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?

SUNDAY LECTURE | The Wisdom of Discomfort

January 14, 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 14, 2024

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Dear Ones -

This week I invited Dr. Holly Hudley to dialogue with me about the new theme I’m introducing for this year -

Living in the Sacred Stream

In order for the stream to maintain its identity, it must keep moving. You can’t put the stream in a bucket and take it home. This reality is discomforting to some. A fact is, however, that all good teaching is disruptive. Every single items that gives us comfort and pleasure is the result of someone at some point being uncomfortable with the way things were. An additional discomfort comes with the awareness that we do this spiritual work with no idea of getting something out of it. However, if we do get into the stream with such a mindset, the payoff is tremendous.

We called the time -

The Wisdom of Discomfort

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

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 download today’s talk, use the audio player below.

SUNDAY LECTURE | Moving Into the Stream

January 7, 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 7, 2024

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Dear Ones -

This week in Ordinary Life I introduced the theme I intend to pursue this year -

“Living in the Sacred Stream”

I mention, among many other sources, the book by Kathleen Singh, “Unbinding,” that led me to this emphasis. Living in the Sacred Stream involves at least three things-the cosmic stream of “what is,”
the stream within, mostly unconscious, that connects us to each other,
the stream that is the source of the teachings of our tradition. For us this involves dealing with the person and teachings of Jesus.

You can see the numerous sources I mentioned by either reading the text or viewing the presentation slides. I ended the time by showing an illusion of a box that contained a box that became a container for the box that was within it. (You have to see the video to understand that.) I called the time -

Moving Into the Stream

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.