How many plagues will it take?

Rev. Meg Barnhouse
April 12, 2015

The Plagues of Egypt were ten calamities that Israel’s God inflicted upon Egypt to persuade the Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. In our culture’s story, who or what is the pharaoh who won’t let the people go? Who is enslaved by this pharaoh? What can be done? How Many Plagues Will It Take?

Our Jewish neighbors and cousins just got through celebrating Passover.

We have a Seder meal here every year, where we tell the story of Passover, and where we have to sit in front of food for a long time without eating it, which is hard. Some of you weren’t there, so I’m going to tell you the story again this morning here at the beginning.

The Hebrew people were enslaved in Egypt. How did they get there? Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob had twelve sons (and some daughters). They sold one of their brothers to traveling salespeople in a caravan and he was taken to Egypt. They soaked his coat of many colors in the blood of an animal and told their father he was dead. Joseph had many adventures in Egypt, and ended up being an advisor to the Pharaoh. He brought his brothers and their families down to live in Egypt when there was famine in the land where they had been living. They lived well there and multiplied. Then, it says, “There arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph.”

Gradually the Hebrew people were enslaved. Moses kills the overseer. Finds out people know. Helps the seven daughters water their flocks, marries one of them. Tends flocks. Sees burning bush. God calls him to lead but he is dubious. God performs a series of miracles to convince him. Staff to snake, hand leprous then healed. Hesitant. Aaron will speak for you.

A series of plagues – Blood, frogs, gnats, flies, dead animals, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, first born were killed and finally the exodus.

This month our Green Sanctuary committee has put together a slew of activities for our Spring Into Action project. With these activities we are combatting some modern day plagues.

Our dependence on fossil fuels, world wide, is poisoning the air. NASA photographs show dirty air from China swirling over the Saudi peninsula, over Africa, to the US and onward around. We trust ourselves too much and attempt to do things to get more fuel that have unforeseen consequences. We try to modify grains to feed the world better, and we do, but then we get arrogant. World bank, seed copyrighting, etc… farmer suicides.

We rely on control to keep the elite on top. Violence pervades our human race. The rich have become apathetic or merciless.

Now, some will say this is different because in the text God sent the plagues to curse an elite who were stealing the lives and labor of an oppressed people. These mostly are plagues we bring on ourselves. We are violent because of fear. We are greedy because of fear. Some of the plagues have come because we have trusted our knowledge too much, We wanted to cure famine, and we have, except for those caused by war, but we’ve created problems. The insecticide in our corn has killed butterflies.

Maybe fear is the Pharaoh. Maybe arrogance is the Pharaoh. Inside us is the one holding on and the one who must let go. This is not just a sermon for middle class comfortable people who have the option now of dealing with our own inner well being. We must let our inner Moses rise against the greed that controls politics, where corporations who aren’t interested in the public good buy a climate that lets them do whatever they want to. This is the planet we live on. There is no promised land to which we can go. We must see the oppression all around us and continue to work to see how we benefit from it and to call it out degrade and dismantle it. Our promised land is the Beloved Community, and we are making our way toward it.

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