Pastoral Theologian-in-Residence

Articles

The Pastoral Theologian-in-Residence Corner

“Some Considerations of Homosexuality and the Episcopal Church ”

 

"Fear Factor"

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This is a “corner” written by the Rev. Canon Tom Conley, former Canon Pastor (now retired) at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. Canon Conley will have a new article every few weeks under the title, “Peek-a-boo Perspectives.” Why that title? When asked, Canon Conley shared the following.

There is in the Hebrew Bible, in Exodus 33:18-23, the story of God’s passing before Moses. It is a fascinating account. Moses hides in the cleft or a rock as God passes by and peeks out to see only God’s backside. Moses is not permitted to see the face of God, to look into the eyes of the Creator, to explore the intricacies of God’s visage. No. That would be too close, too intimate, too revealing.

Beyond this obviously anthropomorphic story, there is a spiritual reality, one with which we live daily. There are times in our lives when we want to see God face-to-face, to ask God hard questions, to hold God, the universe, someone, accountable for the pain and suffering that we have on this earth. The cancer suddenly appears, the heart stops for no obvious reason, the baby dies in a snug, warm home with a manicured lawn while a child in the slums, raised with the minimum or care, somehow survives. The good die young and the young die innocently. Innocents, through no fault of their own seem expendable in political systems. We want to look into God’s eyes and have a chat, mold some reason out of the chaos. But sometimes the best we can muster is a stiff breeze created by an already-passed-by God, and when we do claim our vision from the swirling dust, it is, at best, a glancing glimpse, a shadowy silhouette, a peek-a-boo scan of God’s backside.

We see through a glass, darkly. Life, for all our scientific discoveries and probes into space, is still mysterious with an enormous dark side. There are those moments when we get peek-a-boo glimpses, hints, shadows in the dusk that let us know someone is there although we cannot yet see the Spirit face-to-face. What keeps us going with our peek-a-boo glimpses is community, one another, others who are in the fight with us, on the journey but a little ahead of us, and who warn us of impending curves, sharp turns and dangerous pitfalls.

This is why the Center exits, to give one another help in the dark moments when peek-a-boo glances do not satisfy the hurt in the heart. Peek-a-boo perspectives are all we have. But they are at least something, and we share what part of the backside of God we have seen. There are moments when what you have seen will give the rest of us pause, a spate of time to look again; and perhaps while we are waiting we will find the assurance to know that one day we will see it all, face-to-face. Until then, we belong to one another.