SUNDAY LECTURE | Courage and Endurance

February 4, 2024 Bill Kerley

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

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Summary of Ordinary Life for February 4, 2024

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Dear Ones -

All hero stories begin with a parable of what is yet to come. The Jesus narratives begin with the story of the “temptations of Jesus.” These temptations are parallel to the crises that Moses encountered in the exodus story. Our temptations are - the need to be relevant, right, and in control. Every day we must also deal with the temptations of lethargy and fear. What is required to get into and abide in the Sacred Stream are three things: knowledge and information; courage, and endurance. I called the time -

“Courage and Endurance”

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

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.

In order to listen to or download the audio recording of today’s talk, use the audio player below.

In order to watch the video recording of today’s talk, use the YouTube link below.

WEEKLY PODCAST | In Between.152

February 1, 2024 Bill Kerley

Something that Bill and Holly share is our compulsion to learn and teach. Each of us has said that “teacher” is core to our identity. Lucky for both of us, we get to do this together. Holly is also starting a new vocational practice at The Center for the Healing Arts and Sciences seeing clients for spiritual direction and formation informed by her background in psychology.

Beginning Tuesday, February 12, Leila-Scott Price and I will offer three different groups for women who want to explore spirituality and the self. The three groups are:

Holisitic Wellness: Integrating mind, body, spirit, and relationships. Tuesdays, 11:30-1, beginning February 12.
The Sacred Feminine: An exploration of females sages, mystics, and teachers and their wisdom for today. 12 Wednesdays, 5-6:30 pm, beginning February 21.
Dreams of Creation: An exploration of dreams using multi-media such as collage, writing, painting…No art experience necessary! 8 Thursdays, 1-3 pm, beginning March 21.

If you or someone you know would like to join us, call The Center at (713) 526-4444 to sign up. The hope is to speak and tend to feminine wisdom so that it may grow and bloom alongside the masculine.

Bill will also have some insights to share form the course he is taking with Jim Finley called “Mystical Sobriety.” This life of seeking is never done. There is so much at our fingertips to learn and know!

SUNDAY LECTURE | Splash!

January 21, 2024 Bill Kerley

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

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Summary of Ordinary Life for January 21, 2024

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Dear Ones -

Please register for the Rise Against Hunger program that will take place next Sunday at St. Paul’s. Click here to do that.

If you do register and spend the time we would usually spend attending Ordinary Life, not only can you participate in making the 55,000 meals we hope to package but also you will be registered for the lunch at noon. Next Sunday is a full day at St. Paul’s. There is the Rise Against Hunger Program and it is St. Paul’s 118th anniversary. There will be a Choral Evensong at 4 p.m. that day. We are hoping to have two hundred volunteers to register for this effort.

This week the title I gave to what I offered was -

Splash!

Though we are going to give serious attention and concern to both our chaotic culture and our “shadow selves,” we will be guided in our wading into and in the Sacred Stream by the Jesus narrative. One reason for this is that our culture is affected by both spiritual and religious illiteracy. The 1985 movie “Splash!” is a metaphor for our journey into “another world.” Jesus was a Jewish mystic in the prophetic tradition of his religion. A fact is, however, that prophets offend us and mystics scare us. However, without God we so not really exist and without us God is an abstraction.

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

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 listen to or download the audio recording of today’s talk, use the audio player below.

To watch the video recording of today’s talk, use the YouTube link below.

WEEKLY PODCAST | In Between.151

January 18, 2024 Bill Kerley

Recently I was struck by a note I wrote to myself in a journal nearly 3 years ago. I scrawled, “See Bonhoeffer. Religionless Christianity.” As synchronicity would have it, Bill also came across something related to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Nazi Germany over the last few days, so we dive into the notion of what it might mean to have such a faith - a religionless Christianity.

Endlessly generative, religionless Christianity is “a fully functional theology, rather than a fragment, or historical artifact.” More than anything, Bonhoeffer suggests that the life of Jesus ought to convince us not to believe in a new way, but to live in a new way - “a way of being for others” - in a post-religious era.

In our being-ness, we are to take the form of Jesus, to live as an inclusive humanitarian with a radical belief in the sacred, and I would push that to say in the sacredness of all things. We ought not wait for an exterior prophetic voice but embody prophetic-ness ourselves. Our union with the All is discovered through radical love, so everything that is not love works against our potential for union. What do you think it means to live with a religionless Christianity? One friend of mine, a pastor, wrote that he believes Christianity has forsaken its prophetic voice in favor of identity politics and exclusivity. Can we right this ship? Or do you believe there is a new path upon which we must walk?