Lord of the Harvest – Luke 10, Gal 6, 2 Kings 5

As usual, you will find a confession and absolution, blessings and dismissal at the end of this post. Don’t feel that those are not for you if you are not responsible for leading services. Many folks have commented that they make a beautiful (and sometimes challenging) addition to personal devotions and to small groups.

In addition, we have a craft activity suitable for the many Biblical references to growing crops and harvesting, and fun sticky-note challenge for the story of Naaman. Perfect for all-age worship, Messy church, schools / youth work as well as for grown ups. (We need visuals too!)

In addition there are links to other folks’ resources including (new this week) hymn suggestions. Let me know if that’s useful and I’ll keep it in.

A reminder that I produce these resources for free because I believe this stuff is important, so if you’d like to support the work, there are many ways you can do this:

Spread the word – share posts via social media
Buy my books – see the links on the sidebar
Donate via paypal (see sidebar) or Buy Me a Coffee [click]

Reaping the Harvest by Nathan Greene
http://www.nathangreene.com

Harvest Craft

Make your own growing wheat to harvest. My apologies that I cannot find my images for this craft. But I have done it and it works, honest.

You will need:

penne pasta (preferably whole wheat)
string or yarn
green paper or white paper and green pens
scissors
sticky tape
optional, a small plant pot
for harvesting a small bowl

What to do:

Cut a 1m length of string and tie a piece of pasta on one end.
Thread the rest of the string with pasta, leaving 30cm free, and tie the top piece in place.
Draw some leaf shapes on the paper and cut them out.
Stick three leaves to the pasta near the spare string (this will be the top), and the rest along the length.
Tape the bottom end of the pasta stalk into a flowerpot or to the floor. If you use a flowerpot, leave the spare end of string dangling over the side.
To make your what grow (parable of the sower, wheat and tares, lord of the harvest etc) simply pull the string upwards to see it grow. If you wan to do this invisibly, you can substitute the 30cm of spare string for 3m of fishing line and drape it over a door or other horizontal edge, then pull the fishing live from behind the door and the wheat will ‘magically’ grow.
If you want to harvest the wheat (pasta), have someone hold a bowl under the string while you cut it near the base. The penne pasta helpfully looks like grain as well as stalk.

Other Resources from The Reflectionary

Naaman and the unknown little girl – activity / upfront visual + reflection

The NObody who was SOMEbody

Luke 10 (and parallels) / 2 Kings 5 resources from other places. Not verified, just links I’ve found.

Liturgy for Proper 9

Click here for hymn suggestions from Singing the Faith

2 Kings 5, Psalm 30, Galatians 6, Luke 10

Confession and Absolution

We come to you, Father of inextinguishable light
and see our darkness revealed.
Cleanse us, we pray
and make us spotless in your sight.

We come to you, source of living water
and you bid us ‘wash, and be clean’.
Cleanse us, we pray
and make us spotless in your sight.

We come to you, Spirit of purifying fire
that you might burn away our sin.
Cleanse us, we pray
and make us spotless in your sight.

O LORD my God, we cry to you for help
and you heal us.
You bring us up from the pit
and restore our souls.
You turn our mourning into dancing
and clothe us with joy.

Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
Amen.

Blessing and Dismissal

May peace be upon your house.
May the kingdom of God be near you.
May you rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
May you not weary of doing good,
but reap a harvest of blessing when our Lord comes.

Therefore go, into the harvest field of our Lord,
and work for his praise and glory.
We will, we will.
Amen.