So go home, get hold of your children who do not come to church. And tell them in Jesus name, come and help run the new boys brigade at St Anselm!
[automatically transcribed]
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Please sit.
And he taught them with authority. I said at the start of mass that I was going to ask you ladies, you mothers, you grandmothers, you aunties in the congregation to use your authority with those men in your life to get them to come and volunteer for boys brigade, and to come and send their children to boys brigade.
When I say authority, though, what do I mean?
Do I mean the authority that is, ‘you will do as you are told, otherwise you will get a thick ear’. That’s the kind of authority that my parents exercised over me. And it works up to a point, doesn’t it? You do as you were told because otherwise you’ll get a thick ear.
You do as your parents tell you to do because they know better than you. But Jesus speaks with a different authority. He speaks with the authority of God that commands all creation. That is what we hear in the gospel. And so we as christians are also able to speak with that same authority.
So when I tell you to go home and to tell your sons and your nephews and your grandchildren to come and help run boys brigade to send their children to boys brigade, I’m not telling you to tell them using the authority of do as I say or I will give you a clip around the year I am doing you to do it using Jesus authority, using the authority that you have as christians, because Jesus grants you that authority in his name, because your children will respond to you when you speak to them using that authority far better than they will when threatened with a clip across the ear.
Because children, just like all of us, recognise the authority of God. We recognise the purity of it. It is authority that does not require a threat to be carried out and for obedience. It is an authority that simply requires a love and respect and honour that Jesus gives us.
So go home, get hold of your children who do not come to church. And tell them in Jesus name, come and help run the new boys brigade at St Anselm. Tell them in Jesus name. Bring your children to the new boys brigade at St Anselm. Tell them with the authority of God that if they come and be part of this, they will know him better.
Amen.