i had a dream

one of the readings from this morning's daily office (i'm using the 1943 lectionary of the episcopal church in the u.s.a.) included 1 corinthians 3:1-4:

"And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, ‘I belong to Paul’, and another, ‘I belong to Apollos’, are you not merely human?"

after reading it, i thought about what it is like to come into eureka springs. there are signs advertising the first church of paul, the first church of appolos, the first church of wesley, the first church of luther, the first church of calvin, even the seventh day adventist church--i don't know what happened to the first six.

it was a very cold morning, and after morning prayer i took a nap, and i dreamed. i dreamed all the congregations had signs that said first or second or third or whatever church in eureka springs, a congregation of the one church, holy, apostolic, catholic.

i read a little book recently by a priest in the church of england called and you visited me, in which he attributes the lack of power of the contemporary church to its many divisions. i think fr. martin is exactly right. sadly i hear, nearly every day, of more divisions, rather than more recognition of the true nature of christ's body, described in the rest of today's epistle reading:

"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labour of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.
. . .
"Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple."

sometimes i wonder if my brothers and sisters who are looking for the rapture are partly right: right in there being a rapture, but wrong to look forward to it. i wonder sometimes if it has already happened. i remember jesus' enigmatic question, "when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" luke 18:8b), and i wonder if he will find not faith, but jealousy and quarreling.