Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke — In the Kingdom of God, Jesus emphasizes themes we hear in the explanations to the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism. The kingdom of God is about the gift of the Holy Spirit and faith in Christ. The kingdom of God is Christ and the salvation He came to bring. The kingdom of God is “in our midst” wherever Jesus’ Word and Sacraments are preached and administered, and wherever Jesus’ Church suffers under persecution. In the Parable of the Persistent Widow, we learn that “the Christian prays continually because he believes that God can be relied upon to deliver him from his enemies. Prayer flows from the faith that God is righteous toward us for Christ’s sake, and that He will vindicate us and right all wrongs at last. If a man who neither fears God nor respects any man will deliver you from an enemy because you continually bother him for his help, how much more shall God, who has called us in His son, deliver us when we cry out to Him?” In the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus spoke to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. It teaches us that “the highest worship [of God] in the Gospel is the desire to receive forgiveness of sins, grace, and righteousness.” The Call to Repentance and the Things that Make for our Peace focuses upon the word of Jesus as He wept over Jerusalem: “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes…because you did not know the time of your visitation” (19:42, 44b). The ministry of Jesus was not all that different from the ministry of the Old Testament prophets. He called sinners to repentance that they might receive His peace and salvation. The call to repentance is necessary, in order that we turn away from trusting in ourselves and in our own righteousness and accomplishments, to trusting in the mercy of God in Christ. This call to repentance is always based upon our Savior’s love for us. We see this compassion and call to repentance in Jesus’ ministry to the Rich Young Ruler. The “one thing” this man lacked was Christ and His righteousness. In Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus, we hear the prayer of this repentant faith when Bartimaeus cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Though he was pushed away by others, Jesus received this poor blind beggar. (Excerpts from New Testament Catechesis in the Lutheran Catechesis Series) CP250803