Dear Folks -
Last summer I had planned to take some time off and spend it in much
different ways than events dictated. One of the unexpected things that
happened during that time was Ike. Ordinary Life was cancelled for
that Sunday. The speaker scheduled to speak was The Reverend Bill
Lawson.
We wanted to reschedule Bill to speak for us on a Sunday when I could
be present to introduce him and, perhaps, for the to have a bit of a
dialogue. I'm grateful for Joan Scales for arranging this.
I have known Bill for well over 40 years. In 1967 he and I gave a
dialogue sermon together called "The Salt and Pepper of the Earth." It
made the papers! He is an amazing speaker and has an incredible record
in the field of social justice and civil rights. Among other things,
he founded the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church that now has over 7000
members. He is now retired from that position and now teaches at Rice
University. In 1996 the Houston community honored him with the
creation of a non-profit advocacy agency called the William A Lawson
Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
The title he has given for what he will share with us this week in
Ordinary Life is -
"Bridging the Gap Between the Powerful and the Powerless to Achieve
Peace and Prosperity."
Trust me on this: you don't want to miss hearing Bill Lawson speak.
Much love,
Bill Kerley
Click here to Download 20090208.mp3
Read moreDear Folks -
Richard Rohr, the person I call my "spiritual teacher" - that's why I
quote him so much - calls the Sermon on the Mount "Jesus' Plan for a
New World." The values of this world are very upside-down from those
of the culture in which we live. So, for at least this week and the
next, we are going to talk about the beliefs and "new laws" of the
world as Jesus saw it.
For starters I want to recommend that you do something, especially if
you want to feel hopeful about our future. Go to the following link
and listen to the story. It will take you less than five minutes and
will touch your heart.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99478226
One of the beliefs that matters is that everybody belongs and that
everybody matters. In our sea of affluence we can forget those who
have so little. I am going to take advantage of the fact that Dr. Don
Thomas, our connection with AIDS work in Malawi, is in town this week.
He and I are going to have a dialogue in Ordinary Life this week about
the current status of the work in Malawi and about how to address the
issue of poverty in a world where three billion people live on less
than two dollars a day and two billion of those have no access the
clean drinking water.
Much love,
Bill Kerley
Click here to Download audio 20090125.mp3
Read moreDear Folks -
Little Johnny asked his mother, "Is it true that we are here to help
others?" His mother assured him that this was indeed the purpose of
life. He thought about this for a moment and then asked, "Then, why
are the others here?"
The fact of the matter is that often the world seems divided between
those who have and those who don't, between the powerful and the
powerless. In approaching the Christmas event this year I've been
raising before you in my talks two questions: What are we waiting for?
And, how shall we wait?"
Most of the time most of us are shielded from the dreadful conditions
of those on this planet who suffer from extreme poverty. We seldom
bring into our consciousness the fact that we live in a world where
three billion people live on less than two dollars a day. All of them
live in less than sanitary conditions. One billion of them have no
sanitary drinking water to drink at all. One statistic I found said
that a child dies every 15 seconds from lack of water to drink. We
have no idea what this is like.
Surely, one of the ways we are to wait must address this or whatever
claims we can make to be loving and compassionate people are hollow.
Saint Francis is alleged to have said, "Preach the Gospel always and,
if necessary, use words."
This week in Ordinary Life I want to talk about going beyond words in
how we are to wait. I've asked some of our class members who have been
directly involved in "doing" to join me. I hope you will as well. I
look forward to seeing and being with you this week in Ordinary Life.
Much love,
Bill Kerley
click here to Download 20081215.mp3
Read moreDear Folks -
I have asked Dr. Don Maple to speak for us this week. Don is a
member of St. Paul's and a retired Methodist minister. The title of
his talk is -
"Evolution in Scripture and Life"
This is what he has to say about it:
Following on the O.L. theme of "awakening," we will examine
Scripture as the religious community that wrote it matured in their
understanding of the forces that they saw shaping their lives and
named them God. Using Stephen Gould's concept of punctuated
equilibrium we'll think about how that idea suggests that change comes
gradually and at propitious occasions. Life moves along on a flat
plane and then usually in the life of an individual punctuation or a
transitional moment occurs and a step in depth understanding happens.
Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, etc. had such moments.
We will compare the macrocosmic understanding of God in the Hebrew
Bible with a similar microcosmic process toward maturity in our own
lives. Hopefully this will help us see more clearly that the Bible
speaks of our life journey in surprising ways. Using the Christian
Bible concept of teleios (maturity) we will see what Jesus is calling
for on a central theme in His teaching. (Agape love is mature love).
The purpose of this teaching is to help us understand that the
Hebrew Bible God of sometimes vengeance and war-like desires (see
Jericho) is not a different God from Jesus' God of grace and love, but
rather represents a growing maturity in the religious community's
ability to name what they experience. Not only is the Old Testament
God the same God as the New Testament names, but that God is still in
the process of being revealed. I call this thought "developmental
theology," the basis of my doctoral work.
Don is a solid and good person. I hope you are able to attend and
take advantage of this opportunity to hear him.
Much love,
Bill Kerley
Download 20061116.mp3
Read more