“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

• Deuteronomy 5:21

Turn my heart toward your statutes
    and not toward selfish gain.

• Psalm 119:36

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

• Luke 12:15

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

• Colossians 3:5

SPOILER ALERT WARNING

If you intend to read this book, the following may give away the mystery

“””What about it?”
“’If George Fentiman hadn’t turned up with that delusion of his,’ said Wimsey, ‘you would have been arrested for the murder this evening. Now the point is this. When you are arrested, nothing, as things are, can prevent Miss Dorland’s being arrested on the same charge. She’s quite a decent girl, and you haven’t treated her any too well, have you? Don’t you think you might make things right for her by telling the truth straight away?’
“Penberthy sat with a white face and said nothing.
“’You see,’ went on Wimsey, ‘if once they get her into the dock, she’ll always be a suspected person. Even if the jury believe her story- and they may not, because juries are often rather stupid-people will always think there was ‘something in it.’ They’ll say she was a very lucky woman to get off. That’s damning for a girl, isn’t it? They might even bring her in guilty. You and I know she isn’t- but-you don’t want the girl hanged, Penberthy, do you?’
“Penberthy drummed on the table.
“’What do you want me to do?’ he said at last.
“’Write a clear account of what actually happened,’ said Wimsey. ‘Make a clean job of it for these other people. Make it clear that Miss Dorland had nothing to do with it.’
“’And then?’
“’Then do as you like. In your place I know what I should do.’ Penberthy propped his chin on his hands and sat for some minutes staring at the works of Dickens in the leather-and-gold binding.
“’Very well,’ he said at last. ‘You’re quite right. I ought to have done it before. … if ever a man had rotten luck …’

• Dorothy L. Sayers, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

“It was left for the present age to endow Covetousness with glamour on a big scale, and to give it a title which it could carry like a flag. It occurred to somebody to call it Enterprise. From the moment of that happy inspiration, Covetousness has gone forward and never looked back. It has become a swaggering, swashbuckling, piratical sin, going about with its hat cocked over its eye, and with pistols tucked into the tops of its jack-boots. Its war-cries are ‘Business Efficiency!’ ‘Free Competition!’ ‘Get Out or Get Under!’ and ‘There’s Always Room at the Top!’ It no longer screws and saves – it launches out into new enterprises; it gambles and speculates; it thinks in a big way; it takes risks. It can no longer be troubled to deal in real wealth, and so remain attached to Work and the Soil. It has set money free from all such hampering ties; it has interests in every continent; it is impossible to pin it down to any one place or any concrete commodity-it is an adventurer, a roving, rollicking free-lance.”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, from a talk entitled, “The Other Six Deadly Sins”

Boilerplate

In this mini-series, I will fulfill a promise.  Some time ago, published 14 January 2025, I wrote a brief synopsis of the book, Subversive by Crystal Downing.  The post is called A Subversive Christian.  In that book, I talked about the three books in the photo above.  And I especially wanted to do a mini-series on the book on the right, The Gospel in Dorothey L. Sayers. 

Note that the title uses the preposition “in.”  Dorothy L. Sayers did not write a fifth gospel.  She did not write as if inspired directly by God.  The canon of Scripture is complete.

But in stating what this is not, then what is it?  All Christians have the Holy Spirit within them, guiding them.  When being a Christian is something you have inside you and through you, then your life will reflect that.  This book is how you can see various aspects of the Christian life in the works of Dorothy L. Sayers, mystery novels, plays, letters, and essays.

After the Introduction, it starts with Whose Body?  The editor’s attribute of a Christian that she focuses on is “Conscience.” Whose Body? is her first detective fiction novel featuring her main character, Lord Peter Wimsey.  Then in Death Must Advertise, we find Lord Peter has a couple of middle names.  His full name is Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey.

But we will stay in the Introduction for more than a  week.  There are at least a half dozen quotes just in the introduction that look interesting.  I am not in a hurry to speed through this book.  I was not in a hurry to start it with me being over a year since I promised to make it into a mini-series.

But I would hope people could read my short stories and see the gospel being acted out in the characters in my fictional stories.  Deviled Yeggs grew up in a family of safe crackers, robbing from others.  He set out as a policeman, and then homicide detective, to redeem the family name but learning each person must have Christ redeem them individually.  Deviled’s wife, Trinity Naomi Tesla (TNT) Yeggs, was nicknamed “Nitroglycerin” (Glyce for short) by her parents because she was explosive when shaken.  But she found calm and peace in her husband’s arms, and eventually she found the same comfort and peace in the arms of Jesus as she faced “shaky” experiences.

Even when not writing about Jesus directly, the Good News (Gospel) appears in many ways in what a Christian writes.  Let’s enjoy this journey with possibly my favorite author (outside the Bible with C.S. Lewis in a tie with her), Dorothy L. Sayers.

Discussion

The quote from The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is after Lord Peter had solved the crime, but Lord Peter so hated innocent people becoming stained when someone dear to them had committed the crime.  Colonel Fentiman had been found dead in his armchair at the club.  Only club members and service personnel were allowed in the club.  Thus, the question of who killed him was narrowed immediately, and you can imagine how the club wanted Lord Peter to be quick with his detective work and extremely discrete.

But then George Fentiman, Colonel Fentiman’s son, badly troubled by the war, had a figment of imagination where he had done the crime.  He falsely confessed, but it was Dr. Penberthy who had administered a lethal dose of heart medicine.  The doctor was engaged to Colonel Fentiman’s niece, Miss Dorland.  He had plans of opening a clinic where so many people could be helped.

The book then discusses how Penberthy coveted the wealth around him, but he had the skills to provide medicinal care for so many people.  The rich sat there in their clubs doing nothing for anyone.

After the quote from the novel, Lord Peter reads Dr. Penberthy’s confession that put all the blame on Penberthy and none on Miss Dorland.  Lord Peter approved.  Colonel Marchbanks also read the confession.  Lord Peter and Colonel Marchbanks signed the confession as witnesses.

Lord Peter had said that Dr. Penberthy could do as he wished, but we all know what that meant.  Dr. Penberthy could do what he did to Colonel Fentiman, but as backup, Colonel Marchbanks removed something from his coat pocket and slipped it into the drawer of the desk where Dr. Penberthy had written his confession.  The colonel made a comment that he was thinking of taking it to his house in the country.

And then Colonel Marchbanks calmly added, “It’s loaded.”

In today’s environment most people would think this to be an absurd idea.  You hand a loaded weapon (although that word is never mentioned) and you turn your back on him expecting him to do the “right thing.”  You are expecting a murderer to do the “right thing.”

How far into depravity have we gotten in less than one hundred years!

There are few exclusive clubs like the “Bellona Club” around anymore.  Everything must be inclusive.  But in the process of including everyone else, the high standard of their “code of honor” has vanished. The British gentleman would value honor and a stiff upper lip far above their own life.  But roughly ten years after the end of the War to End All Wars, and less time than that to the next one, these honorable men were still feeling the pain from trench foot and shell shock.

Note: I had a slight case of trench foot on one military exercise – wet boots that never seemed to get dry, frigid weather, and constantly marching in the snow or icy, slushy mud up to my knees.  One of my sergeants gave me his jungle boots from Vietnam.  They were all canvas boots with a steel shank in the soles, and leather toes and heels.  They would get wet just like the other boots, but they were extremely easy to dry.  And once the steel shank was warm, my feet felt comfortable for a while.

But back to the story, Dr. Penberthy was dead by suicide.  The case against George Fentiman was dropped due to Penberthy’s confession.  And with the doctor deceased, there was no need for a trial.  Thus, Miss Dorland’s name never entered any further discussion on the subject.

But have you ever noticed that the greedy or covetous among us justify their pursuit of money by talking about the good that they would do with the money when the money was wasted on the rich who did nothing of importance?

As I have heard many pastor’s and evangelist’s say, we keep asking God for the money and once we get the money, we will do so much good with it.  In almost every sermon that has that concept in it, the preacher’s point is that God wants to see us do that good first before God makes a “contribution” to the cause.

And what I have noticed is that most people who do not covet the rich person’s wealth will do good for the other person in spite of not having the wealth – “to do more.”

Thinking back to the loaded weapon and turning your back on it, these days the man would use it to force his way out of the club, maybe with a hostage or two.   Yes, the world has changed, and not for the better.

Closing Prayer

Father, guide me.  We should never compare ourselves to anyone else.  Not someone with more.  Not someone with less.  We are no better than the rich person nor the poor person.  If we really had a heart to do great things with extra money, we would have already started working on it.  Those are just excuses.  And if You wanted us to build a medical clinic, as an example, You would have given us the means.  You always give us our needs.  But forgive us when we get a bit green around the gills.  Yes, Lord, we all have our moments.
In Thy Name I pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.