Being Enlightened About Being Enlightened

March 16, 2025 Bill Kerley

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

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Summary of Ordinary Life for March 16, 2025

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Dear Ones -

The long-anticipated time with Nadia Bolz-Weber is this weekend. For details see the Ordinary Life website. We will have a full room on Saturday so come early.

Just to alert those of you who plan to attend the Saturday event in person: if you want a book signed - Blue Willow Bookstore will have some of her books there - please come early. Nadia has requested that though she loves to visit with people, she doesn’t have energy for that after events. She will also be preaching both services at St. Paul’s on Sunday and she and I will have a dialogue during the Ordinary Life time that day.

I called the teaching I offered in Ordinary Life this week -

Being Enlightened About Enlightenment

I can fall into the belief that if everyone saw things like I do, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in today. Of course, others who differ from me believe the same thing. So, why don’t we all see alike? Answer: Our biases. Seeing clearly is important because our world is drifting more and more into authoritarianism. Jesus did his teachings in the midst of an authoritarian world. Jesus’ teachings are not about our being better people but, rather, they are to help us see something so new, so against what we have always heard, that we cannot rely on our older images of what is and what is not.

That’s a brief summary. The audio/video versions of the talk has some differences from the text I spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and links to the audio and video version of the talk using the links below.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

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

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 watch the video recording of today’s talk, click on the YouTube link below.

Okay. Not Okay.

March 9, 2025 Bill Kerley

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

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Summary of Ordinary Life for March 9, 2025

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Dear Ones -

If you have not registered for the time Natia Bolz-Weber will be with us, I encourage you to do so. All people who register for the event will receive a link prior to the event that will allow for live-streaming. So that even if you live in Houston or near by and can’t attend the event in person, you will be able to participate that way. To learn more about and register for this event, click here.

This Saturday evening there is an Ordinary Life Happy hour. The time is 6:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the home of Stan and Shirley Beyer; 502 Park Trail Lane. More details will be in the preview you’ll receive Friday morning.

This week in Ordinary Life I used a line from a poem to set the stage for the teaching. The line is “our world is rife with desperation and ripe with joy.” You’ll find the entire poem in the text.

Following one of the narratives of Jesus we learn that the wayless way seeks to push us further out and deeper within at the same time. We must also be mindful that the audience to whom Jesus taught and who embraced him and his teachings were people he referred to as “the least of these.” Jesus became for them a guiding force, a companion, a protector, and a sustainer. For us this means, among other things, that the test of true faith is how much it lets us see and how much it stops us from denying, resisting, ignoring aspects of what is really going on in our world(s) and what is real.

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

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

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

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

Unfinished Business

March 2, 2025 Bill Kerley

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

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Summary of Ordinary Life for March 2, 2025

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Dear Ones -

All people who register for the Nadia Bolz-Weber event will receive a link prior to the event that will allow for live-streaming. So that even if you live in Houston or near by and can’t attend the event in person, you will be able to participate that way. To learn more about and register for this event, click here.

This week Dr. Holly Hudley taught Ordinary Life. I am grateful to and for her! Her teaching was titled -

Unfinished Business

In the face of the turmoil going on in our country Holly spoke to the question many people ask, “What can I do?” She also lifted up aspects of our life, historic and current, we might not otherwise see. The full text is worth the reading, even if you heard it in person. The text is linked below.

I asked Holly to teach because I gave the sermon at both services at St. Paul’s. You can view or hear the sermon on the St. Paul’s website and I’m including a pdf on the Ordinary Life website page for this Sunday. The link is below.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

To read or download the text from which Holly spoke, click here.

To read or download the sermon “Words Matter,” click here.

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

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

If you would like to listen to or download today’s talk, you can use the audio player below.

Thinking Critically - Living Faithfully

February 23, 2025 Bill Kerley

Dear Ones -

I stole the title of my teaching this week from the masthead of The Christian Century -

Thinking Critically - Living Faithfully

Every hero’s story begins with a challenge. So does the Jesus narrative. The story is referred to as “the temptations of Jesus.” Both Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell have helped me understand this tale better. The temptations of Jesus parallel the three crises that the Jews faced in their wilderness wanderings. We also face these temptations in the need to be effective, to be right, and to be in control. I offer a passage by Hannah Arendt about the effect lies told by our political leaders has on our culture. Walking the wayless way requires critical thinking, courage, and endurance. I also give a brief summary of both progressive and regressive theologies and close with a poem by Rosemary Trommer.

That’s a brief summary. Information about how to find the full text and video are below.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designate your gift. Thank you!

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