It seems to me that many Americans, both those in the Church and those who are "spiritual but not religious," envision a God who is extremely safe. God is sweet and kindly, a source of warmth, blessing and contentment. No wonder so many of us recoil at the line in Psalm 147 a notion found repeatedly in the Bible, "The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him."
When the disciples receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, this wonderful gift emboldens them, grants them amazing powers, and compels them to proclaim the message of Jesus. But the Spirit was not the nice gift of a doting grandfather. This gift would turn their lives upside down and would place them in dire situations where they would have to decide between fulfilling their call or saving their lives.
Many of us think of Jesus as cancelling out all those Old Testament images of a God who tests Abraham by asking him to kill his own son. But Jesus demands that those who follow him give up their own lives. Paul insists that to be in Christ is for the old self to die. And in The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks against the "cheap grace" of a sweet, benign God. Grace is costly, he insists. Its cost is seen in the cross demanded of Jesus. And its cost is seen in Christ's call. "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
None of this is to deny or diminish God's grace and providential care. But the biblical God is not to be taken lightly. God's love calls us into a relationship of risky trusting. Our testing may be nothing like Abraham's, but we are tested every day as we must decide whether to follow the path of faithful, trusting discipleship that takes up the cross, or whether we will trust in the safe God of our own devising.
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