“Look at the crows, they don’t plant anything or harvest anything, they don’t even keep storehouses. Yet, God gives them food. Are you much different from birds” (Luke 12:24).
In class once the Professor had us break up into groups. We were given a list of seven people and told we had to choose five of them to enter a shelter; because, nuclear war had started. No one outside the shelter would live. We had to decide who got to live—for their knowledge or their youth or abilities—and who didn’t.
This is, I learned later, the Lifeboat Dilemma. It’s a philosophical exercise in dealing with impossible decisions and how we deal with the choices we’ve made. It’s been twenty years since I did that exercise, but I thought about it after watching the 2021 film Stowaway.
Directed and written by Joe Penna, Stowaway stars Toni Collette, Anna Kendrick, and Daniel Dae Kim as three astronauts on mission MTS-42 to Mars. Less than twelve hours into their flight, they discover Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson), a launch pad worker who during pre-flight checks, fell and was rendered unconscious inside the walls of the life support module, becoming an unexpected fourth crew member.
In the process of extracting Adams from the ship’s innards, the mechanism responsible for removing carbon dioxide from the air is irreparably damaged. Because of this, the spacecraft cannot support four people, meaning that they’ll all asphyxiate well before returning to Earth. But, if there were only three….
If you’ve never heard of this movie, don’t worry, neither had I. Originally set for a theatrical release, it instead went straight to a streaming platform (which you’ll have to look up for yourself; because, I’m not going to give them advertising here). The movie got and retains positive reviews, which it earns. I think it could have benefitted from additional editing (at two-hours, it’s slow in places) and different music, but it’s well acted and engaging.
There is, as you may assume from the title, a lot of discussion amongst the three crew members whether or not their stowaway should be allowed to live and, if not, how to end his life. It’s an impossible scenario, one that will have serious impacts upon the survivors, if there are any.
People in certain roles do have to make terrible decisions at times. Military leaders send soldiers into deadly conflicts. Doctors in triage centers following a natural disaster sometimes have to decide who can benefit from medical intervention and whom they will have to let die. Even low-level managers in corporations find themselves having to choose who to retain and who to lay off when the company officers want to cut costs—a decision that can have severe impacts for the employee and their family, especially in a country where our health care is so tied to our jobs.
Those types of decisions, to me, differ from what the crew of MTS-42 faced. Theirs was more akin to the Lifeboat Dilemma.
I can’t remember all seven people we were given. One, though, was an older Catholic priest. He was one that I argued shouldn’t be taken into the shelter. I should say this assignment took place in a seminary classroom; so, some in my group argued that spiritual guidance and care would be important in the years to come. I didn’t deny that, but he had two things going against him: he was older, and he was celibate. He would require more care and be less able to contribute. And he wasn’t going to be much help repopulating the human race. Given the choice at the time, I’d probably have chosen a crow over him.
Crows are amazing creatures. They’re incredibly smart (try fooling one to keep it out of your garden). I’ve read, though I can’t say for certain it’s true, that they will partner with wolves in the wild, helping lead those magnificent beasts to food and then feasting on the leftovers.
But in the large equation, like most birds, crows aren’t highly valued. Horses, dogs, cats are all more treasured than any feathered creatures. And those, in the view of our societies, are not counted as important, useful, or needed as humans. Yet, here is Jesus pointing to a crow and telling us that they are highly valued by God.
Think of what’s being said here, notice how crows are described. Unlike people, they don’t plant crops nor do they harvest them when the season ends. They don’t plan for the cold winter months by building warehouses and pantries. They don’t, by every measure our economies use, create any benefit. They don’t earn income nor do they pay taxes. They’re just a drain on our resources: taking air, food, and water from others. Almost like stowaways.
Yet, Jesus tells us, God holds crows, sparrows, robins, chickadees, and others in great value. They are so valuable that the Creator of the Stars ordained seasons and times, set human beings to tend the world (which we’re not very good at) so that they have food, water, shelter even in the stifling heat of summer or fierce cold of winter.
Then he says, how different are you from them? We can read this in different ways. In one sense, aren’t we more valuable, more worthy of Divine care and attention? But it could also be a reminder that we are just as valued. That the birds, turtles, wolves, and more are examples. We can understand how precious we are by examining how God cares for the rest of creation.
But this is about more than species. As we see from Jesus’ life and ministry, it’s about individuals. Not just crows, but that crow there on the fence. Not only sparrows but that one there on the housetop. And not just humans, but about you, and her, and them over there. And how each and every one is just as valuable.
Yes, this can create dilemmas in situations imagined or real. We can be challenged by our broken economies, understandings, and hearts to measure others next to some bizarre scale that seeks to set your worth or mine ahead of one another. But those are our own, and are no more true than when we do it by skin color, gender, who attracts us, or what country you, your parents, or your grandparents might have called home.
Because we are all cherished, even the stowaways.
Jesus, we get it backwards and mixed up thinking we know who is and isn’t precious to you. Help us as people and nations alongside your Creation to understand that all of us are priceless and beloved.