Reflections on Pride Sunday
June 28, 2026
5th Sunday after Pentecost ~ Pride Sunday
MINISTER
Rev. David J. Wood
SCRIPTURE
Psalm 139: 7-14; I Corinthians 13; Matthew 23: 23-24
"A Meditation on Pride Sunday”
by Rev. David J. Wood
5th Sunday After Pentecost, June 28, 2026
First Congregational Church of Camden
Scripture Readings:
I Corinthians 13 & Matthew 23:24
[Note: Also on this Pride Sunday, two lay persons from FCC shared reflections: Laura Amerman and Jordan Wood. Their reflections can be viewed on the video of this service.]
As many of you know, my father was a minister…and as my father and a minister, he had an enormous role in my experience and understanding of what it meant to be a Christian.
I have a vivid memory of an incident with my father in the early 1990’s when he was visiting us when we lived in Lewiston. I would have been in my mid 30’s. In a discussion about where I stood on the question of homosexuality, he confronted me in anger verging on outrage when I refused to condemn homosexuality which he declared with great emotion and anger that he found utterly disgusting.
Refusing to condemn homosexuality, while not a full throated affirmation of LGBTQ persons, it was an indication of my first steps in coming out of the theological closet of my upbringing…it was at the very least the beginning of a journey that continues to unfold in my life and understanding.
Let me summarize it this way…the Bible portrays a pervasive vision of God’s ever-expanding mercy. To say there’s a wideness in God’s mercy in the context of this Pride Sunday….is not to say that God’s mercy extends even to the LGBTQ community. To speak of the recognition of God’s ever-expanding mercy is to be reminded of how forgetful we are that that the only reason any of us are members of the household of God is because of God’s mercy.
Talk of including LGBTQ folks into the life of the church can make it sound like we who are on the inside are granting entrance to a category of persons who are on the outside
Instead, it is the always surprising discovery that the inside is a whole large bigger and expansive than we ever realized. In the life and teachings of Jesus and in the experience of the early Church, God was found on the outside calling upon those who thought they were on the inside to come out and God in the face of their neighbor.
Thinking back to that day in Washington DC when our son Jordan told us he was gay…I can honestly say that there was never any question of whether or not we would embrace Jordan with the love and acceptance we had embraced him with since the day he was born. Never. No struggle whatsoever.
HOWEVER…to know I had a son who is gay was demanding on a different level…it did require that my words take on flesh.
It was no longer an issue to be debated…it was now a life to be lived…called into a engagement, to a coming alongside, a being with in a whole new way…a knowing, an understanding, a solidarity, a bearing witness. A few months after Jordan came out, Jennifer asked him what had changed. He said, “I no longer have to edit myself. I no longer need to hide from others or from myself. I am free to be who I am.” Of course, that was encouraging to hear. It was also painful…in that it was an indication of how I had failed to create the conditions in our household for Jordan to know that freedom at a much younger age. Lord, have mercy. I am grateful to the grace that Jordan has extended.
In June of 2018, I had the privilege of performing Jordan and Jake’s wedding…it would be my first same-sex wedding (several more have followed)…Their union that has enriched the life and love of our family in countless ways…most recently in the birth of their daughter, Ella Grace.
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The text we reads from I Corinthians 13 is the Apostle Paul’s declaration of how love is the defining virtue of the life of the Christian community. As much as I love the chapter as a whole, I have always found the last few verses the most fascinating.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face.
Here is the Apostle Paul, who as you may recall, claimed that on a road to Damascus, he was blinded by the Light of Christ, that he actually encountered the resurrected Christ. He was literally blinded by the light. Yet, here he is, towards the end of his life, claiming that at best in this life, we only see things partially…that our vision of what is true and good and beautiful is always partial, always lacking, always imperfect…and in the meantime, we have faith, hope…and the most important thing of all is LOVE.
He reminds us that THE sign of the wisdom that comes with age is the realization of how little we grasp…it is to become more aware of how little we grasp of ourselves..let alone in the lives of our neighbors. Therefore, above all else, love is what is required of us.
I have learned a great deal from Jordan. My father did not change his basic view of LGBTQ persons. My siblings, three sisters and a brother, Jordan’s Aunts and Uncle, refused to attend Jordan and Jake’s wedding. I know how infuriating that was for me…I can only imagine how painful that was to Jordan. And yet, he never ceased to reach out to them, to provide generous hospitality whenever they visited here in Maine, or travel to Wichita to spend time with my father before he died. I remember how deeply moved Jordan was at my father’s funeral. In so many ways, Jordan continues to be a person who shows me how the word becomes flesh….for which I could not be more grateful.
That gratitude extends, no less, to the life of this congregation…who has declared itself to be an unambiguously and emphatically an open and affirming congregation who welcomes all…who stakes its life on what Jesus called the weightier matter of the Law: those pertaining to justice, mercy, faith…hope and love. As Laura reminded us a few moments ago, there is much more to be done in living out this conviction in these times…but I cannot think of better companions to have on this journey. Thanks be to God. Amen