The message is that if a kingdom is divided it will fall.
This is a lesson that the church has failed to learn, with the inevitable results.
The creation of internal boundaries is a recipe for disaster
and of external boundaries a recipe for rejection.

Jesus was not driven by the usual human motives in what he did.
His view was inclusive, seeking to knock down boundaries
including those created by mental or physical illness.

It is in the removal of boundaries that war and hatred will cease,
people will learn to care for others, sickness will be no more
and the breadth of the Kingdom of God will grow.
Isolationism has the contrary effect.

It is a salutary message for our churches, but difficult to implement.
How can we reflect it into what we do without separating ourselves
from those who behave otherwise?
Difficult!

The divisions within the church repel the unbeliever,
expose cliques and interest groups oriented to power rather than to service
yet, if "I" am right surely I should persuade others to join me
and lead them to new pastures, as Jesus did.

Inclusiveness is neither easy nor straightforward.
Yet we canfind common ground if we keep the message simple.
If we approach each other as children, rather than as testosterone filled adults;
as Jesus told us to, as he showed us in his life;
putting aside "me" for "us",
in every situation.