<html><body><div>Part 2</div><div><br></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2"> Yet someone said something. Someone may have pointed at or to something in our lives, just as John did, twice, on two consecutive days. Whatever it was for us, it grabbed us and has been dancing in our hearts ever since, no matter what else may have gone on, or been said and done. Even if the person, the event, the experience may seem relatively indistinguishable from anything or anyone else; even something unprepossessing, like that sheep whose mother may have been the only one not to have run away from it; no matter who or what, something has drawn us close. Something has piqued our curiosity, or drawn us forward. Something has brought us to make a commitment, even when there has been a small voice inside or outside of us, saying, “Are you crazy? Have you seen what that whatever looks like? Do you know what you’re getting into?”</font><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>But some chemistry has been discovered.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Attraction. What other explanation can there be for being a Christian? But what does this mean? It's like this: having fallen in love, other values, goals, dreams, ideas, interpretations of reality fade in light of the allure of the unknown.<br><i><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“‘Where are you staying? Where do you abide? Where are you going?’</i> The enigmatic answer is, <i>Come and see.</i> No simple answer suffices for the complex, beautiful, and terrifying transformation awaiting the questioner. ‘</span><i><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>If you COME<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>with me you will SEE where and how I dwell’.</span></i><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> There's nothing else I can do but go and perceive along the way that which is completely new, one-ing myself to luminous truth along this mysterious journey.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>That’s how Suzanne Guthrie put it.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“The season of Epiphany draws the Christian through light, perception, insight, from the star at the manger, to the theophany over the Jordan to the theophany on the holy mountain to see the presence of God (almost) 'face to face'. The story of the disciples, the story of Christ, IS the story of the Christian experience from baptism to transfiguration and beyond, into death and resurrection. This call toward our spiritual destiny may come even within the most obscure circumstances. Always implied is the message of Pentecost, the necessity of sharing the wisdom derived from the encounter with the Holy.” <sup>2</sup><br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I like that last thought of Suzanne’s, reminding us that encounters with the Holy <b><u>DON’T</u></b> always, in fact, seldom come with a brass band, or a blinding light, or anything beyond what’s around us every day – a man walking through the Market; someone shopping on the same aisle at the grocery store; a person sitting in front or behind us in a theatre. The Holy <b><u>DOES</u></b> sneak up on us sometimes precisely because we aren’t expecting it. Suzanne describes the way that we’ve been drawn into a relationship despite what could go wrong, what could bring difficulty.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And this is not simply a one-on-one event. It can be used to describe all those with whom we come into contact on our faith journeys.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Maybe this is the point that we should recognize about ourselves. I don’t know if Andrew and his friend thought about the fact that they were on a faith journey. I don’t know how often <b><u>WE</u></b> think that we’re on a faith journey. <b><u>WE</u></b> may think we’re running out to get the milk that we forgot to pick up; or to take back something we borrowed from the neighbor; or, well, it was so snowy and icy last week that maybe I should go to church this Sunday just to see what’s going on, what I may have missed hearing about.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It’s not publicized front-and-centre in the Gospel here, but it’s obvious after-the-fact that everything those two young men were doing had a spiritual, a faith effect on their lives and on the lives of every single other person with whom they’d come in contact for the rest of their lives.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Just so with us, we may seldom think about it, but everything we do, every word we speak, every thought we have, every person with whom we interact or with whom we refuse to interact – absolutely everything in our lives speaks about our spiritual journey. In fact, those who openly disavow having the slightest use for the spiritual or faith in their lives, they too are making a spiritual journey, if only from the standpoint of a lack of acceptance of it. They may well be saying, “I don’t need you.” And, for some reason, at that particular point in their lives, they’re saying, “I don’t have need of you, or anything outside of myself.”<br></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Something with the lives of Andrew and his friend, something within our lives, even if this is the only time we’ll stand or sit here, something has aroused our curiosity.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“These two disciples seem to ’fall in love’ with Jesus; his words to them reflect the invitation of divine wisdom,” as Bruno Barnhart put it. <sup>3</sup> Jesus’ words here are the first that are recorded He said, with the exception of His comments to His parents when He was about twelve.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Somehow, when Jesus was pointed out by John the Baptist, somehow, the aura of the Holy Spirit, or the effect of the Holy Spirit’s anointing Jesus at His baptism, surrounded Him and drew His first disciples to Him, albeit unknowingly.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Somehow, when we meet someone; or perhaps it’s more useful to think of when another meets us; somehow, we’re called to be prepared to show how God is present in us and is blessing us all the time, using us to make an impact on others’ lives.<br></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Possibly without our knowing it, Jesus is saying to us right now, “What are you looking for?”, knowing that we need Him, what He will say to us, what He will do for us.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We have no idea where walking this road may take us. We have no idea what dirty, rough paths we may have to take, what awkward, what difficult people we may meet. And, it seems Jesus is content to give us an invitation to follow and walk with Him – or not. Once again, the choice is ours.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>NOTES:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>[1]</span></span></span></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>“Eschatological symbols – sheep”,</span></i><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> from <span style="margin: 0px;">Art in the Christian Tradition</span>, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. </span><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> <a href="http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54426"><font color="#0000ff">http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54426</font></a></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>2</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal"><span lang="EN" style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>“At the Edge of the Enclosure - </span></i><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;'>Soulwork Toward Sunday: Self-Guided Retreat Epiphany 2 (Year A) - Come and See”</span></i></strong><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></i></strong><span lang="EN" style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>15<sup>th</sup> January, 2017 Suzanne Guthrie</span><span lang="EN" style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; display: none;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; display: none;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; display: none;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/epiphany2a.html"><font color="#0000ff">http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/epiphany2a.html</font></a> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>3</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>The Good Wine: Reading John from the Center” </span></i><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>by Bruno Barnhart. Wipf and Stock Publisher, Eugene, Oregon. Previously published by Paulist Press © 1993. Page 246.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 102, 33); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Wine-Reading-John-Center/dp/1606083406"><font color="#0000ff">https://www.amazon.com/Good-Wine-Reading-John-Center/dp/1606083406</font></a><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Quoted by Suzanne Guthrie, Op. cit.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><font face="Calibri" size="3"> </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><font face="Calibri" size="3"> </font></p></div></body></html>