PROSKUENEO – Kairos Church

When I was 12 years old, a former babysitter of mine spoke at our church about being a missionary in China. She brought some trinkets from the village she lived in and spoke a few phrases in Mandarin, and my pre-teen self thought it was socially risky and personally cool. I grew up in a small town with not a lot of cultural diversity, and this was one of the first times I remember seeing a glimpse into God’s wide world.Whether your exposure to other languages and cultures was through a neighbor with a different ethnic background or studying abroad or reading the international section of the news, it’s not hard to see that language and culture can be inherently divisive. Understanding and being understood are the building blocks of relationship, and when communication is strained, deep relationship must be intentionally fostered. Linguistic and cultural differences can mask the human-ness of the other. It’s why we can numbly watch crime or war on the news because when it affects someone we don’t understand on the other side of the world – or even on the other side of town – it’s hard to personally identify.One of the first stories in the Bible is about the tower of Babel in which God responds to the people’s arrogance in building a tower “to make a name for themselves” by confusing their language so that they would not understand each other. In this story, languages are the barriers that frustrate the people from working together.As Christians, we are called to find our identity in Jesus above all else. Before we are anything – our nationality, our race, our position – we are His. In this way, the Body of Christ can transcend individual identities to find its collective identity in Jesus first. This does not mean that culture, language, or race are insignificant. It just means that they are subject to our primary identity in Jesus. In this way, we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the goodness of God who called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9).When I try to imagine worship that comprehensively honors God, in whom all identities can find their fullest expression, I can’t help but imagine an Atlanta United game with a stadium full of people from every nation praising God with diverse and varied vocabularies that only in a united cacophony can begin to describe the nuance of his goodness and love. One of the most beautiful depictions of worship is from Revelation 7:9: “After this I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”Our effort to worship God in a way that transcends the barriers of our language and culture feels like one redemptive step toward using our words to lift up God rather than ourselves, find our primary identity in Jesus, and worship Him comprehensively as the body of Christ.This Sunday at Kairos is Global Sunday (November 17th). We have invited Proskuneo Ministries, based in Clarkston, as guest leaders in worship. Their mission is to help the body of Christ see, live, and share the vision of multicultural Jesus-centered worshiping communities among all peoples on earth as it is in heaven. Sunday will be a practical way for us to talk about our mission partners and celebrate what God is doing in the world. It’s also an opportunity to join in God’s global perspective as we worship alongside people unlike us right here in our city. May God’s whole wide world envelop you at Kairos this week, and may we be sensitive to the ways God calls us to embrace that world as his Kingdom breaks through.

– Mary Lynn Dalton