11/04/2022
November 2022
Providence
As a deeply religious people, the Pilgrims undoubtedly prayed to God during their first harvest feast in 1621. I sense their prayers were more likely spontaneous, though the exact words are not known.
A typical prayer might have been something like this:
“O Lord our God and heavenly Father, which of Thy unspeakable mercy towards us, hast provided meate and drinke for the nourishment of our weake bodies. Grant us peace to use them reverently, as from Thy hands, with thankful hearts: let Thy blessing rest upon these Thy good creatures, to our comfort and sustentation: and grant we humbly beseech Thee, good Lord, that as we doe hunger and thirst for this food of our bodies, so our soules may earnestly long after the food of eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, Amen”
George Webb, “Short direction for the daily exercise of the Christian.”
In 1635, the Puritan clergyman, Roger Williams, was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony for promoting ideas of religious tolerance and for urging the separation of church and state. To escape deportation back to England, Williams made his way to Narragansett Bay, where he purchased land from the Indians who lived there.
Together with a few friends, Williams established a settlement that he named Providence, a naming that he said was in gratitude “for God’s merciful providence to me in my distress.” This settlement eventually became the capital of what we know as Rhode Island.
Roger Williams gave that settlement a great name, for providence refers to the care and guidance of God. It comes from the same root word as do “provide” and “provisions.” Providence was a word commonly used during the early years this country was being settled, and our ancestors were not shy about attributing good things that happened to God.
Providence is a word seldom used these days, and for that I’m sad. Providence means that everything that happens is ultimately subject to God’s purposes, but today, we are sometimes quicker to attribute the things that happen to fate, luck, the intervention of other people or our own hard work. Our ancestors believed in those things too, but they were faster in seeing the hand of God at work rather than by chance.
Perhaps we would do well in paying closer attention to God’s active movement in our lives and give thought to the provisions offered us with more praise.
Providence says that this is God’s world, and it is not luck, fate, superstition, or an aligning of the stars, that give meaning and purpose to our lives. It’s God! No matter how horrible things seem or how tragic circumstances in our life get, nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Providence. I do so wish it were a word we heard with greater frequency.
The people of this world place a great deal of stock in luck. 45 of 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico have a lottery system, where over $7.5 billion dollars a year is bet on the Super Bowl alone. But luck is reserved only for a few folk that hit the right numbers. The sure bet is that of the providence of God and its availability for everyone.
In this month where so much attention is placed in giving thanks, I urge you to take time to give thanks for God’s providential care and for the religious spirit found in those early settlers.
Pastor Terry
