When David sinned with Bathsheba it was not a private sin between him and God. He did not just lust after Bathsheba in his heart. If that were so, then David would merely need to confess in private prayer and take a sacrifice to the temple.
But in this instance David went public with his confession of sin. Why? Because it was a public sin. Bathsheba knew about David’s sin. Joab knew about David’s sin, if not in whole, then in part. In the end, Nathan the Prophet knew about David’s sin. And I’m willing to bet that there were plenty of servants in David’s sprawling estate that knew about David’s sin.
In a way, going public with his confession of sin was forced on him by the nature of the sin. It was a public sin.
But David doesn’t do what any common man would do in his confession. He writes and publishes Psalm 51 to be included in the Church’s Psalter. And he includes a terrifyingly blunt description of his own wickedness at the beginning. Furthermore, I think the case can be made that he had involvement in the writing of 2nd Samuel 11 and 12, where the whole train-wreck is laid out in a detailed narrative.
David goes public with his sin and his confession!
So when you, and other church leaders, say things like, There are a 104 churches in the RPCNA, and none of them reacted perfectly to the Covid situation or Love covers a multitude of sins, that concerns me. It sounds like you are, in effect, hiding the sin. You are covering it by normalizing it. You are not describing it with the clarity David employs in Psalm 51’s preamble.
Now I am not equivocating David’s sin with the RPCNA’s. Only noting the difference in how the sinners describe their sin.
I agree with you, that different Sessions dealt with different challenges due to their local Government mandates, congregational makeup, etc.. I grant that. However, the through line of sin that connects all of us, me included, is the exact same sin described in Isaiah 31 about the Israelites. God condemns them for rushing to Egypt for help in the face of Assyrian invasion.
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horseman because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD!”
Our sin is that we held other sources of information over Scripture to decide what to do; i.e. Government mandates, congregational makeup, CDC recommendations, etc.. I saw it in my congregation. I see it in other congregations. And you confirmed it when mentioned the diverse political affiliations of the members of your church. A lot of different sources were consulted and considered. Scripture, sadly, was not high on the list for many of us.
Unless you, and I, and all the Church, admit our sins in response to Covid, then we will face God’s judgement. I think we may already be.
As it says in Isaiah, “Woe to those…!”
