A Bazillion Expressions of Discipleship and Counting

The key to understanding the story of Pentecost in Acts 2, which is a story that the Church tells to describe the advent of the Holy Spirit, is in focusing much more on what is not said or revealed than what is said or revealed.  What happens is that the Disciples are empowered with God's Spirit.  What doesn't happen is specific instructions.  They are not told exactly what to do.  God's Spirit did not provide a detailed set of regulations.

We are not given specific instructions about how to live out our calling as disciples.  We have scripture, we have the example set by Christ, but beyond that, it is up to us.  Every person is different.  We have different skills, different perspectives, different experiences.  Consequently, there have been a bazillion expressions of discipleship

Religious institutions have,  ironically, tried to establish uniformity in discipleship.  We think that every disciple should think the same and act the same and live out their discipleship in the same way.  Based upon Pentecost, this is the exact opposite of what God intended.  Pentecost happened in the way that it did because God wanted it that way.  People express themselves in this world in a bazillion different ways because God wants it that way.  Each and every person who has lived in this world is unique and every day is unique, and God wanted it that way. 

God wants each and every one of us, as we live according to Christ's example, to make our discipleship our own, based upon our own unique experiences and perspectives.  Our story will be a unique story.  It's a little like a bunch of disciples all speaking in different languages at the same time.  Its a wonderful baffling cacophony.

Revelation's Perspective on the Nature of the Principalities and Powers of this World

The Book of Revelation has a lot to say about the nature of human culture, or what Revelation refers to as the "principalities and powers of this world."As always, Revelation is both a commentary about John's own first century Roman world, and a vision of the world that always has been and the world that now is.  The word that is translated as the title of the book is literally "unveiling." Revelation removes a veil that has covered our eyes from the foundation of the world to reveal something that was always evident.

The veil that covered the eyes of John's age was the nature of Rome.  Rome presented itself as a servant of God, the Lamb who sacrifices Himself for the sins of the world.  Rome is characterized as a noble animal, like the other nations of the world.  Rome's public relations machine spent bazillions to convince its conquered and subjected territories of Rome's virtue.  But underlying the facade that Rome presented was the truth that Rome was the servant of the tempter, who is caricatured in Revelation as the dragon.  The veil that Rome placed over its own eyes hid Rome from itself and its subject territories from its cruelty and domination.

John's vision is both a snapshot of the nature of the principalities and powers of John's own age, and an unveiling of the nature of the principalities and powers that have ruled this world from the beginning and still rule the world.  This is a scathing indictment of the nations.  But John's vision is also one of radical hope and optimism, because Revelation also reveals that God's vision for the nations is that they will come to God's light and be redeemed.  Revelation ends, in fact, with an image of the nations of the world and God's kingdom being one, and the world being so full of God's light that there is no darkness at all.