Dear Folks -

At the beginning of class Phil Lewis gave me information about a great article about John Dominic Crossan. Since Crossan has just spoken at St. Paul's and has been so influential in and on my own thinking, I'm passing the link to the article on to you. I've read it and it is good:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/02/27/Jesus.scholar/index.html?hpt=C1

* * *

Here is a brief summary of the talk I gave this week in Ordinary Life.

Though we have no factual knowledge about how Jesus began his ministry, the biographies we have about him indicate that his initial and primary interests had to do with the poor, matters of injustice and compassion for those who suffered so because of the oppressive system within and under which they lived. That got me to wondering what the first words of Jesus to people like us might have been. That's what my talk was about this week.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to Download text 20110227.pdf

Click here to Presentation Slides Download 2:27:11 - Gentleness and Compassion.pdf

Click here to Download audio 20110227.mp3

Dear Folks -

Here is a brief summary of the talk I gave this week in Ordinary Life:

We live in a culture dominated by greed and violence. As such, it is easy - indeed! inevitable - for us to be knocked off the path in our spiritual practices and religious rituals. We are tempted to fall for the three "big ones" every day: the need to succeed, the need to be right and the need for control and power. Our work is to stay awake to our true identity and get back on the path of growing in freedom and love.

That's the talk in a nutshell. The full text, slides and audio versions can be found below.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to download text 20110220.pdf

Click here to download 20110220slides

Click here to download audio 20110220.mp3

Dear Folks -

The talk I gave in Ordinary Life this week - Fasting and Feasting - begins with a information about how biblical scholarship has changed our understanding of the Bible over the past two hundred years. I focus specifically on how we know what Jesus did and did not likely say and do. Then I talked about one of the authentic sayings of Jesus and its applicability to us.

The full text follows. The audio version has much more in it. The audio version will be available on the Ordinary Life website.

The text I used for the talk is below.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

 Click here to Download text 20110130.pdf

Click here to download audio 20110130 mp3

The title I gave my talk this week was "Morality versus Mysticism." I dealt with what the saying of Jesus about putting new wine in new wine skins means and its applicability to and for us. In summary, authentic religious work and wise and useful spirituality involves our learning how to put our story into "God's story" rather than the other way around. Jesus was not a morality teacher but a mystical teacher. The full text I used is below. The audio version will be available on the Ordinary Life website. Much love, Bill Kerley

Click here to Download text 20110206.pdf

Click here to Download Presentation Slides 20110206 - Morality Versus Mysticism

Click here to Download audio 20110206.mp3