The sufferer and the witness reading list

16В But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earthвЂќВ (Exodus 9:15-16). God says to Pharaoh, вЂњFor by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. God tells Pharaoh as much just before the seventh plague. They are an opportunity for both the King of Egypt and for the Hebrew people to recognize GodвЂ™s sovereignty over creation and their own lives. The ten plagues which follow (Exodus 7:14-12:26) cause economic, natural and personal hardship and devastation.

He tells Moses,В вЂњWho is theВ LORD thatВ I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know theВ Lord, and I will not let Israel go.вЂќВ (NRSV, Exodus 5:1-2). Pharaoh refuses to recognize any power larger than himself. When God shows up in the burning bush Moses recognizes something bigger than himself and listens to and heeds GodвЂ™s voice. Moses recognizes God in extraordinary events. 44-48) notes a key difference between Moses and Pharaoh. Can this story help us to see how God cares for the world during our own difficult time? Ellen Davis, in Opening IsraelвЂ™s ScripturesВ (pp. One obvious place to turn is to the story of the plagues visited upon Pharaoh and Egypt at the time of the HebrewsвЂ™ deliverance from slavery. We imposed our own kind of self-quarantine: limiting our sermons, prayers, and teaching to the realm of the personal.Д¬OVID-19 calls us to learn again from our forbearers, who looked to ScriptureвЂ™s descriptions of GodвЂ™s agency in times of disaster as a compass for their own times. The Church raised the white flag years ago, surrendering its distinctively Christian voice in the public square. What about us? Is COVID-19 GodвЂ™s will? GodвЂ™s hand? We are ill-equipped to reflect theologically on GodвЂ™s agency in a time like this. Most in the minority world would be quite uncomfortable praying,В as the 1662 Book of Common PrayerВ put it, that God might вЂњhave pity upon us miserable sinners, who now are visited with great sickness and mortality.вЂќ This prayer turns to Scripture as the lens through which to make sense of GodвЂ™s agency in their (1662) own time: Moses, Aaron, the Israelites in the desert, and David with his imprudent census and the resulting pestilence. Ephraim Radner in his blog about COVID-19, вЂњThe Time of The VirusвЂќ ( ) makes the observation that previous Books of Common PrayerВ contained prayers for times of plague. Many in previous generations took for granted-in ways that are unthinkable to us-that life was not predictable, that disease, the inability to travel, death at an early age or in infancy-were a part of life. In the face of our own fears and personal anxieties we act responsibly and turn outward in prayer and concern for others more affected than we. They are already exhausted and they carry the burden of having to make difficult decisions about the allocation of scarce resources, such as ventilators and in some places, oxygen. They are risking their own health to care for others. We pray for all medical personnel daily and repeatedly.It is our Christian duty to take responsibility for ourselves and those we live with, so that we do not inadvertently spread the virus and tax already overwhelmed health care systems. This includes suspending the primary Christian practice of gathering to worship the Lord. First, we follow all directives of public health officials, the University or other places of employment, and follow the advice of medical experts.How do we shape a Christian response to the COVID-19 pandemic? But the COVID-19 pandemic has its own distinctive character: states of emergency, nation-wide lock downs, travel bans, the closure of most public institutions, and dire economic repercussions due to this devastating virus. There has been greater national and international devastation (WWI and WWII). There have been, to date, greater death tolls (the 1918 flu pandemic killed 50 million worldwide, the 2009 swine flu pandemic killedВ 150,000 to 575,400В worldwide). On Friday, March 13, 2020-just before the University sent out its directive moving all classes online-several students said to me over the course of the day, вЂњIвЂ™ve never been through something like this.вЂќ The current global pandemic is unprecedented in the experience of almost everyone living.

The sufferer and the witness reading list