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In a scene from the 1939 version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Quasimodo (played by Charles Laughton) snoops in on the prayers of the faithful from one of his innumerable hiding places in the rafters. He’s curious to hear the petitions others have brought before the Master of the house.
Though memory dims, I still recall the gist of this scene.
As he creeps along the beams overhead, Quasimodo hears first one man and then another pleading with God to grant him riches, power, love. Disgusted, he’s about to retreat back to the shadows when he overhears the humble prayer of a peasant child, who asks only that her sick grandmother be healed. Whereupon Quasimodo pauses a moment and reflects that God always hears the prayers we make on behalf of others.
If we could snoop, Quasimodo-style, on the innermost desires of those around us, we would probably discover the same truth that Quasimodo did. Which is this: that whether a man believes in God are no, he is more likely to be concerned with his own well-being than with anything else.
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Myself, I never used to pray. And still don’t. At least, not very much. Not as much as I should, anyway. And not in the way I should.
I usually don’t even consider it unless I’m in an awful fix. And then, as soon as I’m out of the fix . . . Well, you know how that goes.
In my favor, I’ll say that at least I don’t waste my time or God’s asking Him for stuff. Somewhere along the line, I’ve stopped wanting stuff for its own sake anyway. That’s a blessing right there.
I’ll admit there are times when it would be darned convenient if God intervened on my behalf. Maybe He does, for all I know. Whether He does or not, though, I know better than to ask Him to do it. Because if I do I run the risk of (a) proving to myself that there’s no one out there listening, (b) proving to God that I’m an idiot. Or both.
So I’ve decided to play it safe from now on and keep such petitions as I do make to the bare minimum.
I won’t pretend to be as pure of heart as the peasant child in the cathedral, because I’m not. Nor do I wish to be.
Fortunately, it is not a prerequisite.
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This week’s sermon is only marginally related to the topic of prayer. That’s all right, though. All the best sermons are like that.
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Today I want to look at this question of faith from the question of how it (faith, that is) relates to our moral code? I want to consider whether faith bears any relationship to the doing of good works in the world.
Why just the good works? —’Cuz I’m feeling 50.1% optimistic today. That’s why.
Before we get underway, I should concede that, for the True Believer type of person, terms like “moral code” and “good works” are irrelevant, since for them all that matters is whether you believe the same way they do.
True Believers, you can stop reading right here. This sermon is not for you.
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OK. So let’s suppose there are two people who are devoted to some classic “good work” or other. Helping animals, say.
Person A is motivated by faith in God. This person believes that God wants us to take care of the critters, who can’t speak for themselves.
Person B is an atheist. This person thinks that helping animals is simply the right thing to do, and acts accordingly.
Both people are equally dedicated to their work. Although the motivations are different, the results are the same: they both help animals.
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So if all my assumptions are correct about these two people, what does it prove?
Does it prove that people MUST have faith in order to do what is right? —No. Obviously.
Does it prove that people AREN’T motivated by faith to do what is right? —No. It doesn’t prove that either. Just because B doesn’t need faith as a motivator, doesn’t mean the same is true for A.
Person A claims that she’s motivated by her faith to do what’s right. But, you may be wondering: If she’s a good person at heart, wouldn’t she do the right thing anyway, even if she didn’t have faith in God?
Unfortunately, that’s something we’ll never know, because faith is not something you can neatly add to or subtract from the human equation. When we try to pick it out by itself — to paraphrase John Muir — we find it “hitched to everything else” in the Universe of the human heart.
Which is precisely why I love talking about this stuff. It’s all so . . . um . . . hitched . . . to everything else.
Where was I? Oh yeah . . .
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Ventriloquism!
(No. Hang on. That wasn’t it.)
OK. Here it is . . .
Moral codes.
So um . . . have you ever noticed that all the world-class religions have enough built-in flexibility to let anyone do pretty much whatever they want?
Whoops! What the . . . ?
Better save that one for next Sunday.
I’m still at 50.1%. Don’t want to tip things the other way.
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