rejoicing for that fruitfulness. We are not to live such a skewed relationship with the kingdom that all we can focus on is the bad and define ourselves only by what is bad in us. Rather, the parable invites us to celebrate that which is good in us, all of which will be gathered up. And we trust that God has got a technique to get rid of the weeds com harvest time. Retelling for Young People The Wise Gardener Amy used to love paying visits to her papa Bob’s house. He was always in his garden doing something and Amy loved to help her papa in the garden. He even gave her a wee bit of his garden which he lovingly named “Amy’s Garden”. One day when Amy came to visit she noticed that her little bit of garden seemed to be covered in weeds and she began to cry: “Look Papa, the weeds have taken over and spoiled my garden!” But Papa Bob was a wise old man. He said to Amy that “a weed is just a plant that is growing where you don’t want it to.”
“But Papa, I don’t like the weeds. Can we use that weed killer you use on the paths?” Papa thought for a moment and said, “Well Amy if we use the weed killer, we will kill all the good plants that we sowed earlier, so that might be a bad idea.” “Well Papa, let’s dig them up.” Papa Bob said, “If we do that we might accidently dig up some of your good flowers.” “Oh Papa, what are we going to do?” said Amy. “Well Amy, we need to be patient. We let the plants and the weeds grow side by side. When the good plants come through and reach their full potential, then we can separate them from all the weeds and leave your beautiful garden looking just the way you would like it.” Amy thought for a moment and gave her papa a great big hug. “You are just so clever Papa. You sound just like God.” Activities Gathering activity Give everyone a flower. If someone has a plentiful supply of weeds (e.g. daisies) use those. Encourage people to consider the beauty of the flower. What’s A Flower/ What’s A Weed? You will need: copies of the activity sheet on the final page, pencils/pens. Talk about the differences between weeds and flowers. This is very subjective. In many ways a weed is just a plant you do not want growing in a particular place (usually your garden). It might be fine in the wild. Though some weeds are genuinely very destructive when growing in the wrong places (like Japanese Knotweed, which can destroy buildings). Use the activity sheet as a way to try to get this point across. Tell the children that they are to think like a gardener would think when looking at what should and should not be growing in their garden. The plants pictured are:
1. Iron Weed (Weed) 2. Daisy (Weed) 3. Apple Blossom (Flower) 4. Horseweed (Weed) 5. Dandelion (Weed) 6. Rose (Flower) 7. Japanese Knotweed (Weed) 8. Lily (Flower) 9. Lavender (Flower) Reflection Who are we to judge who’s in and who’s out, who fits and who doesn’t? How can we tell what belongs and what doesn’t? The God of the harvest encourages us simply to do what we can, to grow together, to influence the other, knowing that in the end no matter how it looks on the outside, how much it may seem like we all fit together, those who deny life to others will not survive but will be removed, allowing space to grow the kingdom of God. Take Home Ideas This week employ greater powers of observation as you walk around your community. Here are some ideas for reflection during the week. 1. Take time to look at the gardens you pass as you walk. Ponder on the continual struggle
between the relentless growth of weeds and the gardener’s intent.
2. How does this mirror the internal struggles we sometimes feel at work within us?
3. Look around at the other aspects of your community. Where is life struggling to maintain its hold? What are the distractions that prevent people from living life to the full?
4. If you have a garden yourself, spend some time in your garden. Let this be time to be present, not necessarily time to be active. Prayers Call to Worship So we plant a seed and pray for success. We spray against weeds and do our best to protect our tender shoots. But every now and then a weed appears: a scornful voice, an ill-mannered remark, a miss-judged comment, a thoughtless word. Here in this place, at this time we come to our God; God who cares tenderly and lovingly whenever given the chance. Come let us worship the Sower of good seeds our Head Gardener and Lord. Responses Leader: God of heaven, All: sower of good seed. Leader: God of the growing, All: sower of good seed. Leader: God of the harvest, All: sower of good seed. Leader: God of us all, strong and weak, All: gather us in.
Sending God who sows and God who reaps, God who allows growth even in the hard places, God who waits patiently for the right time, send us out now into the fields of your world to plant hope amidst the weeds and seeds of life. And may we learn to scatter love wisely till you gather us in once more.
Musical suggestions You can hear samples of these suggestions in the ‘Weekly Worship’ section of https://music.churchofscotland.org.uk/. This new online music resource will allow you to listen to and search the breadth of music available in the Church Hymnary 4th edition (CH4). You will find hidden gems and alternative arrangements to familiar songs that will inspire creativity and spark fresh curiosity about how we best use music in worship.
• CH4 154 – “Oh Lord my God when I in awesome wonder” – touches on themes from the intercession of us as stewards of creation and creation as an inheritance. Affirms the theme of salvation from the Matthew passage and ours
• CH4 186 – “Father God I wonder” – a clear link with our adoption as found in the Romans passage and the promise of God to be with Jacob (and us) always.
• CH4 189 – “Be Still, for the presence of the Lord” – a good song to begin worship. It ushers us into God’s presence and stills our mind to be able to contemplate the big questions of life. It reminds us of the bigness of God as we see in Psalm 139
• CH4 196 – “Come now is the time to worship” – another good introductory song that frames our time together as worship and reminds us of the sovereignty of God as seen in the Matthew parable. Its last line also echoes our theme of the importance of choices.
• CH4 426 – “All Heaven Declares” – a good reminder of the spiritual plain as we see revealed at Bethel and outlined by David.
• CH4 528 – “Make me a channel of your peace” – this chimes in with the prayers of intercession and the idea that we are do-ers of righteousness. That God is a God of action and so we should also be people of action.
• CH4 531 – “My Jesus, My Saviour,” – the final line of this mighty hymn of praise grounds the piece in the promises of God – our inheritance.
• CH4 549 – “How deep the fathers love for us” – this song reminds us of the nature of God’s parentage and the inheritance we receive due to Christ’s sacrifice. The last verse says how difficult this is to understand and rests in a place of no answer safe in the overarching comprehension of God’ s love and provision for us.
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