Coming Clean

Dear Ones -

Last week I introduced the notion of power in talking about "demon possession." Though we don't likely use such language, we each know what it is like to be possessed - the word I use is "captured." We also know what it feels like to be both unaccepted and unacceptable.

These issues were powerful and cultural shaping matters for the society in which Jesus lived. They also have extraordinary relevance for both our inner and outer lives. This is what I will be amplifying on this week in Ordinary Life. I'm giving my talk this title:

Coming Clean

I hope, if you are in the Houston area, to see you this week in Ordinary Life.

Bill Kerley

Download - Click Here for Coming Clean Text File

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Going Beyond Conventional Wisdom

Dear Folks -

One of the way scholars determine what is or is not a likely authentic teaching of Jesus is the frequency it appears in the sources available to us. The one I based my Ordinary Life talk on this week appears six times in the documents available to us. It is an odd saying and one that has been not only misunderstood but also abused. The saying is this -

Those who have more shall be given to them. Those who have not what little they do have will be taken from them.

I contend that this is a call for us to live beyond both the desires of the ego and the prevailing cultural "wisdom" of our time. We must continually go deeper into ourselves and further into the future.

The full text I used is below - even the ending I didn't get to because the fire alarm went off near the end of the talk causing an abrupt ending to the gathering.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to Download text 20111016.pdf

 

Click here to Download audio 20111016.mp3

 

 

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Befriending The Enemy Within

Dear Folks -

This week was the last time for Ordinary Life to meet in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Next week we will return to our home space in a dramatically renovated Jones Building on the campus of St. Paul's.

We are profoundly grateful to the MFA for their hospitality during the past seven months. I am grateful to all of you who helped make this transition period as easy as it was. And, I'll be glad to be "back home."

This week I talked about how what this world needs of more of God and less of us. That is to say, we need to stop projecting the unconscious, repressed and unowned aspects of ourselves on to others "out there." It is our shadow selves that creates evil in the world and not our so-called enemies. This is not to say that we don't have enemies. It is to say that until we own our part, our complicity, in having created the systems in which we live, we don't stand a chance for creating a more peaceful world.

That's a bit of a summary of what I talked about this week. The text I spoke from is below.

* * *

If you would like to participate in an effort to increase interest in, awareness of and attendance at Ordinary Life, we have created a Twitter account for Ordinary Life.

You can follow Ordinary Life on Twitter at

www.twitter.com/ordinarylifenow

This will be a way, for those of you who have Twitter accounts to "follow" Ordinary Life and effortlessly pass on invites and information about what our gathering is about.

Ordinary Life is also now on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Life/170099756389305?ref=hnav

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to Download text 20110821.pdf

Click here to Download Presentation Slides 8:21:11 Befriending the Enemy.pdf

 

Click here to Download audio 20110821.mp3

 

 

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