From Lauds (Morning Prayer)

Ephesians 2:19-22 You are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone. As every structure is aligned on him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord; and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit.

There are innumerable barriers we build up between ourselves — separating God’s children along arbitrary man-made lines of nationality, language, race, party, creed, sexual orientation and gender identity, and so many more.

At the cross, Christ tore down these barriers, and Paul reminds us we are not to allow them to be any impediment between us and all others of God’s creation. Whatever lines we draw between ourselves in the terms of this world, our ultimate and only true citizenship is of the Kingdom of God.

We are called, then, not to separation, holding ourselves above others — not in the terms of this world, nor by faith or creed — but to approach all as fellow children of God, holding out to them the light and love granted to us by Jesus Christ.

O Lord Jesus, give us the strength and openness of heart to set aside our worldly divisions, and to see and love all your children as You love them, without hesitation and in the fullness of grace. Amen.