I vaguely remember enjoying the ' song ' of love' and so I looked up the lyrics and realised that they make absolutely no sense at all!

Because yesterday was such a glorious day and because I am such a seasoned gardener (!) and knew it would rain today, I chose to plant some new grass seed.

And I think I did an OK job: bit of top soil, some seed and a sprinkling of water.

All I have to do now is wait! And of course, I am hopeless at waiting and have already looked out of the window twice to see if there are any signs of life!

In our reading today (John 12: 2-36), Jesus uses the very dramatic language of seeds in V24 'Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.'

Jesus couldn't be any clearer - he is about to die. His death did not take him by surprise; it was not a flaw in his plan. Jesus came to die. His death would be the source of spiritual life to the whole world and that of course includes us!

From his death on the cross was to spring up new life for all people. His death would become the seed of all blessing and grace and kindness to countless millions. We are Christians not because of the teaching of Jesus, nor because he was a good man but because of his death.

Did you also notice that Jesus spoke these words in response to the people stating "we would like to see Jesus". Wouldn't that be a thing - if the way we behaved this week (and in the weeks to come), the hope that we profess and the inner joy that comes only from having Jesus as Lord was so attractive that those who know us would say to us "we would like to see Jesus"!

And that should also be true of us; we should want to see Jesus each and every day, as we study his word and in our lives.

And our aim is that everyone in our parish would want to see Jesus. One of the many ways that we do that is through Messy Church. Unfortunately we can't meet as usual on Good Friday and so we have prepared a resource pack to do all this week. If your children and children you know like craft, point them to our website or follow this link: http://www.stmf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/St-Matthews-MC-Easter-at-Home- 1.pdf.

Also, we will be having another Zoom prayer meeting this Wednesday at 8.00pm:

In the Tears for Fears song there are two random lines (in among lots of random lines!): they look to the skies for some kind of divine intervention...... without love and a promised land

It seems to me that a pop group in the 1980's were in fact no different from the Greeks in John's gospel - they too would like to see Jesus.

A prayer as we close:

In a world of created changeable things, Christ and his Word alone remain unshaken Oh to rest as a stone on him the foundation, to abide in him, be borne up by him! For all my mercies come through Christ. Let me know that he is dear to me by his Word, I am one with him by the Word on his part, and by faith on mine. So shall Christ the Word, and his Word, be my strength and comfort.

Sleep well.

With all my love and prayers

William

As I write this, the news has come in that our Prime Minister has been moved to intensive care. Please pray for him and those that are caring for him. Please also pray for his cabinet as they make urgent plans to lead the country in the coming days and for the Foreign Secretary as he deputises.