Starter Prayer:  "God of Israel, Samaria, Sidon, and Syria, are you really all the same God?  Can I allow you to be free, or should you follow our rules and our theology?"  (From Wondrous Encounters by Richard Rohr)

Read Luke 4:24-30

Fr. Rohr says:  We will kill God if he is not our God, and does not say it in our way, and inside of our group's language.  Religion which was supposed to be life and healing for the world has too often become death and boundary-keeping for the few.

We may start out thinking that our principles and values establish boundaries that are good and necessary.  They define what we are willing to consider.  They help us distinguish between what is negotiable and what is non negotiable.

I suppose it is an exercise (a good exercise) in self awareness and self definition to say (with conviction) this is what I stand for, or this is something I want to know more about, or this is my "take" on this.  Having a boundary of where I end and where you begin supports clarity and truthful relationships -- but whenever there is a boundary between us it really does need to be pliable, even semi-permeable.

The "do not enter" sign needs to be on movable hinges, because if it is not movable, the idea that is not acceptable may begin to have a face.  And once what is excluded from our realm of hospitality or love has a face we are no longer following Christ.

How quickly we can teeter from being clear and bold in what we say yay or nay to to being in a state of defensive exclusion (or superiority).  

God help us all.... and thank God, if we but ask, God does.  That is how huge and vast and deep and broad the space is when (if we are willing) we call upon the name of God (whatever that name is) when we are beginning to judge the "other".