“Hurray for the Riff Raff”: A Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

Preached at All Saints, Collinwood, and Good Shepherd, Stayner, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, 30 March, 2025

Readings for Lent4C:  Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11B-32

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." (Luke 15:1-2)

Imagine that Jesus has come to town for a visit.  He’s sitting at a big table somewhere, eating lunch, and the people sitting with him and listening intently are pretty sketchy.  There’s some bar flies from Moguls, sitting with a few property developers with sleazy reputations, alongside a disgraced former politician, a known drug dealer, and the minor hockey coach who was fired for, well, you know.   

The next table over has some downtown business leaders, a few local pastors and Probus types, someone with the Order of Collingwood and various other upstanding citizens.  They’re also listening to Jesus, but they all have sour faces and disapproving expressions.

In today’s parable Jesus is speaking to at least two audiences.  Jesus seems to be eating with “tax collectors (collaborators with Rome) and sinners”, so he is speaking to them.  Jesus is also aware that there are good religious people watching, “the Pharisees and the scribes”, who don’t approve of his choice of table companions.  So, when Luke says that Jesus “told them this parable”, the “them” is ambiguous but I think we can safely assume that Jesus is speaking both to the riffraff and to the pious folks.   

I said “at least audiences”.  Are there more?  Yes,  there’s a third audience, us, for the gospel always speaks to God’s people in the here and now.  What we hear today may depend on which character in the parable we identify with.   It’s often said that the genius of the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that, depending on our life experience, we might see ourselves in one or more of the three characters, the Father, the Younger Son, and the Elder Son.  

So let me ask you a related question:  if we go back to the start of the gospel reading, which audience do you identify with - the riffraff, or the respectable religious people?  Your answer to that probably depends on whether you see something of yourself in the Younger Son or the Elder Son.

How you answer that question of who you identify with is your own business, but in case you think it’s a trick question, let me help you by saying that there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a good person.  Scripture encourages us to want to better.  Saint Paul, for example, tells us to “Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts” (1 Cor 1.14), the spiritual gifts being “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5.22-23).  

What’s important to note however is that Paul isn’t talking about self improvement or self help.  A gift is something given to us by another, and spiritual gifts come from God our Father.  The trap of Christian respectability is that we can delude ourselves into thinking that we can impress God with our own efforts, which is exactly the trap that the Elder Son in the parable falls into.   The Elder Son is a perfect church person - pious, hardworking, and flawless - (what congregation wouldn’t want him as a warden?) - but because of his respectability he can’t allow himself to share his Father’s joy at the return of his brother, the Younger Son.  The love and gifts that his Father lavishes on his spendthrift brother scandalize and offend the Elder brother, who thinks he should be rewarded and his brother punished.   

Does the Elder Brother ever come around to forgiving and welcoming his Younger Brother?  Jesus doesn’t tell us.  We may hope so, but I think the point of the parable teaches us that there is a vast gulf between our ability to love and forgive and God’s desire to love and forgive.   In our bible study this week, we talked about how difficult it can be to love and forgive, especially when we have been greatly wronged.

 There may be people in our lives that are so toxic and so hostile that forgiveness and reconciliation are impossible.    In such situations, if we have been hurt or victimized, we may need to exclude someone from our lives in order to protect ourselves and those we love.  In such cases, we need to remember that love and forgiveness are spiritual gifts, and that God might find ways to heal and reconcile when we can’t, if not in this world, but the next.

So, have you figured out yet which audience in the parable you identify with?  Do you see yourself sitting with the upright and uptight, or do you see yourself sitting with the riffraff?   If the latter, no worries.  Someone once said that evangelism is just one hungry person telling another hungry person where they got free bread.   The Younger Son comes to himself when he realizes that he is starving.  He goes to his Father hoping for a little bread, a hired man’s wages.  Instead he gets a feast, because God’s always up for a good party.

Maybe the lesson for the Elder Brother, and for all of us church folk, is that we were hungry, and are fed abundantly, because God loves the riffraff.

Citizens of Earth and Heaven: A Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent

 Preached at All Saints, Collingwood, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, on, March 16, 2023, the Second Sunday of Lent. 

Readings for Lent 2 (YrC): Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35

“But our citizenship[a] is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil 3.21) 

I’m sure you’ve had that moment when you land in another country and you’re in a queue at immigration, that moment when you hand over your Canadian passport and you think “I’m so glad you I have one of these”.   Having a Canadian passport when I travel makes me feel a little like having a magical charm, something that says “I’m one of the good guys, I’m harmless and inoffensive, why would you give me any trouble, I’m Canadian”.  

It’s often said of Canadians that we have a quiet sense of pride in our country, that we’re nice, polite folks, but it’s also said that when push comes to shove, we can be fighters.  Yesterday I saw an article in The Atlantic magazine with the title, “The Crimson Face of Canadian Anger” and we can all understand why that is.   

When you hear “Fifty First State”, doesn’t your blood pressure go up a bit?   It says something about us as a country that when we feel threatened we turn to the language of hockey fights and use phrases like “drop the gloves” and “elbows up”.  I’m as guilty of this as anyone else, because I’ve served in uniform, I’ve worn my country’s flag on my shoulder, and I know damn well that my nationalistic buttons are getting pressed.

In times like these, one of the challenges for us as Canadians and as Christians is to remember that we have another identity and another loyalty as citizens of the kingdom of God.   When we were baptized, the priest drew the sign of the cross on our foreheads, and said “I sign you with the cross, and mark you as Christ’s own for ever” (BAS p 161).   As I like to say at confirmation classes, we actually have two passports, one as Canadians and one as citizens of the kingdom of God, and that second passport was issued to us at the font.

Which one of our two passports has precedence?  Which one is ultimately more important?   For Paul, who was a Roman citizen, the answer was simple.   As he wrote to the Christians in Philippi, “our citizenship is in heaven” and elsewhere in the letter he writes that the Philippians are “children of God”.   He was writing these words as a prisoner in Rome, awaiting a trial for preaching the good news, the gospel, of Christ, for which he would ultimately be executed.  Paul knew that being a Roman citizen would not protect him from punishment for putting Jesus first, for saying that Jesus was lord of heaven and earth and putting Jesus ahead of the emperor in Rome who called himself a God.  Many Christians  would learn the same hard lesson in the centuries of persecution that followed.  

Being a Christian in Paul’s day and in the early church was counter-cultural and sometimes dangerous, but as time went on it became comfortable.   If you don’t mind a quick church history lesson, in the fourth century the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Empire.  As Christianity spread, if a king or ruler converted, then his people were considered Christian.  After the Reformation, the rule of thumb was that the religion of the ruler (Protestant or Catholic) was the religion of his citizens (Cuius regio, eius religio).  Church and state gradually grew apart, but some of us can still remember a time when Canada considered itself a Christian nation.   

Today it’s much more complicated.   Christmas and Easter are holidays, but we also acknowledge Ramadan, Passover, and Diwali as important religious dates.   We now see diversity as a positive good, so we see being Canadian as a common, collective identity, whereas being religious or irreligious is a private, voluntary matter.

In some ways we are a lot closer to Christianity as it was in Paul’s time then we are to Christianity as it was when Canada was founded.   While we’re not persecuted, and we get a nice tax receipt for our offerings to the church, we find ourselves, as I said last Sunday, on the margins of a largely secular society.   As Christians we don’t control the national agenda, but we don’t suffer from our irrelevance.   In fact, many Canadian values - civility, tolerance of difference, equality, universal programs - are compatible with and adjacent to Christian values.

So of course when we hear certain neighbours say that we should be the “Fifty First State”, of course we as Christians and as Canadians should get riled.   Our country is worth defending.   But here’s where we need to remember our second passport as baptized followers of Jesus, because we know that there is a dark side to nationalism.   

It can become an irrational force that makes people say “my country right or wrong”.  It can divide neighbours, as we saw just five years ago when people who disagreed with Covid regulations and vaccinations began to wave large flags and call themselves the true Canadians.   Nationalism can be used by politicians to incite hatred and target minorities who aren’t really one of us.  Nationalism makes civil and reasonable conversations difficult if not impossible.   If you doubt that claim, then imagine that you had a neighbour or a family member who genuinely believed that Canada should be fifty-first state.   How would you feel about that person?  Would you even try to talk with them?

It’s hard these days to separate the blather and bluster from reality, and maybe there is no real threat to the country that we love.   But whatever happens, we always need to remember that our identity as Christians matters in the here and now.  When Paul writes that “our citizenship is in heaven”, we might think that he is talking about some future reality, because he goes on to say that it is from heaven that “we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ”.  But Paul also says elsewhere in this letter that we should live for Jesus on earth while we wait to be with Jesus in heaven.   He tells the Philippian Christians that they should “live your [lives] in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Ph 1.27) so that they “shine like stars” amidst the people around them (Ph 2.5).

What does it mean for us in this strange and fearful time to live lives worthy of the gospel of Christ?  I would say that it means to live in hope and in kindness.  It means valuing everything good about our country of Canada while wanting Canada to have more ofthe things that God teaches us to strive for - justice, dignity, and compassion for all.  It means praying for our leaders while giving our ultimate allegiance to Jesus as our Lord.  

We give our loyalty to Jesus because we know that he will never lead us to dark places. Jesus calls us to love rather than to hate, he calls us to welcome strangers instead of fearing them, and he calls us to act like brothers and sisters rather than as enemies.  These are good values for citizens of heaven, and they are good values for citizens of Canada.   May God bless us, and may God bless and protect all that is good in our beloved country.

Lent Madness

 The lack of engagement on my Lent Madness posts here, and my own lack of time, means no more updates on this engaging Lenten pastime.  You can find Lent Madness content here as well as on the All Saints Collingwood Facebook page.

"Fit For Purpose": A Homily for the First Sunday of Lent

Preached at All Saints Anglican Church, Collingwood, 9 March, 2025.

A Funeral Homily for Francis Bonwick

 Preached at All Saints, Collingwood, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, 8 March, 2025.

It doesn’t matter how old a person is, or how long and fulfilling their life has been, it’s always sad to say goodbye.   Today we say goodbye to a lady who was wife, mother, grandmother, respected member of an old Collingwood family, and a faithful and lifelong parishioner of All Saints. 

I only knew Fran in the last few years of her life, but in that time I became very fond of her.  I looked forward to seeing her in her usual pew on Sunday morning, and if there was time before the service, she would often wave me over and tell me something interesting, usually some tidbit about the history of this church that she was very proud of.

Fran also liked to tell me that she was baptized here at All Saints, confirmed here, and married here.   Today, as we give her into the loving and eternal care of God, this church performs its last service for Fran, though we will remember her as one who has enriched the life of this place.

Of course, there is so much more to Fran’s life than merely her connection to this church.   But that connection with All Saints can be seen, if you will, as a metaphor for how we live our lives within the love and care of God.   

Fran came through these doors as a babe in arms in a white christening gown, as a beautiful bride, as a mother, and over the decades, as I’ve said, as a faithful parishioner.  She was always kind and gracious, particularly to a young man, a newcomer to All Saints, who often sat just behind her.    Fran experienced God’s love, and she returned it to those around her.  Today, as she leaves All Saints for the final time, she is wrapped fully and completely in the love of the God who knew her and walked with her through every stage of life.

I hope that it is a comfort to you to know that you, too, will leave here, fully surrounded by the love and care of God, just as Fran was, and now is, in a way that we can’t fully imagine.   

Saturday Homily: Conclusion of the Holy Family Series

 

Last of the Apres Ski 2025 meditations on the Holy Family.

Fix Our Hearts: A Homily for Ash Wednesday

 Preached on Ash Wednesday at All Saints, Collingwood, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, 5 March, 2025.

Readings:  Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, Psalm 103:8-18; 2 Corinthians 5:20B-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

“Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near - a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!” (Jl 2:1-2).

Several weeks ago, one of Elon Musk’s Space X rockets exploded during a test flight over the Caribbean.   However, Musk’s company did not call it an explosion, or a failure, but rather, it was a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”.  Or, as WB Yeats would have put it more poetically, “things come apart, the centre cannot hold”.  Things coming apart seems an apt description of the strange time that we are currently living through, in a way that makes our readings today especially pointed and relevant.

Ash Wednesday is about things going apart in catastrophic ways that only God can fix them.  The prophet Joel warns of a coming disaster that threatens the very nation.  Jesus warns us that our wealth and security can disappear.  And the ashes, a sign of mortality as well as repentance, warn us that our health and our very bodies will one day fail us.   Things come apart.

There are times when Ash Wednesday can seem like a quaint ritual, the flip side of Pancake Tuesday.  When things are going swimmingly, the familiar scripture readings don’t really touch us.  We laugh at one another’s smudged foreheads, we might even leave the church hoping that someone will see our ashes and ask us about them.   At other times, though, when things don’t look so rosy, Ash Wednesday seems to strike a nerve.   Today Ash Wednesday feels very real.

I don’t need to spend much time detailing the crazy times we live in.   Certainties are being swept away daily.   Dictators are now friends.    Friends are now dictators.   Neighbours and allies are scorned and threatened.   Cruelty and corruption, ignorance and racism now seem to be the official values of the most powerful country in the world.  Recently, Elon Musk said that “empathy was the fundamental weakness of western civilization”.

In these times when we feel vulnerable, threatened, and just dazed, we need to remind ourselves that we stand on solid ground, and that saints and angels stand with us.   Empathy is at the centre of all that we believe as Christians and is at the centre of what we inherited fro Judaism.   Earlier we heard the prophet Joel saying “rend your hearts and not your clothing”, meaning that true repentance is not ritual but a change of life.  Or, as the late film director David Lynch once said, “Fix your hearts or die”.

The Old Testament readings chosen for Ash Wednesday, Joel or an alternate selection from Isaiah, call on cruel and corrupt societies to find their way back to God by embracing justice, kindness, and equity.   Likewise for St Paul in our second lesson, the path to God is “patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech”.  And in our gospel reading, Jesus reminds us that when we give alms and do acts of kindness, we are giving from the true wealth of the human heart.

Today the ashes on our heads can be seen as a as something more than a sign of our mortality.  They can also be seen as a sign of our commitment to God’s kingdom of justice and empathy.   Amid the darkness and gloom, we can wear the ashes as an act of lamentation and sorrow for what we see going on around us.  Like the people in Joel, we can wear the ashes as a call for God to reappear, to come and be the God of justice and peace that we long for, to forgive our many collective sins and to drive away the darkness and gloom.  

Today, on Ash Wednesday, we call on God to fix our hearts.

Background On This Year’s Vestry Social Justice Motion and Supervised Consumption of Drugs in Ontario

Preached at All Saints, Collingwood, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, for the parish vestry meeting, The Last Sunday of Epiphany, 2 March, 2025.

Every year, as part of the vestry meeting process, our Diocesan Social Justice Committee asks parishes to vote on a motion concerning some social cause or issue that is in the news.  Each year the Social Justice Committee gives these motions careful thought and research.   

The 2025 Social Justice Motion gives all churches in our Diocese the chance to call on our provincial government to reverse its opposition to and closer of Supervised Consumption Sites across the province.    When our vestry meets tomorrow, on March 2nd, the motion we will consider reads as follows:

We, the parish of All Saints, Collingwood, in the Diocese of Toronto, urge the Province of Ontario to reverse the planned closure of safe consumption sites in Ontario, and to lift the ban on the creation of new sites, in order to expand life-saving harm reduction services to Ontarians.

A fact sheet on the motion, and a video explaining it,  can be found here.

Before I talk about the motion, let me offer a short explanation of what I think we as church mean when we talk about Social Justice.  Social Justice should not be confused with supporting any one political party.   Social justice is about how we live the values of the Kingdom of God in our daily lives.  It’s about how our social values uphold the value of each life made in the image of God and loved by Jesus.

Our province does not value lives as it should.  Between November 2024 and January 2025, an average of seven people a day died in Ontario from drug overdoses.  Each of those people mattered: they were someone’s child, brother, sister, partner, parent.  So for me, the basic question boils down to this:  we as Christians and as Ontarians are not okay with people dying if their deaths are preventable.  If we don’t want them dying of hunger and exposure on the street or in homeless encampments, then we don’t want them dying of overdoses. 

The premise of the Supervised Consumption Site program has always been to offer spaces that provide a wide spectrum of health and medical attention.  For some users, they function as community clinics, offering a path away from addiction and back to wellness.  They bring drug users and care professionals together and offer hope for healing, and they make neighbourhoods safer.  

Here are some comments that the Social Justice Committee has gathered:

Rebecca is another parent whose child attends school near a supervised consumption site, the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site. She says, “As a parent, I value safe consumption sites.  Amidst the opioid crisis that has claimed thousands of lives in Ontario, safe consumption sites are saving lives, and making our communities safer. I am sympathetic to people who are concerned for their safety; however, as research points out, overdose prevention centres do not increase local crime, but instead help reduce drug use in public spaces and reduce the disposal of syringes in public spaces, such as parks and school yards.” 

Zach, who lives in a homeless encampment in Toronto, goes to a nearby SCS for harm reduction supplies. He says, “I don’t use these as much myself, but other people come here [to my tent] and get this stuff. I often go three times a day to refresh the supplies.” He adds that people who are

addicted “gotta do it somewhere. It’s better people know what you’re doing and how you are doing it, so you don’t do it in the bathroom. That’s how people die.”

We might decide that Safe Consumption Sites are a Toronto problem, but we’d be wrong.  Health advocates in Barrie and Orillia have been trying in vain to establish sites in their communities, and we know that drug use happens in small communities, where there are even fewer places to turn for help.   I hope that you will look at the materials that our Diocese has made available on this subject and that you will decide to support this year’s motion.

The clergy team hopes that when all four parishes in our region have voted to support the motion, we can write a joint letter to Brian Saunderson, our newly re-elected MLA for Grey Simcoe, calling on him to consider the concerns that we have raised as Christians and as citizens.  Better yet if we could present the letter in person and have a discussion.  Please support the motion so we can do that.

Blessings,

Fr. Michael

https://odprn.ca/occ-opioid-and-suspect-drug-related-death-data/