As the starting point of my discussion of providence, I begin by dealing with God�s action of creation. I want to lay the groundwork for understanding what God is doing now by discussing what God has done in the past. Genesis 1 begins with the rather simple statement, �In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.�[1] There are two ways of thinking about this creative action of God which I would like to reflect on, creatio ex nihilo, creation out of nothing, and creatio continua, continuing creation. Ex nihilo implies that the cosmos was brought into being from non being by God. This places God in the position of Father, and giver of life. In continua, God�s interaction with the world is continual, and creation is viewed as being ongoing, instead of once for all. Of first importance in discussing these two notions of creation is to observe that there does not need to be a fundamental conflict between the two.[2] Ex nihilo emphasizes what was present before creation, and continua emphasizes what occurred in and after that initial moment and is still occurring. Thinking of God as creator should include both ideas.
Creatio ex nihilo is God�s past action of bringing the world into being. This provides a starting point for thinking about providence by asserting that God is able and willing to act. God created. John Polkinghorne, an Anglican minister, and a former professor of mathematical physics, talks of creation this way: "Christian doctrine of creation is rightly concerned with the self-surrender of divine all-inclusiveness in the creating of a world genuinely other, to which God can be �closer than breathing�, in the sense of continuously being aware of it and interacting with it, without being, even partially, identified with it."[3] I think the move he makes here is essential to this discussion. God created a world genuinely other than God�s self. God surrendered what Polkinghorne terms �divine all-inclusiveness.� God necessarily limits God�s self to create something that is not God. But, even though this world is not God, God is still interacting with the world. This demonstrates how the idea of creatio ex nihilo can lead in to a discussion of creatio continua. God created the world in the past in such a way that God could and would continue to create.
I now turn to how God is acting today. John Wesley writes, �nothing is so small or insignificant in the sight of men as not to be an object of the care and providence of God.�[4] Augustine similarly writes that God has not �abandoned even the inner parts of the smallest and lowliest creature�.�[5] I do not want to say that God just acted in the past, but not now. Instead, I am echoing Augustine and Wesley in saying God still acts in the world.
This providence can be understood in different ways. The first way I want to approach God�s action is through what I will call a sustaining providence. This is the idea that God is active in the world today through faithfully upholding the world. Psalm 104 says, �He makes springs pour water into the ravines�. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate�bringing forth food from the earth�.�[6] God acts by making these everyday things happen. In a scientific sense, sustaining providence could be seen as God holding together the laws of physics.[7] God acts by constantly and continually upholding life, in ways we can�t fully understand or imagine. We can�t set up an experiment in which God is present in one set of circumstances, but not in another. There is no way to factor out God. But even if we can�t describe definitively how sustaining providence works, or precisely what it is, we can still assert by faith that it still exists.
I not only want to propose that God acts in a continual providential way by sustaining the world. God also acts in what I will call particular providence. This means that God acts in certain ways in certain circumstances. Continuing creation can be seen as God sustaining the world. But God�s ongoing creation does not need to be limited to such a passive and uninvolved role. God is free (and able) to interact with His[8] creation. Polkinghorne writes, �God�s care for his creation must be continuous, but it does not follow from that that there are not occasions when that care is exercised in specific ways.�[9] God can at the same time act in a sustaining way to uphold the world and uphold the laws of nature, and also bring things about in the world.[10] Because we understand God as sustainer, we do not need to see God as being totally deistic. God is also a God who takes part in the events of the world. In fact, as C.S. Lewis asserts, �[Miracles] are precisely those chapters in this great story on which the plot turns. Death and Resurrection are what the story is all about.�[11] It is not God�s admission of failure when God intervenes. Instead, it is God letting His plan shine through a little more fully.
I have painted a picture of God�s relationship with the world in which God is active in many ways. It is also important to understand that along with this idea of providence goes the concept of freedom. God created a type of world in which God is not the only agent. God created the world and endowed it with freedom. I believe this is a fundamental part of the setting aside of �divine all-inclusiveness� I mentioned earlier. God creates beings that are truly �other� than God, and part of that otherness is agency. God did not create humans as puppets on strings, but as free, conscious, active beings; in essence, as beings in the Imago Dei. God is an active and involved God, but God is also a self-limited God. God chooses to limit His own action in the world, giving creation, and humans in particular, freedom. To restate the point, God enters into a relationship with creation, giving to creation the ability and space to act and contribute to the relationship. Thus, as we affirm the assertion that God does act, we at the same time affirm the assertion that God allows others to act. This means, in terms of divine providence, that while God has the ability to act, God chooses to limit His own actions, allowing creation to exist within the laws and systems that God has created. We must be careful in this discussion, though, to too completely separate God's actions from the actions of His creation. For it is important that we affirm first and foremost divine freedom, even as we affirm the existence of human and creaturely freedom. These two things exist side by side. We must not try to too neatly separate one from the other, so as to say that God is working here, but not there.
Understanding the freedom God has given to creation, and especially to humans, leads us to a third type of providence, which I will call counseling providence. This means that God acts in the world through guiding and directing humans, but at the same time leaves genuine choices up to humans to make. This providence brings together the fact that God is truly active in the world and at the same time God gives freedom. Unique to this providence is that it applies to humans in a special way.[12] God works in our lives in a special way, and is able to direct our paths. This type of providence gives a very pointed example of how God has chosen to limit God�s power with relationship to humanity. Though God could choose to have a world, and more specifically, a race of conscious beings, who do God�s will completely because there is no choice, God voluntarily limit�s His own determinative capabilities, allowing humans to truly exist in the role of �created co-creator�[13], acting along with God in a meaningful and purposive way. Philippians 2:12-13 is a command to work out our own salvation, because it is God who works in us. As we talk of counselling providence, we must turn to the Holy Spirit, God who is come as the Counsellor, God working in us. This counselling providence then, should be understood not only as God "persuading" but fundamentally as God working in us to will and to act according to his purposes. We cannot too fully separate our actions from God's working in us. Thus we again affirm divine freedom, and human freedom along side it.
Even though God acts in specific instances in creation, this does not mean that this will be able to provide proof of the existence of God. Polkinghorne writes, �God�s action will always be hidden. It will be contained within the cloudy unpredictabilities[14] of what is going on. It may be discernible by faith, but it will not be exhibitable by experiment.�[15] We cannot know exactly how or where God is acting, apart from faith, for God's action is not necessariliy one cause among many, but may be discernable in otherwise fully explainable causes (for example, a pressure gradient may cause the wind, but this does not mean that that same wind is not attributable to God as God's particular providence). This is why I have titled this sermon �Trying to Find God�s Action in the World�: part of understanding the way God works is understanding that we will not be able to definitively prove that it is so, apart from faith. As God can be seen as being veiled in Jesus Christ, so also can God be seen as being veiled in His relationship with creation. Luther calls this veil the larva Dei, or the Mask of God. God is still truly God, yet God chooses to hide the full extent of His being, revealing only portions of it. Jesus Christ, who necessarily stands at the center of our theological reflection, mirrors this understanding of God as both hidden and revealed. In his death on the Cross, Jesus brought about the redemption of humanity, through his shed blood, but to many of the bystanders this was merely the execution of a criminal. Some people must have stood a few feet away from the most decisive occurrence in all of history, and been completely unaware of God's amazing activity there. Then, we also remember that on the third day, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, another part of the event that plays a decisive part in God's plan, this time showcasing in a more transparent way God's activity here on earth. We must acknowledge that we live in a world of both the cricifiction and the resurrection. Our world is at once the place of God's hiddenness and humility, even as it is the place of God's exaltation and glory. We must extend our understanding of God's action so that we anchor it in God's revelation in Christ Jesus, and build upon this understanding as we look at God's act of creation,[16] entailing both specific actions, as well as God�s sustaining hand.
This idea of a veiled creator is consistent with the current debates as to the identity or existence of a creator. The debate between evolution and creation has raged for many years.[17] No irrefutable evidence of God�s action in creation can be found. As Polkinghorne quips, we do not find �objects stamped �Made by God.� �[18] God veils His action as creator, and this is consistent with the world as it can be observed.[19] This provides us with the answer to one of the questions I began with, �If God is all that we claim God to be, wouldn�t a God like that be easy to find around us?� In short, the answer is yes and no. God is working around us, but not in such a way that is �easy to find� in the plain sense of the word, even though we are constantly confronted with God's actions, and with God's creation. Finally, faith, not empirical evidence, sense experience, or scientific experimentation, is the key to recognizing God and God�s actions.[20]
I have claimed that God acts in the world, and that this action takes on three major types: sustaining providence, particular providence, and counseling providence. We could also go into a discussion of a fourth type of providence, which I will call eschatological providence, in recognition that God shall one day complete the New Creation, in a way that is at once continuous with and distinct from what God is doing now, and has been doing since the beginning of creation. Through discussing these four aspects of providence, I have presented to you a way of understanding God�s action and the forms this action takes. I want to end by saying that although I have divided providence into four areas, God�s action does not need to be understood as divided. Talking about four different types of providence allows us a tool to understand how God acts. Finally, though, I believe that God simply acts. Our categories are only that, categories. God�s action is action, and though we may try to classify different actions in different ways, they are all God acting in relationship with creation. God always acts in accordance with His Holiness and Love, in accordance with His divine character.
Finally, God�s action is visible through the spectacles of faith, and I pray that God will give me the eyes to see Him, and to discern His action in and around my life. May God likewise bring that gift to you. �To God be the glory�great things He has done.�[21]
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[1] Genesis 1:1. NIV. All further scriptural quotations taken from the NIV unless otherwise noted.
[2] See Polkinghorne, Faith of a Physicist, 75.
[3] Polkinghorne, Faith of a Physicist, 64.
[4] Wesley, 315.
[5] Augustine, 196.
[6] Psalm 104:10, 14. See also: Ps. 145:15; 147:9; Mt. 6:25-30.
[7] Sustaining providence is tinged with deism, in the recognition of a relatively settled order which God brings and upholds. God�s continual faithfulness means there is almost a deistic �mechanism� quality to the universe. I say this in reference to the way in which the world can be understood to be governed in a very regular way by God. I am not in any way, though, seeking to put forth a deistic notion of God or of providence.
[8] The use of masculine pronouns is not meant in any way to imply gender. Instead it is used, due to the lack of a more appropriate pronoun, to aid in the clarity and flow of composition.
[9] Polkinghorne, Faith of a Physicist, 78.
[10] See: Ward, 120. C.S. Lewis argues very clearly in Miracles concerning the possibility of �miracle� interventions on the part of God. He also discusses the propriety of these miracle events occurring in a manner that seems to be against the grain of nature in a way. Lewis doesn�t see this as God going against His earlier plans, or correcting earlier errors, but instead asserts that these miracles are �expressions of the truest and deepest unity in His total work.� (Miracles, 128)
[11] Lewis, 131.
[12] Process theology asserts that God acts in a way that uses persuasion with the world, and this includes �persuading� nature as well as humanity, yet leaving the world to be itself as well. God has a purposive will, but that will is not fully done due to resistance or sin. I am asserting that there is some truth in this, but that this is not the only type of providential action that God can take. Neither would I simply relegate God's activity to one of persuader. In no way should we say human freedom and divine freedom are incompatible. Instead, God remains free to bring about that which is his will, just as humans remain free to obey or depart from God's purposive will.
[13] Peters, 134. Peters is using Philip Hefner�s phrase.
[14]In Serious Talk, Polkinghorne more fully develops the idea of God�s action in the unpredictabilities of Chaos and Quantum Theories. See Chs. 2 and 6. It is also important to note that freedom for God to act is not based solely on actions of quantum particles, or on chaos theory. Instead, these are examples from science of the open quality of the universe. My statement of openness is more a theological than scientific claim.
[15] Polkinghorne, Serious Talk, 84.
[16] This is not to assert that God is directly revealed in creation in that God is a part of creation, as would be asserted in Pantheism. Instead, God�s action is seen as God acts in creation, and as God is reflected in His creation.
[17] See Barbour, Chs. 2, 8, 9.
[18] Polkinghorne, Serious Talk, 63.
[19] Even though I am asserting God chose to create through kenosis, this does not mean the creation does not reflect God�s glory as creator. In Psalm 19, David declared, �The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.� Through faith, God�s guiding hand is evident in creation, but this evidence will not, in turn, be able to prove the existence of a creator.
[20] I would like to propose a paradigm within which we can fit this understanding of providence. This is what I call the kenotic paradigm. Philippians 2 talks of Christ being self-limited. God related to the world through Jesus Christ in a self-limited, kenotic way. I believe this is the same type of relationship that God has with the world in other ways as well. God created the world in a kenotic way by choosing to limit Himself in creating a world that was genuinely other, genuinely not God. To do this, God had to �contract� the divine self to make room for a universe that is truly �other�. I believe God�s providential action is also kenotic. First I believe it is kenotic because God chooses to limit Himself by allowing creation true freedom. This is God limiting God�s own agency to allow another to act. God�s kenotic relationship to the world in providence can also be seen in the veiled way in which God acts. God�s action is not readily exhibitable, except by faith. In this way, God limits Himself by acting within the �causal weave� of creation.
Kenosis does not assert that God is absent in anyway from creation or from our lives. It means instead that He is here, in ways we can�t even see. This sermon is not the forum for a more complete explanation of this view, but it is important to mention it because it provides a framework within which this view of providence can be understood and be related back to the being and character of God. Read more...
[21] Fanny Crosby, "To God be the Glory."
