Christian Liberty Is Hard (And Why That's A Good Thing)

So maybe you've heard about "Hymns & Beer" (these things seem to be happening all over the country these days!). Or maybe you've got concerns about whether Christians should be publicly involved with alcohol (after all, Beer? Hymns? In a Pub? What if it causes people to stumble?!?). Or perhaps you're wondering why a church planting pastor would be trying to start a brewery (Why isn't he just focusing on 'the Lord's Work'?!?).

I'd encourage you to take a few moments and read this post: Liberty & Responsibility, by Sarah Markley. It's thoughts from the front lines, about what's (often) really behind the tensions. And I find her comments very insightful.

This quote in particular really strikes a chord:

Legalism is easy because it gives us severe boundaries. It tells us exactly how far we can go without getting off course. Legalism takes the guesswork out of God. It takes the mystery away as well. Legalism tells us that we can’t hold liberty and responsibility in balance and instead says there are only rules.

Liberty is not easy because a lot of it is guessing; it is pushing through old boundaries and asking questions about why something is wrong. Is it wrong because it is wrong or is it wrong because we’ve been taught its wrong? Liberty is uncomfortable because there are questions and sometimes they are questions without answers. It is uncomfortable because it’s a journey rather than a boxed-in list of things to do or not do.

I think she's really getting to the heart of the matter here.

It's interesting how much we often want boundaries, so we can point to our performance and say, "See, I'm in! I'm ok!" (But isn't that really just attempting to justify ourselves by our works?)

And behind that, I think there's often an assumption that Christianity is meant to be easy, respectable, achievable - we often think it's NOT supposed to be hard, messy, challenging; it's not supposed to put us at risk of ridicule, critique, or (gasp!)... sin!

We often want a faith that frees us from weakness - that makes us need Christ less - so we look for a course to avoid "sin," a path that we ourselves can navigate.

But what if Christ wants to use our weakness to force us deep into the Gospel, deeper into our reliance solely on Him? Maybe alcohol can be a good thing because of what it forces us to deal with in ourselves? Hmm...