3rd Sunday in Lent, 12 Mar 1955

The Ash Wednesday Collect suggests that is we would know and experience divine forgiveness we must first see sin in its true light and repent accordingly. There is a tendency in all of us to think lightly of our sins. We do not realise sufficiently the seriousness of our sins. There are great sinners who are not at all conscious of their sins. That is not surprising because one of the effects of sin is insensitivity. Sin makes us lose our sensitivity to sin. Sins blunts our moral faculties, blinds our judgment on ourselves.

This complaint is heard all though the Bible. In Isaiah we read of God saying: “Israel doth not know, my people doth not care.” The fault of the people of Israel was that they did not know that they were living in sin. They had not become conscious of their sin. St. Paul speaking of the heathen of his time refers to them as being past feeling – that is the extreme limit of this dangerous condition. A man may commit a sin, but if he is conscious of his sin there is hope. But if his moral and spiritual condition is such that he does not see sin in himself, if he is past feeling – that is a terrible condition to be in.

What about ourselves? What is the condition in which we are? Let us honestly ask ourselves the question this morning. ‘How sensitive are we to sin?’ Do we think lightly of our sins? Are we past feeling? Let me remind you of two senten ces that we often hear read at the beginning of the Morning and Evening Services?

‘If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us: but if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.’ We deceive ourselves if we think that we have no sin.

‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.’ – Psalm 51:17 (The Sacrifices of God – sacrifices acceptable to God.) Very early in their life the Israelites recognised that the sacrifice acceptable to God was a contrite heart.