The plagues of Egypt used to be uncomfortable for me. I don’t hold a theology that God causes weather events and catastrophes to punish us, even for the worst sins like mistreating the poor.

BUT. 2020.

If we exploit and damage the earth, if we are alienated from each other and mistreating the poor, if we are allowing hatred to fester, the natural consequences are plagues of Biblical proportions.

Human made climate change is causing floods and fires, hurricanes and tornados, and murder hornets flying north. Inequality leads to civil unrest, police brutality to resistance in the streets. Mistreatment of the poor leads to illnesses spreading at rates that harm us all.

Perhaps what we are experiencing is Biblical.

Maybe this is how God was working in Exodus too, even though the people understood it differently.

Maybe we need to gather together for a meal, and let God lead us to a new way of living.

Is that cowardly of me, to include myself in that?

Maybe some of us are the ones others must be led away from.

And if we’re included, instead of drowned in the sea, we should tremble at the grace of it all. And live a new way.