25/3/12 Lent 5

Theme: The message of the grain of wheat

Bible Reading

John chapter 12 verses 20-33

Preparation

You will need some seeds to show the children. If you are able to do so, get hold of some cress seeds and blotting paper and sow these during the assembly, for display a week later. (If you are preparing well in advance it would be even better to sow some cress seeds ready to show.) You may find that one of the classes in the school is already growing seeds at the moment, and these too could be displayed. Any illustrations of wheat and flour would also be useful.

If your school knows the Easter hymn "Now the green blade rises" (131 in Come and Praise Volume II ) this would be appropriate here. For younger pupils, a variation on this theme would be to read the story of "Ears and the Secret Song" by Meryl Doney.

Introduction

Spring is a time when we are thinking about new life because all around us the plants in our gardens and in the fields are beginning to grow and the trees are showing off their new leaves. Yet if you look at a tiny seed it looks like nothing at all - it is small and dead looking - but when it is sown in the earth it bursts into life. (Sow the cress seeds, commenting as you do so.)

One grain of wheat is also very small. You can grind it to make flour, but you need thousands of grains to make just one bag of flour, not just one grain. But if you plant it instead, when the small grain of wheat starts to grow it turns into an ear of corn which contains lots more grains and those grains will produce more grains which will in turn produce more grains… After several years, the original grain of wheat which was sown could have resulted in many hundreds more grains being produced.

The Message

At this stage in the year (Lent) we are looking towards Holy Week and Easter when Christians remember the death of Jesus on the cross and celebrate his resurrection. In the last few days of his life Jesus said something very important about himself:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (John chapter 12 verse 24)

Jesus was thinking about the miracle of growing wheat, just like we were a few moments ago. When he said these words he knew that his death was close, but he also knew that his death would result in bringing many people back to God. He felt he was rather like the one grain of wheat that gets sown in the ground and then produces hundreds of new grains. He would die, but the result was that many, many others would live by following him. That is the message of Easter Day.

So when you look around you in the Spring time and see all the flowers starting to come out, and the new leaves on the trees, and especially when you see the wheat starting to grow in the fields, remember that nature is telling you the special Easter story of Jesus.

Prayer

Thank you God for the wonders of Spring and for all the new plant growth which is coming to life all around us. Help us to understand the message of new life which the Spring brings.

As this is the last week of term you are sure to be telling the Easter story in your remaining acts of worship.