“14  Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! 15  Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”; 16  therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ 17  And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” 18  Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it. 19  As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.” (Isa 28:14-29 ESV)

“13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”” (Jn 4:13 ESV)

Is the Body compromised? Sin is like an ulcer or bottomless pit of always apologizing never reaching firm ground. Sin weakens the Body of Christ, us being His Body, and His arms and heart and legs and mind and soul and frame in this global terrestrial world. Yet it behooves each individual trooper to Reflect: have I gotten into this trouble before? Do I always have a plausible explanation, yet still… the ears are everywhere, the eyes unrelenting, the shame palpable?

When David committed adultery with Bathsheba the wife of Uriah, he also killed Uriah along the way… but the point being his testimony and his confession came with a Price: discord will never leave this house, this lineage, this ancestry regal, this nation. We, too, mourn for the sins of David, the sins of another. The legos cannot be put back together, the castle is despoiled, the moat is mud and muck now, the Enemy can traverse it with a little easy effort.

To be a fortress for Christ is to start in a place most church meetings do not start in: Earnest appeal for any and all Confession, that the proper right Church may go about Her business of pronouncing, in giddy but severe delight, the Absolution of Sin. We are giddy because we are lancing the corpuscle, expunging the ulcer, laughing away the pain. We are severe because this Measure of Mercy came at the price of Human Life. It took a Crucified Savior to prove the fact: mankind will kill and stone and reject and blaspheme anyone with a Good Idea, with a Plan for Salvation, with a Foresight and with a blameless track record. Especially the Blameless Ones… these, He, not we, is Maligned in deathly stupor to the Grave, to the Cross, to the manhandling by foreigners (Roman guards), and indeed even those guards in their brief Christ-Encounter showed a bit better a side of their hearts than the would-be followers from amongst the Jewish People and Clergy.

The ulcer of sin, again, we are giddy and severe but also matter-of-fact: not everything need be divulged to the community vocally; we can speak allegorically or keep the deeper rather scandalous facts to ourselves, perhaps, if they would only tempt others. Against you and you only have I sinned, quoth the role-model and leader David the King (Ps 51:4). David the understudy and player of a lyre. David the God-anointed one.. David the should-be, but hidden and pursued, king.

The ulcer of sin, the strange truth is that the economy of sin, repentance, and forgiveness is mystically wrapped up in a strange doctrine called In It to Win It, In It Together: this means Christ and the Father Above, literally treats us as people already Forgiven, beyond forgiven, He doesn’t even need remind us of our sins, but rather with a bemused fatherly smile He treats us as Capable and Flanking Troop Mates. Because it is some deep secret entrusted to clergy and schools of ministry, that “Imputation”—to be treated as A-okay and coherent and forgiven—is the ticket actually to accomplishing the Goal: not to obtain works of penance, but to believe in our heart—to Forget in our mind—that we ever fell away. That is the goal that offends Satan, because surely all comers Owe something to the church, some deeds of penance, some mournful attire and sad demeanor. Surely otherwise people would be Getting Away with things. Surely otherwise we’d be rewarded as our chief object of love and attention, the ones who still do sin, do still go Proud and Sinful, all about Me and Sinful, coveting strange drawing nears and Sinful, hoarding and always asking, What does this person say about Me, Me, Me?

The Fact Christ is in the business of Forgiveness is no longer scandalous and though it apes Satan, we are Peace in Believing, because we all do need forgiveness. And we doubt it, and protest, and deny that to Come Clean will spell our mercy seat obtained.