The kingdom of heaven has no dividing borders. The world we live in is a crazy-quilt of nations, each surrounded by clearly defined and fiercely defended borders. Furthermore, our world displays thousands of cultures, each with its languages and traditions, its rich and poor, its progressive and conservative. Can you imagine a more diverse picture?


In the midst of all this diversity, the kingdom of God is formed, a kingdom in which all are welcome, a kingdom “quilted” together by our color-loving, variety-making, creative God. It’s a kingdom whose citizens are blind to racial, cultural or national differences. After all, they are not in the kingdom on the basis of culture or family but through the merits of Christ’s atoning work.


Jesus urges all in His kingdom to love and accept one another as brothers and sisters in the faith. Reach out in love to all people who are washed in the same fountain. As our text above states, we will be one in heaven. So why not be one on the earth? That is our challenge and our joy.