Puppet Show: Seed Cemetery

Gospel Puppet Show

March 25, 2012

Pam, the gardener, Stuart as Jesus, Catherine as Miriam, Caroline as Gully the sea gull

Pam is in front of the theatre, hoeing her garden.  In her garden there are little tomb stones in a row.  One Tomb stones reads, Beans: RIP.  Another tombstone reads: Peas: RIP.  Another reads Corn: RIP

Miriam: Hi, Miss Pam what are you doing?

Miss Pam:  It is spring time and so it is time to prepare my garden.  And as you see my garden is like a graveyard.  I have done lots of burying in my garden.

Miriam:  Burying?  Does that mean someone has died?

Miss Pam: Well not someone but something is going to die soon.  That is why I put up the tomb stones.  I’ve made one for the peas, the corn and the beans.

Gully:  Hi, Miss Pam, I hope you didn’t bury all of the seeds.  If I see a seed, I will fly down and eat it.  While you are hoeing the ground could you dig up some worms for me to eat.  Yum, yum, I like worms.   Do the children like worms;  I hope not because that will be more for me.

Miss Pam:  Gully, you stay away from my seeds.  I’ll have to put up a scare crow to keep you away.  But I do have some bread crumbs for you to eat.

Gully:  Thanks, Miss Pam.  But I’m like Miriam I don’t understand why you have tomb stones on the rows in your garden.  For me a garden means life, not death.

Miriam:  Yes, I still don’t understand your tomb stones in the garden.  It is kind of sad or silly.  Please explain what you are doing.  This is spring and it is not like Halloween when we do spooky things.  Why are you doing spooky things in your garden?

  

Miss Pam:  Well, I bought packages of little seeds.  And they are very tiny and I bury them in the ground.  And when I put them into the ground, the seeds are going to die.

Miriam: They are not going to die; they are going to become roots, stem and plants and vegetables.  How are they going to die?

Miss Pam: In two weeks if we were to dig into the ground here would we find the seeds?

Gully:  I don’t know what we would find? 

Miss Pam:  Did you know that Jesus talked about seeds dying in the ground and he said that his life would be like a seed that would die in the ground?

Miriam:  That sounds like a riddle to me.  How can we understand this riddle?

Miss Pam:  Maybe we could pray and ask Jesus to help us learn the meaning of his riddle.

Gully: Okay, Dear Jesus, please come and help us to understand your riddle about the seeds.

Miriam: Yes, Dear Jesus, please come.  We want to know the meaning of the dying seeds.

(Jesus appears)

Jesus:  Hello, Miss Pam, Gully and Miriam, I heard your prayers.  Did you call for me?

Miriam:  Yes, Jesus, we want to know the meaning of your riddle about the dying seed and your life?

Jesus:  Okay, I did say that my life was like a dying seed.  And this is what I mean.   Look at the pictures of the seed in the ground.  See in the first one, the little seed breaks and out pops a little tail.  Do you see it?  Do you know what happens to this little tail?

Gully:  No, what happens?

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Jesus:  It becomes the root.  And the root drinks in water and food from the ground called minerals.  And then look what happens, the top of the tail breaks out of the ground and it becomes a green shoot.  But the case of the seed is now like a hat on the head of the plant.  And when the head of the plant grows leaves then the seed case falls to the ground.  And the case is dead just like a cocoon is dead after the butterfly has left it.

Miriam:  But Jesus, how was your life like a dying seed?

Jesus:  Well, Miriam, you know that I died upon the cross?  But when I died did the world forget all about me like they would forget about this dead case of the seed?

Gully:  No, Jesus, you weren’t forgotten.  You became more famous after you died.

Jesus: Yes, that is true, Gully.  You see I was like the seed that became the root and the plant and the leaves.  Why?

Miss Pam:  Is that because you came back to life again?

Jesus: Yes!  And now I am alive in the lives of everyone who invites my Spirit to live in them.  I have become like a great tree; I am not like the seed anymore.  My life died but now I live again like a great tree, because I am now with all people who invite me to be in their lives.

Miriam:  Thank you Jesus for explaining the riddle for us.

Gully:  Boys and girls, do you understand the riddle now?  Do you see that a seed that dies becomes much more life in the root and the leaves?

Miss Pam:  That’s right!  Thank you Jesus for explaining the riddle to us.  Okay, I have to get back to burying my seeds!