SUNDAY LECTURE | Tidings of Comfort and Joy

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for December 17, 2023

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Dear Ones -

This was one of those times when “you had to be there” to experience our time in Ordinary Life this week. I began by keeping a promise I made at the Christmas party to do “something magical.” Thanks to Arlene Wells for her assistance. When the video is posted, maybe you will be able to see it. Then, thanks to Susan Peterson who loaned me the book, I read and showed some of the images from a most delightful book, “Jesus’ Christmas Party.”

“Repetition is the mother of all learning” is, I believe, an old Greek saying. The truth is that in learning the core principles of any philosophy, repetition is inevitable. We learn and appreciate at our different levels of development and at the different eras of the history and culture in which we live. We hear the same stories and truths but, hopefully, at deeper and deeper levels. This is certainly true with Jesus and stories both told about him and stories that he told. I amplified on this and on a couple of key psychological realities we need to keep ever in mind. The class ends with Howard Thurman’s “the work of Christmas” and a wish for a Merry Christmas and peace on earth.

That’s a brief summary of this week’s time in Ordinary Life.

I called the time -

“Tidings of Comfort and Joy”

The audio version of the talk has some differences from the text I spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and the audio version of the talk using the links below.

Our podcast, “In Between,” can be accessed through the Ordinary Life web site.

If you would like to know how to make a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here for video instructions.

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to read or download the text of the talk, click here.

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

To download or just listen to today’s talk, use the audio player below.

To watch the video of today’s talk, you can click on the YouTube video link below.

'Twas Two Weeks Before Christmas

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for December 10, 2023

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Dear Ones -

I remind those of you in the Houston area that the Ordinary Life Christmas party is this Friday night. We gather at Anderson Fair at 6:30 p.m. Click here for details.

Most everyone in the Western World has heard or knows some version of the Christmas story. Whether they got what they know from “It’s a Charlie Brown Christmas” or from seeing a Christmas pageant presented at a Christmas Eve service, most people have been exposed to some version of the story. But, do we really know it? I asked Dr. Holly Hudley to co-teach with me this week and she set the stage for our time by sharing a delightful story about a conversation twins had in the womb before being born. I encouraged everyone to get and read the book by Crossan and Borge, “The First Christmas.” The birth stories are about the theology the child and not the biology of the mother. Holly invites us to use the characters in the story to sew how and where they reflect and touch on our own spiritual journey from darkness into light.

That’s a brief summary of this week’s time in Ordinary Life.

We called the time -

’Twas Two Weeks Before Christmas

The audio version of the talk has some differences from the text we spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and the audio version of the talk using the links below.

Our podcast, “In Between,” can be accessed through the Ordinary Life web site.

If you would like to know how to make a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here for video instructions.

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to read or download the text of the talk, click here.

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

To listen to or download the audio recording of today’s talk, you can use the audio player below. There was a short video clip played at the conclusion of class today, but the audio did not record correctly.
Use this LINK to watch the video.

WEEKLY PODCAST | In Between.148

Part of the goal of the two Christmas Stories in the New Testament is to ground Jesus’ lineage back to Moses (in Matthew) and Adam (in Luke). Hence the name the Son of Man. If Jesus can be traced back to the first Hebrew prophet and the first human, he must be “special.” But here’s the deal. We are all descended from the first human, and further back from that, the first sign of life, and further back from that, the first building blocks of life. This story makes Jesus so distinctly human: born to a woman in a barn surrounded by earthy, dirty animals and shepherds. This is also the political nature of the story, for what son of God would be born in such lowly circumstances? Evidently, the one we are trying to know…the one who is not so different from us.

After last Sunday’s lesson, someone sent me an interpretation of Ave Maria, and my two favorite lines are:

“Ave, O you who carried Him Who Carries All! Ave, O Space of the Spaceless God!”

Spaceless God is non dual - neither here nor there but also everywhere. This is the capacity of the energy shared between us, the capacity of love - to be beyond, between, and around us. Everywhere all at once. We are all everywhere all at once.

Go and be love this season. Be the light in the dark night. This is how we will change the world.

WEEKLY PODCAST | In Between.147

It will be impossible for us to condense the Christmas Story into 45 minutes, but what we hope to do is leave you with enough spinning around in your imagination to mull over it for a little while.

We are invited into the story to imagine ourselves there and ask what role(s) do we see ourselves in. What role(s) do we aspire to see ourselves in? The nativity represents the birth of transformation, and the story is made more radical after Jesus’ death. He needed a miraculous entry into the world just as he needed a miraculous exit. At the time of Jesus’ birth, stories about virgin births were not entirely unusual, so why has this one stuck with us for so long?

One of the ways we can engage with “truth” is by exploring the multiple layers it offers, and though it may sound ironic, the more truths a story has, the “truer” it becomes. Do not confuse true with factual, by the way! We hope to see you Sunday and can’t wait to hear what character(s) you identify with!