Learning How to Think of Sin

Excellent sermon from Henry Parry Liddon, a member of the Oxford Movement, courtesy of CanticaNova, on Psalm 51 and the nature of sin.

[Sin] considered as an act of the will directed against God, is an act of hostility; it is an act which would, if possible, annihilate God. This is not a rhetorical exaggeration, it is a plain statement of fact.

A little different from the penance services (one of whihc I will be attending in a few days,) where we bring the Father "our brokenness" and ask Him to kiss our boo-boos, huh?

Man up, Man....

Sin violates and defies the Moral Law of God: and what is God's Moral Law? It is a law which, like the laws of nature, as we call them, might conceivably have been other than it is? Certainly not. We can conceive much in nature being very different from what it is — suns and stars moving in larger of smaller cycles, men and animals of different shapes; the chemistry, the geology, the governing rules of the material universe, quite unlike what they actually are. God's liberty in creating physical beings was in no way shackled by His own laws, whether of force or matter. But can we, if we believe in a Moral God, conceive Him saying, "Thou mayest lie" or "Thou mayest murder"?

You'll want to read the rest.