The Ravaged Life
When Leonardo da Vinci was painting his masterpiece, The Last Supper, he selected as the person to sit for the character of the Christ a young man, Pietri Bandinelli by name, connected with the Milan Cathedral as chorister. Years passed before the great picture was completed, and when one character only—that of Judas Iscariot—was wanting, the great painter noticed a man in the streets of Rome whom he selected as his model. With shoulders far bent toward the ground, having an expression of cold, hardened, evil, saturnine, the man seemed to afford the opportunities of a model terribly true to the artist’s conception of Judas.
When in the studio, the profligate began to look around, as if recalling incidents of years gone by. Finally, he turned and with a look half-sad, yet one which told how hard it was to realize the change which had taken place, he said, “Maestro, I was in this studio twenty-five years ago. I, then, sat for Christ.”
Might It Be Sin?
Why is it if we are all so well-educated and brilliant and gifted and artistic and idealistic and distinguished in scholarship, that we are so selfish and scheming and dishonest and begrudging and impatient and arrogant and disrespectful of others? –M.C. Richards
Revealing Slip
At the close of a sermon one Sunday morning, one of the members of the church came forward at the invitation. He was noticeably disturbed and moved by his conviction of sin in his life. With tears flowing and a halt in his voice, he took my hand and meant to tell me that his life was full of sin. But what came out was, “My sin is full of life.” As soon as he had spoken, he realized his mistake and changed it, but in reality his first statement was the real reason for the second. His sin was full of life and that is why his life was full of sin. Praise God that the blood of Jesus Christ is the remedy and he found it that day.
The Passion of Envy
What we have not, poisons what we have. Our urge to acquire things is due less to the passion to possess then than to the vanity of feeling superior to those who envy our possessions of them. Envy transmutes other people’s base metals into gold. Our envy is the yeast that swells the fortune of others. No form of hatred is as keen as envy. It magnifies the importance of our enemy—and belittles our own.
Professional Demeanor Required
There was this young priest who was going to confessional for the first time. He went with another priest, his senior. After a day of hearing confessions, he was approached by the older pastor who said, “You know, I think that when a person finishes with a confession, you should say something on the order of, ‘I agree it is terrible what you have done, and I would encourage you to stay away from that kind of behavior from now on,’ instead of saying, ‘WOW!’”
Clocks in Heaven
During a dream I had last night, I died and promptly met with St Peter at the famous “Pearly Gate.” Upon being taken into heaven, Peter began to show me around. One immediate observation I made was that on the walls of an enormous warehouse I saw thousands of clocks. All of these clocks were ticking away but at different rates. I then noticed that under each clock was a name plate with a name engraved on it. Naturally, I asked the significance of all this. Peter informed me that each clock was designed to keep track of an individual still on earth. Each time the person, represented by the clock, committed a sin, the hands on the clock made a complete revolution. Upon closer examination, I began to recognize a few names. After searching for a friend, not finding it, I inquired as to the location of his clock. St Peter replied, “Oh, his clock! Well, we moved his into the office and are using it for a fan.”
Varieties of Sin
In a sermon on sin, a preacher announced that there were 789 different sins. A few days later, the mailman delivered 94 requests from members of his congregation for a list of the 789 sins.
Hidden Sin
Working in my garden, I was admiring the large, green, healthy-looking squash plant. The stems appeared to be strong, and the leaves were large. A few days later, I noticed that the plant was terribly wilted, and within a couple of days, the squash plant was completely dead. Pulling up the plant and examining its roots, I discovered that a bore worm, which could not be seen from the outside, had eaten the heart out of the stem of the plant. Hidden sin, like the bore worm, can eat away the heart of one’s Christian experience and leave him spiritually dead.
Sin of Dishonesty
The “credibility gap” that once alienated the public from people in high places now seems to separate us from one another in all walks of life. Americans lie on their income tax returns to the tune of millions of dollars a year. Doctors fake reports in order to profit from Medicare patients. Prize athletes at great universities are kept eligible for competition through bogus credits and forged transcripts of academic records. Children soon acquire the cynical assumption that lying is the normal tact for TV advertisers. In the words of a Time magazine essay, ours is “a huckstering, show-bizzy world, jangling with hype, hullabaloo, and hooey, bull, baloney, and bamboozlement.” After a while, people tend to expect not to hear the truth anymore; in 1976, a national poll showed that 69 percent of Americans believed that the country’s leaders had, over the last decade, consistently lied to the people. –Lewis Smedes
Priority Levels
One Sunday morning a preacher in Virginia began his sermon: “There are three points I want to make today: First, Because we’re not really hearing the Word of God, the whole world is in danger of annihilation. Second, most people don’t give a damn about that! Third, you are more worried about the fact that I just used the word damn than you are about the world being in danger of annihilation.”
Juvenile Insight
The Sunday school teacher asked her class: “What are the sins of omission?” After some thought, one little fellow said: “They’re the sins we should have committed but didn’t get around to.”
Decalogue Bargaining
A cartoon in the Hong Kong Tattler showed Moses just come down from the top of the mountain with the tables in his hands. He’s reporting to the children of Israel and says, “It was hard bargaining—we get the milk and honey, but the anti-adultery clause stays in.”
Getting the Picture
Each week a New York youngster would bring home from Sunday school an illustrated card that dramatized one of the Ten Commandments. The first week showed people worshiping at church. Another week, to illustrate “Thou shalt not kill,” the picture showed Cain in the act of slaying Abel. The child’s father reports: “I was waiting with considerable alarm for the seventh week. But fortunately, tact and delicacy prevailed. Under the caption, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” was a picture of a dairyman, leering villainously, as he poured a huge pail of water into a can of milk.
Overmuch Guilt
Martin Luther was one who struggled with his sins. Before his break with the Catholic church, he went to confession every day and was so guilt-ridden by his sins, he would almost have gone every hour.
On most nights, Luther slept well, but he even felt guilty about that, thinking, “Here am I, sinful as I am, having a good night’s sleep!” So he would confess that. One day the older priest to whom Luther went for confession said to him, “Martin, either find a new sin and commit it, or quit coming to see me!”
Morals and Loopholes
Everybody looks for different things in the Ten Commandments. Some look for Divine guidance, some look for a code to live by, but most of us are looking for loopholes.