Image by maxgrafix from Pixabay
Reflection Comox Sept. 20 2026
Scripture Reading: Matthew 21:12-17
12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.
“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,
“‘From the lips of children and infants
you, Lord, have called forth your praise’[c]?”
17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
I am a pacifist. I grew up watching MASH, and I always identified with Hawkeye Pierce, who said in one episode “I will not carry a gun.” I have a t-shirt - which I forgot to bring today - with an image from the wonderful movie The Iron Giant and the Giant’s words of protest, “I am not a gun.” Every time there is a mass shooting, I wear that shirt and post the image and quote on social media. I’m really troubled by the wars around the world, the erosion of basic human rights, and the turmoil and unrest in the country next door. It’s now gotten to the point that many of us are starting to wonder, could it get any worse? A friend posted the image on the screen on social media earlier this year; it was created in jest but it’s a valid question. It is not easy to be a pacifist, especially since 2016 - can you believe just ten years ago Barack Obama was president of the United States? I wonder if the answer to that question has to do with flipping the narrative about what it means to be a pacifist.
As a child hearing bible stories in Sunday school, I was always a bit confused by Jesus’ instruction in the Beatitudes to turn the other cheek when someone slaps you, especially when held up to the side of Jesus we see in today’s reading, the Jesus who suddenly becomes angry and aggressive and flips the tables of the moneychangers over. I used to wonder if there were two opposite sides of Jesus, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Well, no, of course not. As adult learners, we dig deeper in trying to understand, using more sophisticated tools. We learn to ask more questions. We understand there are things like literary devices. We figure out the benefit of looking at a story or an issue from another perspective. When we pick up our feet and stand in another place and observe from the point of view of the money changers, for instance, we might ask, was Jesus the bully? I’m going with no to that question because ultimately the money changers were exploitative, both toward the animals that were given as sacrifice and toward people who had less power and fewer resources.
Another way to get at the meaning of scripture, or anything, is to take the story apart and look at what actually happened, step by step. First, Jesus walked into the temple, looked around and saw behaviour he knew to be against the essential word of God. So he reacted to the inequity of what he saw. He acted aggressively to make a point, maybe make a change in how things were done, make things better and more just — and then, he healed some people, he replied to the complaints of people who didn’t understand, and he went on to the city of Bethany and carried on with his work.
Perspective. The interaction with the money changers is just one small part of what scripture tells us about Jesus and how to follow him. After this episode, he carried on with his day and his work.
Our worship theme for this year is “How then shall we live?” What are Christians supposed to do, in the face of violence, bullying, exploitation, war, civil unrest, the erosion of basic human rights? I have to leave that as a rhetorical question because I don’t have an answer today, just more questions, like what does it mean to be a pacifist who follows Christ? My Bachelor’s degree is in English literature, which some people define as how not to get a high-paying job, but it does train one in finding metaphors. When I read and re-read the scripture passage about Jesus overturning the tables of the moneychangers, the metaphor that came to my mind was poking a hornets’ nest.
I’ve been in proximity to a hornet’s nest three times in my life, once literally and twice metaphorically. When I was growing up, a portion of our backyard was uncleared, except for a path that was a shortcut to the elementary school. We called this part of the yard “the jungle.” When I was about 11 or 12, my dad needed help moving a large branch that had fallen onto the path in the jungle. Being the youngest, I was pressed into service, and we picked up that branch to move it off the path… and dragged it through a hornets’ nest, or maybe they were wasps, I didn’t look too closely at the time. As I recall, the hornets or wasps were hibernating… but they woke up and they were not happy. My dad and I came running toward the house yelling at the top of our lungs with hornets clinging to our clothes. My dad had the presence of mind to start pulling his clothes off - within the bounds of decency - which was good because I just jumped and down while my mom and sister tried to brush hornets off me. This story illustrates that poking a hornets’ nest can happen accidentally, it can be dangerous, and keeping your wits about you is a better reaction than jumping and down and screaming.
The second story is about a time I opted not to poke the hornet’s nest. Some years ago I worked in a toxic workplace. The toxicity came from the top down; there is no other way to say this: the manager was a bully. She had her favourites, and her not-favourites, and we all knew which group we were in. This was a union shop, and yet she could get people fired for no discernible reason. On one occasion, I was the first staff member to go on morning coffee break. There was a coffee shop right next door and I had treated myself to a coffee and taken it into the staff room. When the manager came in and saw that I hadn’t made coffee, she put her hands around my neck and pretended to throttle me. That’s just one of a series of humiliating, unfair and infuriating occurrences that I either experienced or witnessed. But I was a single parent and I needed that job, so despite the injustice and the anger I felt, I did not speak up and challenge the manager’s words and actions. I failed to poke that hornet’s nest, perhaps for justifiable reasons — but I was not a pacifist in that situation either. A pacifist seeks the difficult peace, especially when things need to change, not unlike the example Jesus sets in the story we heard this morning. I know others were hurt by my silence and lack of action and so I have so e regrets. It wasn’t the best way to deal with a bully, or the best way to live.
A few years after that, I really poked a hornet’s nest. I first started studying at VST and pursuing ordination about 15 years ago. A couple of years into my studies, I found myself caught in the middle of a situation that wasn’t right. It had developed slowly, kind of like the story about a frog in a pot of water that’s set to boil, and the water slowly gets hotter and hotter. It was a long time before I realized how hot that water I was in had gotten. When I couldn’t study, or work, or be much of a parent, in desperation I called one of my professors, an Anglican priest. He listened to what I said, saw things clearly in a way I couldn’t, and he told me that a formal complaint had to be made - a complaint against someone who had been an unofficial mentor to me. (Sidebar: the complaint didn’t involve anything physical or criminal - but it was a betrayal of trust by someone in power against someone who was vulnerable, and I am still amazed at how devastating that can be.) Has anyone ever been in a situation where you had to speak up? You don’t have to answer, but if you have, you know that no one wins when someone blows the whistle. I did NOT want to lodge a complaint. But there were three options. 1. Say nothing and do nothing, 2. Say nothing and walk away or 3. Start the formal complaint process. The first option, saying and doing nothing, was slowly killing me. The priest to whom I took this problem helped me realize that saying nothing and walking away was no a viable option either: I had a responsibility to let the powersthat-be know what was happening, to try to make sure no one else was hurt and get help for all who were involved. So I poked the hornet’s nest on purpose, with some necessary guidance and encouragement, because in that time and situation, trying to change things was the only alternative I could live with. This brings me back to the state of the world today, and the question “Could it get any worse?”
Yes, I’m afraid it could. I yearn for a day when swords become plowshares and bullies aren’t in power but we may not see that in our lifetime. What is the alternative? How, then, shall we live? I still don’t have answers but I have a few thoughts. We can choose to make sure things don’t get worse. A few years ago, I heard a great illustration. “When I was younger, I did the best I could with the tools I had. Now I have different tools.” We can do the best we can with the tools we have, integrating the things we learn every day: how to live, and how not to live. And we can say what we can, when we can. If no one speaks up, nothing changes. Every time I speak or sing the Lord’s prayer in community, I hear the echo of every voice I’ve ever recited those words with. That’s a lot of voices, and it is awe-inspiring. There is great power in voices joined together, working and praying for harmony. And finally, there’s that idea of flipping the narrative and seeing things from another perspective. Sometimes we need help with that, like when we find ourselves in a pot of boiling water. If, some day, your feet are stuck to the floor and you can’t see things from another perspective, may there be someone near to help you flip the narrative. May the God who calls us to change give us courage and wisdom to know which hornets’ nest to poke so that we can be the change our world so badly needs.
Amen.