Are you xenophobic? I know the word gets tossed around pretty freely these days. In a popular movie, some years ago, a Greek father laments that his daughter is dating a non-greek. He wails, “A xenos? You are dating a xenos?” The word means stranger. So xenophobic means fear of strangers.
One result of Babel was the differentiation of languages and the distancing of people groups. Absence from each other has not endeared us to each other. We tend to like people who are like us. If we have only ever been around people who speak our language, we may fear others who do not talk like us or even assume the worst about them. The Greeks named all non-Greeks Barbarians because they said their speech sounded like “barbarbarbar.”
In the New Testament, at Pentecost, God reversed this curse. Suddenly people heard the good news of Jesus in their own languages. Later, John shows us a glimpse of heaven in Revelation 7:17 when every nation, tribe, people, and language will sing together with one voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
One of my friends has chosen a vision for his church which says, “Making Houston more like Heaven by Helping Houstonians become more like Jesus.” This is a good vision for all the churches. Is it our vision? There is no need to fear people who are different. God will make us all one in Christ.
