For Everyday After Trans Visibility Day
Living out and proud, acknowledging that trans-ness has been present since the time of our ancient stories, is not just for Trans Day of Visibility. It is an everyday adventure.
You probably know the story of Jonah. Unlike many biblical texts there isn’t much known about its formation. The text was written sometimes across a 500-year span between the eighth and third century before the common era by an unknown author in an unknown place, in a style that spans so many genres it seems to be its own. Not much is even known of the prophet Jonah himself – or why this book is even considered a prophetic book – when Jonah prophecies just one sentence, in past tense, across the whole narrative.
One of the reasons this book is so well known is because Jonah is considered an “everyperson.” We can identify with Jonah. Jonah is so… human.
Jonah flees from the directions given by God to go to Nineveh and gets on a boat heading a different direction, to Tarshish, but God commands the waters to storm while Jonah sleeps in the boat. Those on the boat wake Jonah and Jonah declares who he is and states that he must be thrown overboard to calm the sea, but the crew continues to row toward shore. Finally, the crew says a prayer to God and sacrifices Jonah into the sea and the storm settles. It is here our story begins.
i hope you will join me in this sanctified imagination, willing to suspend your disbelief and enter into this midrash. This space is a place to set aside reality. This story doesn’t have a genre. Just like people, there are many labels that describe this work. It fits multiple genres including, parody, parable, satire, epic, midrash, myth, tragedy, poetry, and folk tale just to name a few – yes – there are more. This story will not address if it is actually possible that a giant fish swallowed and human and a human lived to tell the tale and will instead invite you to enter a fairytale that takes places in God’s world where everything is possible. A place filled with awe and wonder:
You are going about your day, not many plans, maybe find some snacks, see the neighborhood. It’s an ordinary day other than the storm raging above, which you may not even notice – especially if you are a large fish deep below the waters.
It is my guess that this fish had no idea that he was about to swallow a human. But God made different plans for this big guy. He is commanded into action and off he goes. The fish doesn’t hesitate like Jonah does when commanded by God. Good thing or this would be an entirely different story! Instead, the fish swallows Jonah right up.
What would become a transformative event for Jonah was also a moment of change for this huge fish. In the span of just one verse we find this fish is transformed in remarkable ways. This fish lives into a new identity. English is not a gendered language, unlike Hebrew. If we read the text translated to include gendered language it might sound something like this:
(v1) GOD provided a huge male fish (דָּג) to swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the male fish’s (דָּג) bellies (מְעֵי) three days and three nights. (v2) Jonah prayed to GOD his GOD from the bellies of the female fish (דָּגָה).
Three days and three nights is a metaphor for a really long time in the Ancient Near East, where this story takes place. Over that period of time the fish, in responding to God’s command, lives into her true identity.
How amazing not only for the fish but for Jonah. Jonah is no longer in the fish’s stomach but in a womb – a place representative of change, growth, and newness. The fish, with Jonah inside, is swimming along near the Gates of Sheol – the place thought to be the farthest from God – a place of both physical and spiritual death. And yet, Jonah, in this liminal space between life and death is in the womb of a fish beginning new life.
The fish, especially because of her new identity, is a remarkable gift.
What gift might you be called to bring by living into your identity?
Jonah’s prayer from the womb of the fish tells of the story of his sinking and while he is falling further and further under the breaking waves above, his thought is “Would i ever gaze again Upon Your holy Temple?” The Temple in the Ancient Near East was an important part of the community. It was a market space and a community center, but it was also the only place in which worship was thought to be allowed and accepted.
While Jonah is drowning, both metaphorically and physically the only thing he wants is his community; a place to worship, a place to connect, a place of support. Jonah yearns for this. It is a feeling not unfamiliar now - longing for points of connection - longing to be gathered in our safe and sacred spaces.
And yet, for Jonah, along comes the fish. The womb of this fish may not be bustling with people, but it is filled with worship.
Jonah cries out to God from a place where he has been told God can’t exist and God sends a big fish – that in living into her identity also becomes a holy Temple. A place where Jonah’s prayer is heard by God. Maybe the Temple isn’t where God lives after all. God demonstrates to Jonah that there is no place out of God’s reach: not Sheol, not the womb of a fish, and maybe not even in Nineveh.
i wonder where might you find an unlikely temple?
i wonder how might you be an unlikely temple?
The prayer Jonah prays would be familiar to early hearers of this story. The prayer, while some original to Jonah is largely composed of, and in the format of, the psalms. Using the language of prayer most familiar to him Jonah cries out to God and God hears him. He describes his plight but then turns to offer praise ending with “Deliverance is GODS.” Jonah is still stuck in a fish and yet sees this still liminal place – somewhere between life and death – as a place of deliverance, a place fit for thanksgiving. Nothing has changed about Jonah’s situation, but plenty has changed about the situation for the fish!
i wonder what prayer might we offer from our own liminal spaces?
After three days and three nights G-d commands the fish to vomit Jonah upon dry land. Jonah at the end of this adventure is birthed right back where he started. He is delivered with both the swallowing and the spewing of the fish.
Jonah is seen as an “everyperson,” someone all humans can identify with in some way.
But, what it would be like if we lived our lives as an “everyfish?”
Responding to help another - like Jonah’s fish companion;
Answering God’s calls without hesitation;
Living authentically into our lives and being a gift to the world by doing so;
Living as a temple – a way in which others may find a safe and holy space in us;
Unafraid of the ambiguous spaces between perceived life and death for we know that – although unexpected (and sometimes scaly) – there are travel companions along the way;
And embracing that God is with us no matter how far we think we are from God or what gender we live into.
“Just keep swimming”
©puckmaren glass 2020
Living out and proud, acknowledging that trans-ness has been present since the time of our ancient stories, is not just for Trans Day of Visibility. It is an everyday adventure.
You probably know the story of Jonah. Unlike many biblical texts there isn’t much known about its formation. The text was written sometimes across a 500-year span between the eighth and third century before the common era by an unknown author in an unknown place, in a style that spans so many genres it seems to be its own. Not much is even known of the prophet Jonah himself – or why this book is even considered a prophetic book – when Jonah prophecies just one sentence, in past tense, across the whole narrative.
One of the reasons this book is so well known is because Jonah is considered an “everyperson.” We can identify with Jonah. Jonah is so… human.
Jonah flees from the directions given by God to go to Nineveh and gets on a boat heading a different direction, to Tarshish, but God commands the waters to storm while Jonah sleeps in the boat. Those on the boat wake Jonah and Jonah declares who he is and states that he must be thrown overboard to calm the sea, but the crew continues to row toward shore. Finally, the crew says a prayer to God and sacrifices Jonah into the sea and the storm settles. It is here our story begins.
i hope you will join me in this sanctified imagination, willing to suspend your disbelief and enter into this midrash. This space is a place to set aside reality. This story doesn’t have a genre. Just like people, there are many labels that describe this work. It fits multiple genres including, parody, parable, satire, epic, midrash, myth, tragedy, poetry, and folk tale just to name a few – yes – there are more. This story will not address if it is actually possible that a giant fish swallowed and human and a human lived to tell the tale and will instead invite you to enter a fairytale that takes places in God’s world where everything is possible. A place filled with awe and wonder:
You are going about your day, not many plans, maybe find some snacks, see the neighborhood. It’s an ordinary day other than the storm raging above, which you may not even notice – especially if you are a large fish deep below the waters.
It is my guess that this fish had no idea that he was about to swallow a human. But God made different plans for this big guy. He is commanded into action and off he goes. The fish doesn’t hesitate like Jonah does when commanded by God. Good thing or this would be an entirely different story! Instead, the fish swallows Jonah right up.
What would become a transformative event for Jonah was also a moment of change for this huge fish. In the span of just one verse we find this fish is transformed in remarkable ways. This fish lives into a new identity. English is not a gendered language, unlike Hebrew. If we read the text translated to include gendered language it might sound something like this:
(v1) GOD provided a huge male fish (דָּג) to swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the male fish’s (דָּג) bellies (מְעֵי) three days and three nights. (v2) Jonah prayed to GOD his GOD from the bellies of the female fish (דָּגָה).
Three days and three nights is a metaphor for a really long time in the Ancient Near East, where this story takes place. Over that period of time the fish, in responding to God’s command, lives into her true identity.
How amazing not only for the fish but for Jonah. Jonah is no longer in the fish’s stomach but in a womb – a place representative of change, growth, and newness. The fish, with Jonah inside, is swimming along near the Gates of Sheol – the place thought to be the farthest from God – a place of both physical and spiritual death. And yet, Jonah, in this liminal space between life and death is in the womb of a fish beginning new life.
The fish, especially because of her new identity, is a remarkable gift.
What gift might you be called to bring by living into your identity?
Jonah’s prayer from the womb of the fish tells of the story of his sinking and while he is falling further and further under the breaking waves above, his thought is “Would i ever gaze again Upon Your holy Temple?” The Temple in the Ancient Near East was an important part of the community. It was a market space and a community center, but it was also the only place in which worship was thought to be allowed and accepted.
While Jonah is drowning, both metaphorically and physically the only thing he wants is his community; a place to worship, a place to connect, a place of support. Jonah yearns for this. It is a feeling not unfamiliar now - longing for points of connection - longing to be gathered in our safe and sacred spaces.
And yet, for Jonah, along comes the fish. The womb of this fish may not be bustling with people, but it is filled with worship.
Jonah cries out to God from a place where he has been told God can’t exist and God sends a big fish – that in living into her identity also becomes a holy Temple. A place where Jonah’s prayer is heard by God. Maybe the Temple isn’t where God lives after all. God demonstrates to Jonah that there is no place out of God’s reach: not Sheol, not the womb of a fish, and maybe not even in Nineveh.
i wonder where might you find an unlikely temple?
i wonder how might you be an unlikely temple?
The prayer Jonah prays would be familiar to early hearers of this story. The prayer, while some original to Jonah is largely composed of, and in the format of, the psalms. Using the language of prayer most familiar to him Jonah cries out to God and God hears him. He describes his plight but then turns to offer praise ending with “Deliverance is GODS.” Jonah is still stuck in a fish and yet sees this still liminal place – somewhere between life and death – as a place of deliverance, a place fit for thanksgiving. Nothing has changed about Jonah’s situation, but plenty has changed about the situation for the fish!
i wonder what prayer might we offer from our own liminal spaces?
After three days and three nights G-d commands the fish to vomit Jonah upon dry land. Jonah at the end of this adventure is birthed right back where he started. He is delivered with both the swallowing and the spewing of the fish.
Jonah is seen as an “everyperson,” someone all humans can identify with in some way.
But, what it would be like if we lived our lives as an “everyfish?”
Responding to help another - like Jonah’s fish companion;
Answering God’s calls without hesitation;
Living authentically into our lives and being a gift to the world by doing so;
Living as a temple – a way in which others may find a safe and holy space in us;
Unafraid of the ambiguous spaces between perceived life and death for we know that – although unexpected (and sometimes scaly) – there are travel companions along the way;
And embracing that God is with us no matter how far we think we are from God or what gender we live into.
“Just keep swimming”
©puckmaren glass 2020