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            The strong sense of divine providence which comes to expression in the Prayer Book collects might seem to some to be an affront to human independence and responsibility.  But it seems to me that the really chilling scenario is the one which many today assume without question: that we are entirely on our own, left to our own devices, the victims of our own fallible choices and limited capabilities, in a world where chance and unforeseeable disaster have the final say. 
            By contrast, the Christian conviction that God “has the whole world in his hands” gives each of us the blessed assurance of living out our lives under the divine protection.  In the words of St. Paul, which we use in the burial service,
                       
                        Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
                        nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come
                        nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing
                        shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
                        which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
                        Romans 8:38.39 

            Whatever may happen in our lives, all things work together unto good to them that love the Lord (Romans 8:28).  But the divine power at work in us does not make us puppets on a string.  We cannot say that because God does everything, we can do nothing.  What God does and what we do are simply incommensurate; they cannot be played off against each other. 
            To bring this home to us, we have the gospel parable (Luke 16:1-13) of the steward who took care of his own interests in quite an unscrupulous manner, and yet is praised for his actions: “His master praised the unrighteous steward, because he had acted with prudence (v. 8).” 
            These words of praise are even more forceful and puzzling if they come not from the master in the parable but rather from the speaker, our Lord Jesus Christ.  The Greek word kyrios can mean either a human master or the divine Lord. 
            So God’s providence by no means excludes human prudence.  On the contrary, we must work out our salvation in fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).   God’s providence does not only provide a firm foundation for our individual lives.  It also gives us the key to the meaning of history.  In the epistle (1 Corinthians 10:1-17) we have an example of what is called typology, that is, something in the Old Testament which points ahead to something in the New Testament.  Paul writes,
                        Our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
                        and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, and in the sea;
                        and did all eat the same spiritual food and did all drink the same
                        spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
                        them, and that rock was Christ (vv. 1-4).
            The rock that Moses struck (Exodus 17:6) points to Christ; the passing through the Reed Sea (Exodus 14:21-31) points to baptismal immersion; the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:13-16) and the water from the rock (Exodus 17:6) point to the spiritual food and drink by which Christians are sustained in the holy eucharist. 
            When sacred history is read in this way, the Old Testament and the New Testament become, in the phrase of Northrop Frye, two reflecting mirrors.  The parallels between the testaments give meaning and direction, and history loses its terror.  In the words of our hymn:
                        All my hope on God is founded;
                        He doth still my trust renew;
                        Me through change and chance He guideth
                        Only good and only true.

July 20, 2008

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