PRIDE Celebration of Worship – sermon by Minister Candace Simpson, Concord Baptist Church of Christ

On this Pride Sunday, I want to say clearly that if you are exploring your self and who you are and who you wish to be in this world, please know that you have all of the permission in the world to take your sweet time. Those of us who are “out” – whatever that means – have a responsibility to make this world safer so that “coming out” is A) not traumatic or dangerous or bears consequences, and B) that it’s unnecessary.

We can build the world that we want to see. This is abolition – it’s investing in the needs of a community, and treating humans with dignity and compassion, it’s investing in the little ones, whoever they may be. Mahalia Jackson sang it in this way, that “it don’t cost very much to give just a gentle touch, to give a glass of water to a person in need of such, you may not be an angel and you may not go to church, but the good that you do could come back to you, and It don’t cost very much.”