June 6, 2004

John 16:12-15 

[12] "I still have many things to tell you, but you can't handle them now. [13] But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won't draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. [14] He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. [15] Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I've said, 'He takes from me and delivers to you.' 

<The Message>

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1. What do you have that can be delivered to another? Well, there are physical and symbolic resources; there are thoughts and perspectives; there are interrelationships and communities. All of these can in some way be willed to the next generation. These are included in the Everything of life.

2. The more than Everything of life comes in subtler ways as well – ways that don’t draw attention to the more, but help us catch it, out of the corner of our eye, springing forth. In this we find an “Aha!” moment that begins to make sense out of all the various partialties we have experienced along the way.

3. Through this gentle quietness our friends grow closer to us and we find ourselves revealed as better than we were. While still shrill in our focus upon one aspect or another of what we have to deliver, we find where we were much more limited than we thought in our material, visionary, and connectional resources. This gentle quietness of eternity-long friendship reveals what we are not handling and guides us into the next layer of being more than we have been.