For our All Age Eucharist this morning we had a real treasure trove to dig into in the form of today’s Gospel reading;
Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
(Matthew 13:13-33, 44-52 NRSV)
After the intruduction, a hymn, the prayer for today (known as the Collect) and the Gospel reading, we moved into 3 activities. The first of these helped us to bring our sins to God: we thought about the pearl of great price. This parable is about a pearl mearchant who sells his entire collection in order to buy one very beautiful pearl; so it is with God’s Kingdom – in order to join in we sometimes have to let other stuff go. We thought about what we might need to let go of in order to become citizens of God’s Kingdom. What is it that holds us back? We then placed pearls on a mirror, surrounded by light representing God’s love and forgivness.
Our second activity drew on the image of the great catch of fish: we spent some time praying for people who need to know they’re in God’s care, and for those who need to be caught up in God’s love – like fish in a net. We placed (gummy) fish in a net as we brought people to God in our prayers. (There were spare fish for anyone who ate theirs before we got to this bit!)
Our learning activity was based around the parable of the treasure in the field. We all traded in a ‘gold’ coin in order to dig up some treasure. A beautiful bowl filled with sand had shiny treasure hidden within and we had a good time digging round, like archaeologists, seeing what we could find. The conversation, while we were digging, was about our values – what is really important. 
After we had all circulated and done all three activities we reconvened for our celebration of Holy Communion.
In our final hymn the percussion came out and the kids (and some of the grownups!) added a bit of extra welly to the last hymn!
