NYC Episcopal priest: Jesus was trans, God is nonbinary — and the Resurrection was a ‘transition’

BS BULLETIN:

New York Episcopal priest Flourish Klink declared during a sermon that “God is nonbinary” and “God is actually also trans.”
Klink argued that Jesus was assigned male at birth but was resurrected as a “true self” beyond male and female.
The sermon was delivered in March but exploded across social media this week after video clips resurfaced.

An Episcopal priest in New York City has offered a decidedly modern interpretation of the Resurrection:

Jesus transitioned.

The Rev. Flourish Klink, a transgender and nonbinary Episcopal priest, made the argument during a March 21 sermon at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan for its “Celebration of Trans Joy and Resilience.” Video of the sermon resurfaced this week and quickly spread across social media.

Klink didn’t leave much room for ambiguity.

“God is nonbinary,” the priest told the congregation.

Then came the escalation: “But I’m going to go further than that, and I’m going to say God is actually also trans.”

Klink argued that transgender people are assigned a gender at birth based upon how others perceive them and then applied that reasoning to Jesus.

“When God, who — as we have established — is nonbinary, was born in human form as our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary said, ‘Oh look, a baby boy.’”

Klink argued that because God transcends male and female categories, the male identity assigned to Jesus at birth didn’t fully describe God’s identity.

Then came the theological kicker.

Klink suggested that denying God is trans could amount to denying Christ’s divinity.

The priest also pointed to Jesus’ life as evidence, arguing that Christ didn’t conform to the traditional expectations of a first-century Judean man — including apparently never marrying and interacting with women in ways Klink described as unusual for the period.

But Klink saved the biggest claim for the Resurrection.

The priest noted biblical accounts in which Jesus’ followers initially failed to recognize him after he rose from the dead.

Klink acknowledged that Scripture doesn’t explain precisely why.

Then came a theory.

“I think Jesus was resurrected as Jesus’s true self, which is beyond male or female.”

And finally: “I think Jesus was not only transfigured. I think Jesus transitioned.”

Klink currently serves as an assistant priest at Christ & St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and co-chairs the Greater New York Area Episcopal Trans Task Force. The priest also serves on the Episcopal Diocese of New York’s Liturgical Committee.

Klink framed the Resurrection argument as a personal interpretation — repeatedly saying “I think” — and the available Episcopal Church materials do not establish the claim that Jesus transitioned as official church doctrine.

The Cathedral’s own program for the March service described God as “creating, transforming, and making new” and identified Klink among the clergy participating in the service.

The months-old sermon is getting its much larger audience now.

And “Jesus transitioned at the Resurrection” is one theological interpretation unlikely to disappear quietly back into the archives.

MY QUICK TAKE

Two thousand years of theologians debating the mysteries of the Resurrection, and apparently somebody finally cracked the case in Manhattan.

I do have one question.

If the Bible admittedly doesn’t tell us why the disciples initially didn’t recognize the resurrected Jesus, how exactly did we get from “we don’t know” to “therefore, transition”?

That’s quite a theological Uber ride.