Matthew 13

Book of Matthew: Chapter 13

The parable of the seeds (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23)

Intergenerational Worship

This week we continue to explore what being a Pentecost people is – a people alive with the spirit of God who are sent out into the world to share the Good News. From Intergen Australia

Story Telling Diarama (Susan Evans)
Story Cupcakes (Church House Collection)
Seed Box (My Little House)
Flower Pot Dessert (Stuff Amy Made)
Seed Bombs (Practically Functional)
Printable Board Game (Christian Games and Crafts)
Grass Heads (Red Ted Art)
Sower's Sack Craft (Children's Bible Lessons)
Seed Pictures (Krokotak)
Printable Sower Journal Page (Alively Hope)
Sensory Box (Baby Devotions)
Plantable Seed Cards (Craft Invaders)

Activities

Godly play story

Here is a Godly Play session outline for telling the story of the parable of the sower. The session includes some great wondering questions and gives the children the opportunity for their own spiritual enquiry -- rather than spoon feeding them the answers.

godly_play_session.pdf
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Questions

Have you ever grown a plant? What happened?
What do you think it means to have deep roots?
What are some things you can do to grow deep roots in yourself?
How can you plant seeds in others?

Visio Lectio

A beautiful print image from Rev. Sarah West, from Visio Lectio
PNG Download
Download w/ background
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Gospel Conversations

The parable of the sower is not only very familiar, but is also the one parable Jesus "explains" in detail. Is there anything left for us to glean from it, then - any new way of applying it to our lives? Reverend Michael Godfrey, from the Diocese of Dunedin, talks with Lisa, Andrew and Sally (joining us from NSW), to dig deep and come up with some intriguing answers!

My seed plant

What you need:
the template, paper cups, green pipe cleaners, green card/paper, coloured paper and other bits and pieces that you think might be useful for decorating, a bag of potting mix, glue, tape, pens and crayons

What to do:

Fill in your name on the template label and decorate it.
Attach it to the paper cup with glue or tape. Place off to the side.
Using the green card/paper, cut out leaf shapes (about four would be fine, depending on time constraints)
On each leaf, draw or write one thing that you know or have learned about God/Jesus/Holy Spirit/etc
It might be a verse, it could be a single word, it might be a picture of a time God was real for you.
Using the green pipe cleaners, create a plant with your leaves. You might like to make flowers as well.
Next, fill your paper cup ¾ full with the potting mix. Put your finished plant into the paper cup. (the potting mix should hold the plant up)

pot_template.pdf
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Planting seeds game

What you need:
Paper, a bag of counters or something to represent ‘seeds’

Preparation:
Using the templates below, photocopy 9 of each of the four templates. Shuffle them up and then spread them out face down in a grid (6 x 6)

What to do:

Give each of the children three counters.
Tell them that the counters are seeds that they are trying to grow.
One at a time, the children choose a piece of paper to place their seed on.
The leader then turns the paper over.
If the paper has either birds, or rocky ground or thorns, then that counter is confiscated by the leader.
If the paper has a picture of lots of healthy plants, then that person gets to keep their seed and gets another one from the leader.
The game ends when there is only one person with any seeds left

planting_seeds.pdf
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Prayer

Farmer God.
good soil brings forth a hundredfold of grain.
May we be that soil; vibrant, deep and teeming with life.
This we ask in God’s name,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
who live and reign, one God, now and forever.
Amen

Media

Parable of the Weeds (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)

Parables of growth

Do you ever get confused as to which seed or planting parable Jesus is talking about? This parable, spoken to the disciples (rather than a wider crowd of listeners), comes in a chapter full of growth parables, and it can be helpful to locate where this story falls:

Matthew 13
1-9 The Parable of the Sower
10-17 Jesus explains His use of parables
18-23 Jesus explains the Parable of the Sower
24-30 The Parable of the Weeds
31-32 The Parable of the Mustard Seed
33 The Parable of the Yeast
34-35 Matthew talks about Jesus' use of parables.
36-43 Jesus explains the Parable of the Weeds

Thanks to the Church of Scotland worship resources for helping anchor this story within the wider teaching of Jesus!

Intergenerational Worship

A resource from Intergen Australia. They say: "This week were are almost at the conclusion of our journey through the Matthew 10-13 stories that invite us to Check Our Hearts. Following Jesus is a balancing act we do each and every day making micro adjustments to keep us on the path. Sometimes though we lose our way. This week our activities help us to think about different ways we can find our way back to the path when we get lost." Written and compiled by Rev Amanda Nicholas.

Worship and sermon ideas

The Church of Scotland have some great thoughts around this parable, and you find them here. They also archive all their worship material on this Sanctuary First website

Children's Talk

This parable may need some sensitivity and thought in sharing with children. This talk from Sunday school network has a creative way of explaining what weeds symbolise, using green crepe paper strips to act out the story.

Craft ideas

Some ideas from Sunday School works

Media

The Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 13:31-33,44-52)

What is the Kingdom of Heaven like? In today's reading, Jesus gives four stories of what the Kingdom of God is like: a mustard seed, yeast, treasure in a field, and a net full of fish.

Questions

In Matthew 13 Jesus talks about what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.He uses many different images and there does not seem to be a clear answer.

Which image resonates with you the most and why?
What does it mean to you, when you hear or say "Your Kingdom come"?
What would you do if you found a hidden treasure?
Where is the Kingdom of Heaven?
What do you treasure in your life right now?
What is God’s greatest treasure?

Doodle through the Bible

A colourful doodle of today's Bible passage, from Doodle through the Bible.

You an download a full colour and Colouring Page

Intergenerational worship

Intergenerational material and ideas compiled by Rev Amanda Nicholas for Intergen.au

Treasure games

You will need:

A treasure box. You can use a decorated cardboard box, or a large tub/bin. You can decorate to make it look like a treasure box! (even if it just has a sign!)
Treasure, including:
- Pearls: large white balls. These could be made from paper, plastic or recycled polystyrene (we prefer recyclable materials!)
- Seeds: Large colourful balls, like the ones you find in a ball pit, or larger plastic balls.
- Yeast: small bread rolls, or pieces of bread. (old unused bread is fine!)
- Fish: You can use tins of tuna if you have some in the cupboard, or cardboard cut outs of fish
- Treasure: some pirate gold treasure, like the medallions and party things you can get at the $2 shop

How many props you need will depend on how many children you have attending your group. You might like multiple relay teams, and fill the treasure boxes with a few of each so that children get multiple opportunities to run to fetch one.

What you do:There are a few different ideas on how to play games using the treasure props

Line up the children in teams at one end of the room, and get them to run to the treasure box and bring back an item of treasure. You may like to explain what each one is, or you can use them as props in the story you tell -- getting the children to guess which prop is which bit of treasure.
Instead of doing a relay race, you could also hide these props around a hall and get the children to find them. You might like to remember where you leave any edible items!

Gospel Conversations

The Kingdom of God: How do we understand Jesus when he talks about it, especially when he does so through stories which may be open to so many interpretations? Bishop Kelvin (former bishop of Dunedin Diocese), Rev Peg Riley and Jonathan join Rev Michael Godfrey, and they have a few surprises for us as they approach some familiar parables in perhaps unfamiliar ways!

And some wonderful 'Gospel Conversations extra!" A bonus 3 minutes that bring some reflections of mustard, yeast and the kingdom of God. This week, for example, Bishop Kelvin gives us a wonderful way of understanding the yeast in the dough towards the end of the 3 minutes, so if that interests you, have a listen!

Prayer tree

Draw or paint a picture of a large tree with lots of branches.
Every person draw and cut out either a picture of a bird or a picture of a leaf.
Write prayers on the birds or leaves and glue to the tree as a collective prayer offering.

Treasure battleships

You can either print out the hand out attached for each child, and play individually, in groups, or set up 2 large battleship grids on the floor of your room! Depending on the age of your children, you might like to discern the best way to play this game. You could always have individual sheets printed out as a take home activity too, giving children 2 copies each.

The idea in battleships is to find the opponents ships and sink them. Each team gets to decide where their ships go.
We have replaced the ships in this game with treasure to find! Each treasure is a slightly different size, so the hardest treasure to find will be the mustard seed.

How to play treasure battleships

Place each treasure on on the grid. They can go any direction and can go anywhere, but must not overlap.
Do not show the other team where you have placed your treasure.
Each team takes turns calling out a coordinate -- a letter followed by a number (eg. A1, D4). If you have younger children, you might like to explain how this works, and pair them up with older children. If you have a treasure on this coordinate, the whole treasure is 'found' and is out of the game. If you hit an opponents treasure, mark it on your own board so you know which coordinates you have called already.
The winner at the end is the person who finds all the opponents treasure. You could put a time limit on the game, if it goes on for a long time!

treasure_battleships.pdf
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Prayer, inspired by Matthew 13:31-33

Dear Lord God
we thank you for mustard seed
and for the wonders of yeast
and for how these things teach us about your love.

Lord, plant your seed into our lives,
help us work your yeast into our hearts
that wonderful things may happen.
We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

~ written by Rev. Richard J. Fairchild, and posted on Kir-shalom.

Media

A Lego animation by a children's church in the US

A talk on YouTube about the kingdom of heaven being like a mustard seed

Treasure in a field animation from Max 7