Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. …
“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

• Matthew 18:21-22, 35

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

• Romans 12:19

‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

• Genesis 50:17-21

SPOILER ALERT WARNING

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

“The clergyman was a tall, faded man, with lines of worry deeply engraved upon his face, and mild blue eyes a little bewildered by the disappointing difficulty of things in general. His black coat was old, and hung in depressed folds from his stooping, narrow shoulders. He gave Wimsey a thin hand and begged him to be seated.  …
“’I’m fearfully sorry to trouble you, especially as it’s all so very distressin’ and all that, but it’s about the death of your son, and the trial and so on. Please don’t think I’m wanting to make an interfering nuisance of myself, but I’m deeply interested- personally interested. You see, I know Miss Vane – I – in fact I like her very much, don’t you know, and I can’t help thinking there’s a mistake somewhere and- and I should like to get it put right if possible.’
“’Oh- oh, yes!’ said Mr. Boyes. He carefully polished a pair of pince-nez and balanced them on his nose, where they sat crookedly. He peered at Wimsey and seemed not to dislike what he saw, for he went on:
“Poor misguided girl! I assure you, I have no vindictive feelings – that is to say, nobody would be more happy than myself to know that she was innocent of this dreadful thing. Indeed, Lord Peter, even if she were guilty, it would give me great pain to see her suffer the penalty. Whatever we do, we cannot bring back the dead to life, and one would infinitely prefer to leave all vengeance in the hand of Him to whom it belongs. Certainly, nothing could be more terrible than to take the life of an innocent person. It would haunt me to the end of my days if I thought there were the least likelihood of it. And I confess that, when I saw Miss Vane in court, I had grievous doubts whether the police had done rightly in accusing her.’”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison

“Forgiveness is a very difficult matter. Many varieties of behaviour go by that name, and not all of them are admirable. There is the kind that says: ‘I forgive her as a Christian, but I shall never speak to her again.’ This is adequately dealt with by the caustic definition: ‘Christian forgiveness, which is no forgiveness at all,’ and need not be discussed, any more than the self-interest of those who –
“Drink the champagne that she sends them, But they never can forget.’”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, from a magazine article, “Forgiveness and the Enemy”  (Lines not in bold and italics from an English folk song – “It’s the Same the Whole World Over”)

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 Strong Poison is a conversation between the father of the murder victim and Lord Peter.  Harriet Vane was accused of murdering Philip Boyes by poison.  She was Boyes’ former lover.  Poison is a common method of murder for women.  But when Miss Vane went before a jury, the jury could not decide.  It was called a mistrial.  They scheduled a retrial.

Now enter Lord Peter.  He meets with Miss Vane in prison, awaiting the retrial.  Wimsey immediately was attracted to this novelist, Miss Vane.  She was aloof, at best.  Wimsey did not like the circumstantial case against Miss Vane and he swore he’d find the true killer.

The plot is very intriguing.  Miss Climpson returns to perform a fake séance to trick someone into producing an “old” will.  And it comes down to finding someone that the police had eliminated as a suspect.

In the midst of Lord Peter falling in love with Harriet Vane, we meet Lord Peter’s sister, Mary, who by this time is betrothed to Lord Peter’s friend at Scotland Yard, detective Charles Parker.

Harriet Vane faced the death penalty.  She was aloof with Lord Peter because she had given up hope in being released.  She did not want to cling to false hope.  It was if she was irritated with Lord Peter’s words of encouragement.  After all, the true killer had used the ploy from one of her novels to perpetrate the crime.  In a way, she was guilty by giving the killer a blueprint to follow.

The editor of the book, The Gospel in Dorothy L Sayers, points out that the father is a minor character.  But in this character, we see forgiveness. 

Mr. Boyes did not feel Harriet Vane deserved the death penalty even if found guilty.

There have been true cases where a victim pleads with the court to be lenient with the criminal.  A victim may make a statement before the court that they forgive the criminal even though they suffered greatly at a great cost to themselves.  This becomes a very emotional, moving shift in the court case.  The criminal may be found guilty, but the sentencing can be drastically changed due to a public statement of forgiveness.  Now, what that changes within the criminal is unknown at that point.  In some cases, the criminal repents, but not all the time.

But Jesus told Peter that he must forgive seventy-seven times.  Really, Jesus says we must forgive all the time.  And we must not hold that against the other person.  The magazine article by Ms. Sayers speaks of forgiving without forgetting.  I disagree to an extent.  When the other party refuses to accept the forgiveness, refuses to repent, and even ramps up the abuse, thinking you to be a pushover…  Distance may be required or the abuse will simply get worse.

But if we do not forget, we are like the old farmer whose mule does something wrong and the farmer says, “That’s one.”  Later, “That’s two.”  Still later, “That’s three.”  At that point, the farmer pulls out a board and slams the mule across the head.

If we forgive, we have forgiven.  The next time that it happens should be “One” not “Two.”  If we forgive and not forget, we are subconsciously adding the offenses on an invisible tote board.  I have known people who have said through gritted teeth, “I forgive but I will never forget.”  But you can see the stored anger in their voice.  And years later, they strike back.  By this time, the original perpetrator of the offense has forgotten about it.

Not forgetting only robs ourselves of the Joy God has in store for our lives.

We need to let God deal with the hurt.  We need to let the justice system, if involved, deal with the crime.

What we need to deal with is what is stored within our heart.  Is it love?  Or is it a remembrance of the hurt?

The two cannot coexist.

Closing Prayer

Father, guide me.  You remember everything, so when it is said that You have forgotten our sins, it means that You do not hold those against us.  We humans have leaking brains.  We forget a lot.  But why do we hold onto hurt?  We need to forgive in the truest since that we do not hold anger toward that person in our hearts.  You have come into our hearts.  Anger and Your love cannot coexist in the same space.  When we truly forgive in our hearts, we hold no grudge.  Please, help us accomplish that, Lord.  Sometimes, offense from decades past come to our memory.  Are they simply memories?  Or do we still resent the pain?  You have molded us in such a way that even that pain brought us closer to You, so why does that hurt?  Help us understand.
In Thy Name I pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.