For the parent: Read each part aloud and work through the questions together. Your answers are printed in blue italics, so no preparation is needed. Your child uses the Student Edition.
Step 1 · Understand the Collect
A collect is a short prayer the pastor prays for the whole church. Here is today's collect:
Almighty God, our Father, Your blessed Son called Luke the physician to be an evangelist and physician of the soul. Grant that the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments may put to flight the diseases of our souls that with willing hearts we may ever love and serve You; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Words to know. Physician: doctor. Evangelist: a writer of one of the four Gospels. Medicine: something that heals. Put to flight: chase away. Harvest (in the Gospel): gathering in the crops; here, gathering people into God's kingdom. Laborers: workers.
1. Luke was a ______________. Answer: Physician, a doctor.
2. The Gospel and the Sacraments are healing ______________ for our souls. Answer: Medicine.
3. We want to love and serve God with willing ______________. Answer: Hearts.
Step 2 · Understand the Gospel
Luke 10:1-9
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.
5 Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house!' 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'"
1. How many workers did Jesus send out, and how? Answer: Seventy-two, two by two (verse 1). Some Bibles say seventy, because the oldest copies of Luke differ.
2. What did Jesus tell them to pray for? Answer: That the Lord of the harvest would send out more laborers (verse 2).
3. What were they to say first when they entered a house? Answer: "Peace be to this house!" (verse 5).
4. What two things were they to do in each town? Answer: Heal the sick and say, "The kingdom of God has come near to you" (verse 9).
Step 3 · Find the Collect in the Gospel
Say to your child: Our prayer calls Luke a doctor for souls and asks God to heal us with the medicine of His Gospel. In the Gospel, Jesus sends out workers to heal and to preach. Let's find our prayer in the story.
1. The collect speaks of healing. What did Jesus tell the seventy-two to do for the sick? Answer: Heal them (verse 9).
2. The collect calls the Gospel medicine. What good news were they to tell people? Answer: "The kingdom of God has come near to you" (verse 9).
3. The collect asks that we love and serve God. For what did Jesus tell them to pray in verse 2? Answer: For more laborers to serve in God's harvest.
Parent note. Luke was a real doctor (Colossians 4:14), and he wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. The medicine he gives us is God's Word. God still heals bodies through doctors and in answer to prayer, and He heals our souls through the Gospel, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper.
Step 4 · The Small Catechism
The Second Petition. Thy kingdom come. What does this mean? The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also. How does God's kingdom come? God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.
1. Jesus' workers said, "The kingdom of God has come near to you." What do we ask for in the Second Petition? Answer: That God's kingdom would come to us also.
2. How does God's kingdom come? Answer: When our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that we believe His Word and lead godly lives.
Step 5 · Wrap It All Up
Pray today's collect together one more time. Then ask:
1. What does Jesus do for you through His Word and Sacraments? Answer: He heals my soul. He forgives my sins, brings His kingdom to me, and makes me willing to love and serve Him.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible. Small Catechism quotation from Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, © Concordia Publishing House.