Life on Mars ContentStatutes of Liberty
By Mark Bergin
I enjoy community. I enjoy deep belly laughs from my ample midsection and running out of dining-room-table leaves and come-from-behind bocce ball victories. Being known is helpful, too a critical piece in pushing me to do Christianity for real, i.e., exposure, humility, repentance, etc.
But as is always the case in this cursed world, even good things can lead to ill in the hands of broken people. Community is no exception a painful reality made squarely evident in my life two weekends ago. There I was, vacationing on Anderson Island with my community group for our second annual summer getaway; temporarily relieved of parenting duties; surrounded by people I love, trust and am charged to shepherd; continually aware that a pile of meat lay marinating in a nearby refrigerator; and yet in grave danger of losing the rudder on my apparently not-so-sanctified ship.
The trouble started slowly, even innocently: a couple of beers here, a course joke there. The environment just felt so comfortable, so laissez-faire, so raw. And my tongue got loose. My standards relaxed. Nothing earth-shattering here, just an abuse of Christian liberty, an occasion for the flesh you know, the kind Saul of Tarsus expressly forbids.
Somehow, I’d managed to leave the more tender elements of my conscience behind on the mainland. Of course, they eagerly rejoined me upon my return, piling on conviction and shame as I drove off the Steilacoom ferry toward home. Pastor Scott Thomas didn’t help things that evening when he preached from Titus 3 on the admonition to not only do good but be good, leaving behind a life when “we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.”
The thing is, it hadn’t felt like slavery in the moment; it had felt like freedom. And that’s the trouble with Christian liberty, especially among brothers. It’s in that rapture of mutual affection and earnest community that distinctions between the permissible and the beneficial are most easily blurred. Using up the dining-room table leaves may create space for belly laughs and marinated meat, but be on guard lest a roaring lion find room to pull up a chair.
Mark, thank you for writing this. I am realizing that after all the focus and concentration on just BEING a community with my CG that there I have no tools/prep for dealing with my own sin or anyone elses as it so easily floats in on the comfort of familiarity and enjoyment of each others’ loving company.
I wonder if a lot of CGs are in a similar boat? Perhaps the ones that have been around a year or two…? I would love it if Life on Mars offered some practical/tactical info on dealing with the ugly parts of living in community.
Mark, very interesting subject. What I would
like to hear about is if you have had a chance
to bring up the subject at one of your group
meetings. Were there apologies, forgiveness
seeking, repentance demonstrated? Much good
could come from the experience. Some of the folks
in our group have been together over two years
and what I am finding is people being more willing
to confess sinful areas in their lives during
prayer time or one on one sharing but “over the
line” activity during gatherings has been rare
but I can see the potential that it could happen.