Our collect for today speaks of God's household as the Church. I suggest that the Church is too small a box to hold God's household. The Creator and Source of all that is, the Lover of all creation, has a household without limits, where there is always room for more, where all are welcome, all races, genders, ethnicities, religions, and any other aspect we may devise to separate us.

We are familiar with the biblical terms "the Kingdom of God" and "the Kingdom of heaven" (see today's gospel for an example). In a democratic country such as ours, however, where our foundation rested on rebellion against royal authority, it seems the term "kingdom" doesn't fit our reality. For me, "household" is a more accommodating metaphor for the indwelling, encompassing presence of God in our midst. We are all children of God, created in God's own image.(Gen.1:27) In God's household, we are, each and all, nurtured and loved, encouraged to grow in wisdom and strength, gifted to bless one another for building up the household of Love.

As in any human household, siblings have their differences, and so it is in God's household. With such an infinite household, we may have difficulty recognizing our kinship with one another who seems so different; yet in the Beloved's eyes we are all the same, each unique in particularity but alike in the Essence of the Divine. As Saint Peter learned from his noonday vision, "God shows no partiality".(Acts 10:34) Would that our hearts would be as changed as Peter's so that we could begin to experience the Household of God in all its fullness and its richness, with no exclusions, no separations.