During the time that I was thinking about offering myself for ordination, the diocese of Blackburn, under whose jurisdiction and care I was then under, were running an educational course called God our Rock, subtitled, Foundations for Christian Living. It was a course that anyone could enrol on and take but it was especially recommended to anyone who, like myself at that time, was thinking about offering themselves for any kind of authorised ministry, whether that was lay or ordained. It was a course you could take in two ways. You could either simply attend the weekly sessions or you could take the course with assessment. The latter option was the one recommended for those considering putting themselves forward for Church ministry and so that was the way I decided to take the course.
The course itself was split into 3 parts; God’s People, God’s Church, and God’s Book and for those who were being assessed, there was an essay to write for each part of the course. There was no marking involved but there was feedback given on the essays and at the end all those who’d completed the course received a certificate which stated that they’d either completed the course, or that they’d completed the course with assessment. I still have the essays I wrote for that course at home and so it’s quite easy for me to remember that the essay I wrote for the first part of the course, God’s People, was in answer to the question, ‘Does being a Christian mean being a doormat?’
A doormat, of course, as we all know, is a small mat that people place immediately in front of the doors to their homes; they’re there for people to wipe their feet on so that they don’t bring dirt they’ve picked up on their feet from the street, into people’s homes. But in the sense in which it was meant in that essay question, a doormat, as again I’m sure you all know, refers to a submissive person who allows other people to treat them badly without complaining or attempting to defend themselves. In that sense, it refers to someone who allows other people to walk all over them in the same way that everyone who enters a house, walks on the mat in front of the door.
I don’t know what your immediate reaction was to that question. But even if you answer was the same as the answer I gave in my essay, ‘No’, it is a question that does, sometimes, need to be asked and answered. It needs to be asked and answered because some people, both inside the Church and outside the Church seem to answer that question with a ‘Yes’.
I’ve met people who’ve criticised Christians for being ‘doormats’. People who, in a sense, have despised Christians for being ‘doormats’ and for not standing up for themselves. People who have said that if being a Christian is about letting people walk all over you, they’re not interested because there’s no way they’d ever let anyone treat them in the way that Christians let others treat them. I’ve also met people in the Church who, whilst I’m sure they would never have thought of themselves as ‘doormats’ have, to all intents and purposes, allowed themselves to be used as such because, no matter how badly others treated them, they would never complain or stand up for themselves. And invariably, in my experience, people who allowed themselves to be treated in this way have allowed it because they wanted to avoid conflicts and arguments.
I’m sure that none of us wants conflict, especially in the Church. I’m sure that none of us want to get into arguments with other people, again, especially in the Church. But does that mean then, that to be a Christian we have to be a ‘doormat’? Does it mean it’s ok for Christians to allow themselves to be treated as ‘doormats’?
To be a Christian, of course, means to be Christ like. So if we want to know if being a Christian means being a ‘doormat’, we have to ask whether Jesus himself was a ‘doormat’. And for some people, in a sense, the answer seems to be ‘Yes’. There’s no doubt that Jesus did allow himself to be misused and abused in the most terrible way. There’s no doubt Jesus did that without complaint or any real attempt at self-defence. But, before we think that makes it necessary, or even ok for Christians to be ‘doormats’, we have to look at Jesus life, his ministry and example as a whole. And we have to put his suffering into its proper context.
In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus teaches his disciples about what is going to happen to him:
‘… that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.’
And Peter, at least, isn’t too impressed by what Jesus has told them. In fact, he tells Jesus in no uncertain terms that he’s wrong. Perhaps we could say that Peter was having a go at Jesus for suggesting he was going to allow himself to be treated as a ‘doormat’. But Jesus tells Peter that he’s the one who’s got it wrong because he’s only thinking in human terms, not in God’s terms. In fact, Jesus actually calls Peter, ‘Satan’, the evil one, the devil.
If we look at this encounter between Jesus and Peter as a simple story, what do we see? It’s an argument. Jesus says something Peter disagrees with, he tells Jesus he’s wrong, and in response Jesus tells Peter it’s him who’s got it wrong, and in the process, he resorts to name-calling, to abuse and insult. That’s hardly the response of a ‘doormat’ is it? And if we look at the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry as a whole, how many times do we find him arguing with people and engaging in name-calling and trading insults? How often did Jesus, in response to some attack or criticism from the Pharisees respond with an extremely erudite answer, but one that was laden with biting insults? Just think of what Jesus called them.
Fools, although a more accurate translation of the Greek would be ‘moron’ and, given what the Scriptures say about fools, that they say there is no God, immoral morons at that. Snakes and brood of vipers, people today might express the same sentiment by saying someone was ‘poisonous’. Hypocrites. That was a common insult Jesus used but the original meaning of the word isn’t what we often think it is. Originally, a hypocrite wasn’t someone who didn’t practice what they preached; a hypocrite was an actor. So, when Jesus called the Pharisees ‘hypocrites’, he was probably saying that they were people who were all show and no substance. People who didn’t really take their faith seriously but just liked to play the part. So they were ‘whitewashed sepulchres’, all white and lovely on the outside, but full of death, filth and corruption on the inside.
These are hardly the words and actions of a person we would call a ‘doormat’ are they? In fact, Jesus was anything but a ‘doormat’. He was perfectly capable of standing up for himself against anyone, and he was perfectly willing to do it too. And as we look at Jesus’ ministry as a whole, we find that only once did he allow himself to be used and abused without any complaint or attempt at self-defence. That was in the final hours of his life; when the time that he’d often called ‘his hour’ finally came. Only then did he allow himself to be used as a ‘doormat’, and then, only to fulfil the Scriptures in obedience to God. When the time had come for him to be the ‘Suffering Servant’ of Isaiah’s prophecies whom we read about this morning, of whom Isaiah said,
The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backwards. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.
The one of whom Isaiah also prophesied,
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
I think sometimes, some Christians, perhaps many Christians, look at those final hours of Jesus’ life and take that as the only example we’re called to follow; an example to suffer abuse and misuse without complaining and without any attempts at self-defence. And so, sometimes Christians do allow themselves to be treated as ‘doormats’. But that is only part of the example Jesus gave us and it’s not an example to suffer in silence for the sake of it, but to suffer in silence only if our suffering in silence brings about some greater good. Jesus also left us another example to follow; an example to stand up for what’s right and to speak out against what’s wrong; an example to defend ourselves against malicious and unwarranted attacks from others, even if that means having to argue with them, and if their ways are human ways and not God’s ways, to criticise them for their ways.
Christians are not called to be ‘doormats’ because Jesus himself wasn’t a ‘doormat’, for anyone. And so, far from simply enduring wrong and suffering in silence, we’re called to stand up for ourselves and speak out in protest whenever and wherever we see God’s ways ignored. And, while we may not want to be involved in or see conflict and arguments within the Church, it is perhaps especially in the Church where we need to do that. To do as Jesus himself did and speak out in complaint and protest whenever and wherever we see people, especially in the Church, and even the Church itself, thinking and acting in human ways rather than God’s ways.
Amen.
The Propers for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Trinity 15) can be viewed here.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 