A Deadly Sin Indeed: Acedia
One of the rich enjoyments I have as a pastor who prepares sermons week-in-and-week-out, is that I reap far more than I have time to give out. Much of what I receive may be useful later, but hopefully it is at work on me and in me now. If so, then Paul’s admonition to Timothy will be alive and well through and in me: “Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all” (1 Timothy 4.15.). So, thoughtfully, and prayerfully rummaging through my readings for this Sunday’s sermon, I tripped over something by Dorothy Sayers (a Christian writer contemporary with C.S. Lewis). It caught me up short and forced me to read it again. “The sixth Deadly Sin is named by the Church Acedia or Sloth . In the world it calls itself Tolerance; but in hell it is called Despair. It is the accomplice of the other sins and their worst punishment. It is the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, ...