Dear Folks -

I raised a question last week: How do we know God? This week I
raised another: How do we know what we believe to be true? How, for
example, do you know when you are in love? Using an editorial from the
magazine "The Christian Century" to get started, this Ordinary Life
presentation starts out by demonstrating how frank children can be in
their questions about religious matters and ends up exploring Mary
(since this is Advent) as a valid way of knowing the sacred. This is,
of course, an appeal to tradition, aesthetic experience and religious
ritual combined.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Download 20041219.pdf
Download 20041219.mp3

Dear Folks -

Some people confuse Jesus and the Christ. Why not? The title most of us
in this culture have heard the most is "Jesus Christ." When one goes from
talking about the Jesus of history to making a statement of faith about the
Christ of faith it can be confusing. Given the complexities of the English
language it is amazing we don't have more misunderstanding than we do! I
illustrate that in this talk by referring to the words "fast" and "up." Then
I make a statement about what current scholarship says we can "know" about
the Jesus of history. What does it mean then to build from this a religious
affirmation of faith? Borrowing from the work of Marcus Borg, I describe how
a "sacramental understanding of religion" makes sense to me and allows me,
for example, to fully enter the Christmas story.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Download 20041212.pdf

Dear Folks -

In order to get to the "voice prints" of the Jesus of History, we have to
go back to a time before Paul exerted his influence on the shape
Christianity took. When we do, what we find is that what struck people about
Jesus was not his death but his teaching. Also, in this presentation of
Ordinary Life I talk more about the concept of Axial Age and how we are in a
new one that began about 400 years ago. The presentation ends with an
example of how I think we can, given a new understanding of Jesus, still
understand his teaching and connect it to the Christ of Faith.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Download 20041205.pdf
Download 20041205.mp3

Dear Folks -

This week in Ordinary Life I continued pursuing the topic of how the
message of Jesus developed, over time, into a message about Jesus. Is it
possible to dig deep under the cumulative tradition and recover the message
of Jesus? If so, what is it? How and why did these developments take place?
These are some of the questions I'll be dealing with for a while as well as
what practical implications and applications can we make out of all of this.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Download 20041128.pdf