Ordinary Life Podcast

Digging Christmas

Dear Folks -

The title of the "life talk" this week is "Digging Christmas."

To "dig" Christmas has, for me, two meanings:

First, to understand.

Second, to delve deeply into.

My goal in this talk was for us to understand both the context in 
which the Christmas stories were conceived and told and to understand 
the context in which we live. Our times and our lives are much more 
like those who were in power at the time of the birth of Jesus than we 
are accustomed to thinking. The talk I gave amplifies on these matters.

The text I used for the talk is below. The audio version is different 
somewhat. You can listen to it by going to the Ordinary Life website 
where you will also find the overheads, including cartoons, I used in 
the talk.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to Download text 20101212.pdf

 

 

Outside the Box

Dear Folks -
In the "life talk" I gave this week in Ordinary Life, I dealt with the need to think and live outside the box in both our religious and spiritual lives. I used the birth stories of Jesus as an example of doing this.

The two birth story we have are very different from each other and we must get "outside the box" to hear them correctly. Most approaches to these stories consider them as either factually true or as fables. There is a third approach and that is the one I suggest taking.

Because of the Enlightenment, people have confused truth with factuality. They are not the same. We suffer from "fact fundamentalism."

This talk is about what kind of literature these stories are and what do they mean. I contend, along with most contemporary biblical scholarship, that these stories are parables. They were and are intended to turn the world view of those who heard them and those who hear them upside down.

These stories are about joy, gratitude, hope and meaning.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to Download text 20101205.pdf

Click here to Download Presentation Slides 12:5:10 - Outside the Box.pdf

Click here to Download audio 20101205.mp3