Our readings this week are Exodus 14.19–31 and Matt 18.21–35.   We reflected briefly last Sunday on the possibility that the story of the Passover was told the way it was so that other people's and nations would have a healthy fear of the God of the new nation of Israel as it emerged from slavery into establishment in the geography of the ancient world:  "If their God can do that to the Egyptians... we should probably leave them alone."  It's just a theory, just a thought - but it's followed up in a similar vein  this week, as we meet the story of the God of Israel not able only to kill the weak and defenceless in Egypt, but to strip her of her armies, and destroy horse, chariot, and rider.  And note the response it engenders, "So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses."  v. 31.

'Feared' is the word, and this isn't just some pious deference - yes it can have overtones of reverence, but that's because this is a word with its roots in dread, and being afraid.  In this context we don't call the God fearful because we revere him; we revere him because he's dangerous, and scary.

But dangerous and scary are not words we tend to use very often these days when we're describing God - despite the evidence of the scriptures (and our Gospel reading reminds us this isn't just an Old Testament thing... 'in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you...' (vv34-35, pretty scary stuff, left short for effect!))

I think we leave the idea of God as scary alone because we don't need it.  Unlike the Israelites setting out into a hostile land to establish themselves, we live in a part of the world which Christianity has, to all intents and purposes 'won'.  Our post-Christendom Britain may not identify as majority Christian anymore - but it does recognise (at least nominally) the values of Christ as its own: charity, respect, equality, freedom etc.  Even if most people now won't acknowledge the truth of Christianity, they're still convinced enough of its tenets to not persecute those who do.  We're established, and we're not being hunted and exterminated for our beliefs as Christians, so our God doesn't need to be scary, and we don't to tell the stories of grief-stricken kings, and drowned armies - instead we can focus on grace, mercy, love, and joy.  We can present God as giving added value to an otherwise already very comfortable life.

Don't get me wrong - I think that's a great place to be; to be able to focus on the very real, magnificent, and glorious positives!  Where it may be dangerous, though, is if it leads us into either of two traps.

The first danger is to forget those who do need to know, and be able to tell others, the stories of the God who is able to topple empires and consume armies.  Whilst we may be basically safe in our beliefs, this world is full of Christians who are not: our brothers and sisters in Christ who are even now being imprisoned, tortured, executed, or chased from their jobs and homes by empires that seem to be insurmountably powerful.  The difficult stories we encounter in scripture can be a reminder that the needs of those who wrote them thousands of years ago - to tell of a God who is in charge of history, who hears the cries of the oppressed, and is capable and willing to topple regimes to lead them to freedom - those needs are still in our world today, even if they are not immediately our own.  Perhaps these stories can be for us an invitation to remember the oppressed across the world, forget ourselves, and join our prayers with theirs to the God of history.

The second is if our place of relative comfort leads us to ignore those parts of scripture we find distasteful, or aspects of God's character for which we have no current need.  If we walk down those paths, we may find ourselves sidling up to idolatry as we create a god in an image that suits us, and find ourselves drifting away from the Reality.  If we really want to search for the God who is, and not just imagined, and offer our lives in His service we cannot allow our immediate experiences and circumstance to define our understanding of the one who is infinite, and beyond any power we have to comprehend.  We have, instead, to be brave enough to stand in the presence of mystery, and allow ourselves to accept a God who isn't always what we expect, or even want.  

We need to read the stories that discomfit us, stare down our discomfort, and look beyond it to the God who passes all understanding.