Blessed bodies and souls in transition: a queer meditation on the beatitudes (Matthew 5: 1-12)

Text by Jennifer Hasler*, published on Whosoever ** (United States) on March 2, 2020. Freely translated by the volunteers of the Gionata project.

The beatitudes (Matteo 5: 1-12) illustrate a powerful welcome by Jesus to the very diversified crowd who had come to see him in search of hope.

Often we imagine Jesus on a mountain that pronounces the beatitudes as if he were giving a new law, similar to Moses with the ten commandments, a set of rules to follow.

We should be mild, we should cry and we should be operators of peace. Although this interpretation has a value, it is not what Jesus intended to do, nor what the evangelist Matteo wanted to communicate.

The key to understanding this step is located in Matteo 5: 3, which Dallas Willard expands as: "Blessed are the spiritual zeros, because of them is the kingdom of heaven".

Nobody would say that Jesus wished that people were spiritual zeros, therefore these verses do not establish a new law.

On the contrary, Jesus turns to those who would never have been considered worthy of a religious ceremony, to those who suffered losses, to those who are considered insignificant (like the myths), and tell them that they are blessed and welcomed in the community of God. This message was at the center of the teaching of Jesus.

However, there is a more personal aspect of this story that I could not tell in the sermon that I preached on this step. When I preach, I always remember the words of my homiletic professor, Teresa Fry-Brown: "When you preach, do not bleed on the congregation".

But now I want to tell the rest of this story, because it is part of the call that God has placed in my life.

Today I can recognize the call of God to the Ministry as part of my academic formation, but this was possible only after having fully embraced my authenticity: I am a transgender woman, created by God to serve his community.

For the first time I heard Dallas Willard's interpretation on Matteo 5 in May 2008, while I was at the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California.

At the time I lived in Atlanta, but I often went to California to follow a technological startup that I had co-founded together with my research group at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

I attended that church on the weekends in which I was there, and over time it became a place where my soul could listen to the voice of God.

In the meantime, I was starting to accept my transgender identity and to live authentically according to God had created me.

January 2008 was the first time I introduced myself to the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church as myself. I was terrified. Everything went well, but I was so focused on being in that space that I couldn't even follow the cult.

The second time I participated, I was more relaxed and I could connect to the music and the people around me. However, only the third time - in May 2008 - was quite serene that he can truly listen to the sermon.

That day, the shepherd John Ortberg spoke of the Beatitudes and cited Dallas Willard: "Blessed are the spiritual zeros“. And at that moment I clearly heard the voice of God who told me: "Blessed trangers, because they will be loudly celebrated in the kingdom of God".

God was talking to me directly, showing me the road he had prepared for me. The kingdom of God not only welcomes a person like me, but does it in a particular and joyful way, exactly as they are.

One day, someone will have to bring this message to a community that desperately needs to know that God welcomes all transgender people with love, despite the way the world often treats them.

Since then, this step of the Gospel has become a point of reference in my writing study.

I deepened its meaning during a seminarian course on Matteo in 2015, and I explored less known texts, such as the First book by Enoch, to fully understand the context.

Beatitudes are the message of a God who calls people where they are, especially those who feel excluded. They are a testimony of the love of God, who goes beyond the barriers and embraces everyone, without exception.

* Jennifer Hasler is a professor at the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. It deals with research on neuromorphic computation, on very low power systems and on innovative electronic technologies.

** Whosoever is an Ecumenical American magazine, founded in 1996, dedicated to the spirituality and faith of LGBTQ+people. Its goal is to offer theological reflections, testimonies and resources for those looking for a path of inclusive faith, overcoming the refusal and the discrimination often encountered in traditional religious communities.

Original text: A Transgender Meditation On The Beatudes