Would You Rather?

In college I looked forward to dinner more than most of my peers. After working diligently in the afternoon to get ahead on assignments and finishing cross-country or track practice from four o’clock to six o’clock in the evening I would head to McClurg Dining Hall for a well-deserved, leisurely dinner with my teammates. Most nights we would happily talk about running, class, world politics, economic trends, sports, and of course, college gossip; however, the best meals that I remember centered around the game “Would You Rather?”. 

 

My friend Joe Brew masterfully excelled at this game of proposing two equally difficult choices in the form of a question, such as, “Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?” Often the debates that raged in the aftermath of these questions would leave teammates more at odds than our current political divide. The Sewanee Cross-Country team did not confine these discussions merely to the meal table, but often spent hours on long bus rides passing the hours engaging either/or choices. It was on one of these fateful rides that my friend Kyle Lester broke the game of “Would You Rather?”.

As we journeyed on towards some city in Kentucky or Tennessee for a meet the next morning, Kyle stood up on the bus and halted all the other proceedings surrounding a very good question about either losing an arm or a leg. Kyle, who is now or soon will be Dr. Lester, asked our group not a “Would You Rather?” question, but instead boldly inquired, “Would you eat poop?” No other option proposed, just plain and simple jaw-dropping brashness. The entire bus erupted in laughter. Not just because of the absurd subject matter, but also because Kyle seemingly did not get the nature of the game. All these years later, I still laugh at such a shocking and silly misuse of that productive game. In some ways I wonder if Jesus attempted to break his own days version of “Would You Rather?” in this coming Sunday’s gospel lesson.

Jesus lays out a softball in the world of “Would You Rather?” as he questioned his disciples, “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'?” The easy answer is “OF COURSE, I would rather say prepare my supper and you may eat and drink later!” However, given that Jesus spoke here to his apostles, a group of rag-tag fishermen, tax-collectors, and the poor working class I wonder if any of them would have had servants or slaves in the first place. So not only was this question a bad either/or choice, seemingly Jesus directed it to the wrong audience, but this was no game Jesus played, instead it was him laying out the challenging truth of trusting God.

Jesus went on to wonder, “Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’” We may believe that being faithful comes with some sort of award or congratulation; however, Jesus encourages his disciples and us, as beings who God has created from nothing, to remember who we serve. Living a life of being faithful, that is continuously trusting God, requires a disciplined approach of choosing to consent to God’s will being done “on earth as it is in heaven”. This sometimes leads to situations where we are put into smelly situations (pun intended). And yet, I wonder if the analogy Jesus chose points us even further.

With disciples who would not have possessed slaves this analogy sounds harsh and misguided, so could Jesus have been doing even more with this challenge of remaining faithful? Right after Jesus taught his disciples to pray (the Lord's Prayer) in Luke’s Gospel account (Luke 11) he wondered about God’s love for us. If we who are evil do not give snakes to our children when they ask for fish or scorpions instead of eggs, then how much more does Our Heavenly Father give us with the Holy Spirit? Perhaps the story from this week's Gospel can be seen as a challenge to give more abundantly, which might just shake up the structure of this world.

Instead of continuing to perpetuate a system of imbalance such that masters control the fate of slaves, which sadly still seems to be the case given the abounding economic inequality, what if we adopted a servant-based economy? Jesus showed us another way, a way in which the teacher served the students. A life of faith means continuously saying we trust God and consent to God’s will being done, but isn’t God’s will that all are willing to give such that all have enough? Isn’t God’s dream for this world one where we all share in the abundance? Isn’t God’s dream one that features the master and the servant dining at the Table together as friends? Would you rather things grow more divisive and disconnected or trust in a God who dreams this world has enough for us all if we would but share our abundance with others? That “Would You Rather?” seems too easy to answer!