koan time is running short

it is tempting to say something about the foursquare nature of the inner court of the vision of the temple in ezekiel (ch.40:47) and compare that to the quadralateral as somehow being mystically related to each other. (well, i guess i did say it, didn't it?) they do seem related to me, in that i find the "sides" of the chicago-lambeth quadrilateral to be authentic parts of the new temple which we are called to be, a temple of living stones, even if i do recognize that it is difficult for us to agree on their meaning or implementation.

but i do trust the promise in ezekiel 36:26: "i shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; i shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead." and i trust the prophecy of the dry bones in the thirty-seventh chapter. both of these reassuring passages occur after the wide-spread condemnation of both israel and the other nations, and before the description of the rebuilt temple.

another way of understanding the unity of the church is found in the 1916 discipline of the methodist episcopal church:

"the methodist episcopal church has always believed that the only infallible proof of the legitimacy of any branch of the christian church is its ability to seek and to save the lost, and to disseminate the pentecostal spirit and life." (new york: methodist book concern, 1916, p. 20)

and as roland allen so forcefully reminds us, the measure of the authenticity of the church in the book of acts was that "the holy spirit came down on all . . . ." (acts 10:44)

one of the many scary things that happens to ezekiel is that "the spirit lifted . . . up and took" him (2:14). almost certainly the main hindrance to our recognizing the oneness of the body of christ, his church, is the fear that if we are open to the wonder of the thing the holy spirit will lift us up and take us. we are comfortable where we are. why should we want to live in the kingdom of god?