Peter, in today’s first lesson, describes the revelatory vision he was given that inspired him to go with the emissaries from the Roman centurion, Cornelius. He came to understand that the Holy One makes no distinction among God’s creatures and neither should he. That truth was confirmed for him when Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit just as had the disciples on Pentecost. Paul too, a former Pharisee who had followed many rules for discriminating one from another, must have had some kind of revelation in his experiences with the Gentiles for him to realize that “There no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal.3:28) and “. . . there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all in all.” (Col.3:11)

In Jesus’ ministry, he lived out God’s all-inclusive love as he healed the lepers, ate with the tax collectors, spoke with women—even the non-Jewish Samaritan and the SyroPhoenician—responded to the Roman Centurion’s plea for his servant’s healing, reaching out to the outsiders, the marginalized in society. He reminded the people in his home town that God had used his prophets over the centuries to open people’s eyes that the Holy One sees no distinction in human beings as “. . .there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. . . . many lepers in Israel at the time of Elisha; and none of them were cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” (Lk.4:26b-27)

Unfortunately, here we are today, regardless of the scriptural basis for accepting that there is no distinction among others in God’s seyes, still focusing our attention, and love, and respect on “same alikes” while assuming others are beyond the pale, ignoring the unity in diversity in the Divine Plan for all creation. When will we ever get on track with the Beloved?