A Year-Long Journey Through the Sermon on the Mount: Week 13

Chapter 13 – Salt and Light

 

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.” (Matt 5:13-14)

 

For me as clergy, examining this verse from my theological perspective, I take that statement to mean Jesus is passing us the torch, telling us to pick up where he left off in caring for God’s creation. Jesus is our light, then, now, and forever, and we are to follow him faithfully. God named Jesus the light of the world, and now Jesus is naming us the light of the world.

 

For me as a transgender person, looking at the same statement from a personal point of view, Jesus is telling me to be a light to others, to be a beacon to those out there wondering if they can be transgender and still keep their Christian faith. My call to follow Jesus is one of transparency, of being completely open and honest about myself as a way to make the unknown familiar and to create a stepping stone to reconciliation.

 

For too long, the church as a whole has asked those of us who are transgender and non-binary to put our lights under a bowl, to keep ourselves hidden away as if we were a dirty secret. My hope is that if I put my light on its stand and let it shine, then others will gain the courage to put their light on its stand as well. It’s as Charles E Moore says, “[Jesus’s] concern is not that his followers get more involved in the world, but that they don’t become like the world and lose their true identity. He wants his followers to remain true to who they are…Be who you are, wherever you are, no matter what.” (p. 75-76)

 

I pray that, one day, differences will be celebrated instead of tolerated, and that no one will feel the slam of the church door in their face. We are all God’s creation, and we deserve to be seen.