Barbara: Hi everyone. And welcome to 40 minutes of faith. My name is Barbara Cox and I host this weekly podcast to explore God's word and our relationship with God.
Today, I'm going to be taking a look at the most listened to episodes this year so far. I did the same thing at the end of December last year on the first 25 or so episodes that had been released. And I didn't get to talk about all of the most popular episodes because I had excerpts from some of the episodes and then ran out of time. So I still have a few episodes that had been very popular last year, along with some of the newer ones from this year. And we've got another 25 since then. So we'll see how many we get to today. I'm going to just shuffle them up, cause I printed off some quotes to share with you as well as including some excerpts of recordings. So here will be a partial listing of the most popular episodes this year so far.
Barbara: In August of 2020, episode number 13 is about the book of Ruth. And that was recorded with Paula who taught me how to run a podcast because I did not know what I was doing. The thought of starting a podcast was frankly terrifying for me. And I thought it was really amazing that after I signed up for this class with Paula, she mentioned she has a master's from Yale divinity school.
And I thought, that's pretty amazing. What are the odds of that? And I have a quote attributed to Albert Einstein: coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous. So I think, if it's a coincidence, that's God. And then at some point during the podcasting class, Paula mentioned that her favorite book of the Bible is Ruth. Eventually I worked up the nerve to say, do you want to record an episode with me about the book of Ruth? And she said, yes.
Paula: God is trying to reach out to us in whatever way God knows we're gonna respond to. So whether that's a burning Bush and we notice it and we're like, what's going on here? Or it's maybe something a little more subtle, but I feel like God keeps reaching out to the people in the old Testament and the us now and saying, Hey, I see you. I know you. And I want to have a relationship with you.
I don't want you to just follow the laws or the rules that I'm laying down. Sure. I'll tell you what it means to be a good, you know, air quotes, good person, and to be in relationship and to follow the, commandments and the commitment. But I want to see it, like, I want to feel this relationship with you.
And so I feel like Ruth's saying this to Naomi is also this really interesting, nuanced and layered way of saying to the reader, this is what a relationship, a loving relationship with someone looks like, yes, you get that. We're going to all follow kind of the same rules as a society, but you also get this heart level thing that comes out.
And that's what I feel like is modeling the way the God hopes we will react to God.
Barbara: Imagine if we said to God, God don't force me to leave you. God, don't make me go home. Where you go. I go, that just blows my mind.
Paula: Yeah. Goosebumps.
Barbara: one of the most popular episodes has actually been the very first one, not the intro that I recorded on why am I starting a podcast? But the first guest that I interviewed, Melissa. And we talked about fear on June 15th, 2020, technically it's episode two.
Melissa: I think we do hold onto fear. I've found that fear is kind of comforting, because we know it, it's something we can expect.
We can expect to be afraid of something. And the releasing of it is hard because when you release it, You're going into another unknown. Living in fear is something that's easy for us to do because it's familiar. We're always afraid of something. We're afraid of success. We're afraid of failure. We fear what's to come, but if we own it, we can move forward.
God is always there. the question is where is our faith and that fear do we turn to God in that time of fear? God didn't create the feared. God did not put that in our lives.
it's there. things happen and how we react to it is I think the biggest difference in our fear, we can climb up. We can look inside, we can look to earthly things in order to try to quell that fear, or we can look to God and we can. Pray about it. We can ask about it. We can look for guidance.
We can look to the Bible. We can look to others who are more knowledgeable in our faith journey than we are. God doesn't go away. got his there. But do we acknowledge that? And do we do our part in. Interning, interesting in putting our faith into action.
Barbara: episode number 38 was released in March of this year. And I talked with Joanne about what it's like in a Lutheran church that has a praise band, which is something that some Lutheran churches may have, but by and large, Most people think about Lutheran churches as having organ music or singing hymns out of a hymnal and then more non-denominational or mega churches having praise bands.
One thing that I noticed and that I really enjoyed Joanne, is that prayer time during the service that we're talking about right now included very soft and gentle background music. I feel like music is a language and some people listen to it and really treasure it. And maybe some people feel like they can speak that language, or it goes deep into our body. [audio recording music here].
Joanne: I have this little plaque in my piano studio that says, God gave us music that we might pray without words.
Barbara: So if you would like to learn more about how a small congregation can get a praise band started and what that might look like during the worship service, take a listen to episode number 38. In March of 2021 with Joanne from Massachusetts.
All right, in August of last year in episode number 14, I talked with my friend, John about pop culture, and this one includes examples of books and some movies,
So. If you would like to hear a little bit more about our conversation regarding Harry Potter and CS Lewis and Star Wars, and JRR Tolkien, check out number 14.
John: the environment that I grew up in C S Lewis was worshipped almost. And as an adult, as I began to study theology, I began to say, you know, if some of the people I grew up with really read CS Lewis, they would not be a fan of him.
he was very much a believer that, And the idea that God does not like set apart a certain people as like the ins and the outs. He talked about this idea that God speaks to people in the language that is best suited for them. I think that the main thing was Narnia. There is both a religious objection to it.
And a secular objection to there has been controversy in public schools, with the Narnia books, because there are such strong Christian themes in there and the Christian complaint that. I have heard is, and I think you brought this up when we first began to talk about it is this depiction of Jesus as Azlan.
So as Aslan is depicted as this lion. Right. So it's kind of that, victorious, just not Christ as the lamb, the same lamb that John, the Baptist appointed to. And yet the interesting thing is that the symbol of Judah, which was the area of Palestine, that Jesus is from, and that was his ancestry is Alliant.
And Lewis was drawing upon that.
Part of the genius of what George Lucas did in Star Wars, in creating the idea of the concept of before it is, It's a spiritual concept, but it is so simple that people can understand it. And yet you can come from a religious background, whether you're Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, any faith- are you going to have no faith at all, but still have a value system.
And you still see that reality in there and regarding redemption, that is very much present. And also, I would say in Star Wars where you have this, very much aligned between good and evil, but also you have this central arch that it is never too late to stop and look at what you have done and realized I was wrong.
And with that comes forgiveness and redemption. And there's this beautiful scene, in return of the Jedi, which is the last film, the original, or showed you where Luke Skywalker is fighting his father Darth Vader, and the emperor is just towering them on. And Luke eventually stamps and he viciously attacks his father with the intent of killing them, even cutting off his hand, just as his father had cut off his hand.
But then Luke realizes what he has done. And as the emperor is continuing to, you know, Paul at him, he throws his lights several way and says never, I will never turn to the dark side. You cannot win. And it's a very similar thing in Harry Potter where, in the order of the Phoenix, where he has taken possession of Harry and he's mocking him and saying so weak, so powerless and Harry responds.
You're the weak one that you will never know what love or friendship is. And I feel sorry for you. And how similar is that? To the words of Luther in a mighty fortress is our God the body. They may kill God's truth. Abide is still, and the kingdom is forever
Barbara: step. I have episode number 36 that was aired on February 14th of this year. And that was the first of a two-part series on Islam. I invited my professor for Wartburg theological seminary. Her name is Gülsüm Küçüksarı
and we spoke about. Both her personal experiences as growing up Muslim in different parts of the world, as well as her experiences as a faculty member who has taught intro to Islam to many different students over the years, and her experiences as.
Someone trying to explain really cultural similarities among Abrahamic, faiths, and other cultural aspects, such as modesty codes.
One topic that is important to me is honoring the rights of women. I learned during this class and perspectives on this theme, when it comes to Islam, glutes, what are a few examples of why history is important when considering the rights and treatment of women around the world today and not only women who are Muslim?
Gülsüm: Unfortunately, we only look at our current contexts to understand what is currently taking place, which cannot really tell us the entire story of the people - in the case of Muslims.
They had a story of 1400 years and since they are also being diverse even today, and there's 2 billion Muslims around the world, scattered around Africa, the far East, middle East, like Bosnia in the Western hemisphere as well.
So how come you didn't put all 1400 years of history and all these people, how can we put all these people into one certain box? And how can we say that this is the story of all Muslim people?
You cannot say that about any, any people? So the story of the oppressed women of Afghanistan, which is a fact, which is not deniable, but this is not the entire story of Afghanistan. I have a very close Afghan friend. She is very passionate about change for her country.
And we talk about these issues together with her. She wants to talk about what Taliban has done, how he destroyed, the country,
But on the other hand, she does not like a country to be represented by Taliban. Is it all Afghans are Taliban-like, or all Afghan women are oppressed? All Afghans are lazy? They don't want change and this and that. So this is not the story of all Afghan women.
So we should be misled if we look at it that way, right. Now when we look at the media, this is what we see- the media likes to zoom in and take that picture to us and show it to us repetitively so that we are misled. And then because media actually goes somewhere with that, they had their own agenda and they go somewhere with that and they do it very well.
And so I don't know if you're familiar with this female African author about Single story approach. and what is that? So in our Western dominated and Eurocentric media, we have many stories of Americans or the western people.
Like we have good Americans, bad Americans, like serial killer or, savior. We have all sorts of Americans. Yeah. But and sometimes even more so towards like good whites, right. Sometimes yes. But then you look at the third world, she says that we have a single story. Like Africa, she says we have
that big prejudice against Africa. It's a huge continent, but is it like a village and the common denominator we can summarize like everything about it as policy you're poor, right? Yeah. But she is an African woman, mum. She doesn't like that. So we put all Africans into one box and sometimes we get so swamped in that And it almost becomes a racist approach. A very recent example.
Can we define the, all Americans with the actions of the recent attackers in the Capitol building, right. I'm sure you present all America is only a part of a bigger story, right.
So I don't want to deny the fact that women, some Muslim women are denied and not given particular rights in places like Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, but it is definitely because of the political regimes in those countries and their abuse of power. And there's abuse of religion in those places.
And there's a lot of other human rights in those countries. Like we know that a lot of journalists are in prison in countries. All sorts of human rights abuses in those countries. So those places where we see Sheria in place this is what we see all this is because of the Sheria that they are suffering from.
This is a Spoiled version of Sheria. This is a modern version. This is, this is kind of a colonized version of Sherea. It is not what Sheria is about. It has a flexible nature , it is changeable. So this is why it is important to look back at history because history has different examples.
So that we can actually have a better appreciation of today is a better comparison. And we should understand that the world has a bigger history than what we have today. Right? So we can't just judge all Christians know by looking at modern America, right. By looking at, , 15th century, the crusaders.
Yeah. Great example. So the same today, the Muslim world is suffering from still suffering from colonization. The trauma of that, they are still suffering from that. So we have to understand the Muslim psyche under the lights of that. Otherwise we will not understand. It is not to justify the violence that they turn to, but it is to make sense of why this is happening.
It's not because they are born violent. Because this is very racist actually, when we actually think of people, oh, they're this way, because, because this is how they are.
Barbara: Next I have for you an episode from July of 2020 episode number nine, that was recorded with another faculty member at Wartburg theological seminary named may Persaud. And we talked about Bible translations.
May: There are basically three different approaches to translation. There's the verbal approach where the translators drive to make the English be exactly following the ancient Greek or the ancient Hebrew. So it's kind of a word for word. Translation now most versions are not, strictly verbal.
Cool. So the verbal would be on one end of the spectrum.
And then in the middle is, an approach to translation called dynamic. This seeks to understand what's going on and to reproduce the ancient thoughts and ideas in modern equivalency. So examples of this would be the NRSV, the RSV, the NIV. And the Jerusalem Bible, which was mandated by the Catholic church
So they're trying to stay with the words. And yet they're trying to not be just tied word for word. They're a little looser. It's dynamic. And then the final kind of translation approach is called paraphrase where the, translators read the ancient texts. They think about, you know, what is going on? How can we talk about, about it?
And then in their own language they just kind of make a paraphrase and examples of this would be the living Bible and the message. And there are many other examples too.
Barbara: Do you have a moment made to take a look with at Matthew six 25, because I'm someone who worries and if there's some wisdom to be had about worrying or not worrying.
Yes. I have it. I have it at hand in the NIV, and I know that you'll have some insights into different versions, but Matthew chapter six verse 25 says, therefore, I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body. What you will wear is not life more than food and the body more than clothes.
May: Well, the interesting thing about this is that the versions are going to agree on this. They all say, do not worry. And this is where Mae Perseid when she teaches wishes that she could get a team together and work on, an alternative reading of this.
Barbara: So let's hear it. Yes.
May: The do not worry, worry, grammatically.
can be translated either. Do not worry or stop worrying. Jesus is speaking to those who've come in and he's basically saying to them, I know you're worried, so let's just cut it out to stop worrying. Therefore, I tell you, stop worrying about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink or about your body, what you will wear. So he's stopping what is already going on in their hearts and minds.
And then after verse 25, he talks about the birds and he talks about how the father feeds even the birds and the lilies of the Valley. And he goes on I'm 31. Don't worry about what you'll eat or what you'll drink. He's addressing the fact that he knows that they've been worrying about these things.
And then he says in verse 33, Strive first for the kingdom of God and God's righteousness and all these things will be given to you. So the bottom line is to lean into God. And then in verse 34, what does Jesus say? The text says, so do not worry about tomorrow. All of the translations agree with that, and that is a possible translation, but there's another possible.
And that is so don't even begin to worry. Which implies that the worrying hasn't started. If I were working on this as a new version, I think I would imply Jesus stops the worry of the people who come. He recenters them in God and God's kingdom and what God does leaning into the fact that God will provide in this COVID time, God will provide.
And then he says, so don't even get started as if it never was. So don't even get started. I think that that. And important way to look at this text. I don't think, do not worry and do not worry for me. I like to hear a little bit more. I like to hear Jesus say, don't even get started or to start by saying stop doing it.
Barbara: Next up. And these are not in order because I don't usually have three faculty members in a row recording podcast episodes with me. So you could hear a little bit of shuffling in the background. The next one that I wanted to tell you about though today of the most listened to episodes is with a faculty member named Jay Alanis.
It's episode, number 16 that aired on September 13th of 2020, and many of these episodes have video on. YouTube. So some of the ones that I have mentioned to you up until now, don't have a specific video content. It's just the recording. That's on YouTube. So I don't need to necessarily send you there for those, but this particular one I wanted to especially invite you.
If you've got time to go to YouTube, I'll put it on the podcast website also, which is 40 minutes of faith.com so that you can get to that link really easily. Jay had created a presentation for us with some maps and some quotes and some artwork. Which of course you can just listen to it as a regular podcast too.
In Sunday school, I thought, okay, Jesus was born and then he grew up in Nazareth, but there's something really important that happens between the birth and Nazareth as it relates to our conversation today.
And I'm going to read. Matthew chapter two, verse 14, and the new revised standard version says this. Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night and went to Egypt. So we've got a visual here for folks on YouTube, an arrow leading from Bethlehem to Egypt, and then other arrows leading out of Egypt and to Nazareth.
So keep reading in Matthew and you'll get more of the story. And Jay, you have some parallels to tell us about modern day flights.
Jay: Yes indeed. In fact, I have traveled this route. several years ago, I traveled to Israel. I travel from there to Cairo.
So I was able to see firsthand just how, intense that desert is. And so I could only imagine the Holy family having to make that Trek across the desert. to get to Alexandria. I equate that experience and that a physical desert S something similar to the Sonoran desert in Northern Mexico, which is the deadliest desert, which migrants cross, through to get to the U S us Mexico border in Arizona.
It's not for nothing that many people refugees die in that day. Dessert and books have been written about that. They die in the, in the heat of the desert, trying to cross into a place of refuge. I want to point out from this text is that Matthew relates the story of the Holy family who flee to Egypt.
To escape, the persecution of Herod yes, many today, Joseph, Mary and Jesus become political refugees in the empire of their day. They flee to escape the death squads that Herod ordered against the innocent. And Jesus was the undocumented child of his day and a homeless displaced migrant, like his family, many flee the death squads of their native countries.
And arrive at our Southern borders seeking asylum and refuge. And so I asked church, how shall we receive those who bring Jesus with them? And so I offer the prayer merciful, God help us to give shelter to the displaced, homeless at our borders and to advocate for just and humane treatment of our global neighbors.
Jesus' identity is rooted in his culture. As a Galilean Jew, he will speak in the dialect of his community. He will learn to speak Aramaic and read the Torah in Hebrew. He will be influenced by the Hellenistic culture of the region, the crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa, then the border States of the U S we call the spoken language, Spanglish or text mix, a mixture of English and Spanish, and many who traveled to our borders, bring their accents with them.
And are identified as foreigner in time. They will adopt the dialect of the region in their effort to survive in a new country. And so how should we receive them Lauren? And give me your accent of peace and reconciliation with all people that all might find refuge and sanctuary. as my neighbors. And so I like to point out that language is a tool of empowerment and all cultures are defined by their linguistic heritage.
And we should not fear languages. We do not understand, but hear them is an opportunity to learn about the worldview of others who come here. In other words, language in today's world is politicized and, and used against. people who have a different accent than our own.
And no one in on earth, is accent less. We all come from a certain place. We all have an accent and we are all, people of God. And so language should be used as is as a gift, and not as a tool to, for us others.
Barbara: Next I have for you a podcast episode that I recorded with my friend, Anita, from Massachusetts about prayer shawls. This is number 31 released on January 9th of 2021.
So this is another episode where I would encourage you if you've got time, watch it on YouTube. And if not, just listen to it, I'll have all of that on the podcast website for you, so that you can see some examples of the different prayer shawls that this particular church ministry has created.
Anita: we pray over the shawls. We meet once a month here at grace, the King. So people bring their work. And we put our work in the middle of us and we all put our hands on it and pray over the shawls that we're working on. Sometimes people know who the shawl is for, and maybe know who the shawl is core.
It is easier to pray for that person, but sometimes you pray with your pattern
Barbara: work,
Anita: a repeat of three stitches. You could pray in the name of the father, son and Holy ghost, or you could put a Bible verse to your pattern. So it depends sometimes you know, who you're making the shawl for. And sometimes you do not.
Those don't have to be knitted or crocheted. They can be sewn. They can be fleeced. That is tied. I mean, you can make your Shaw in any number of ways.
They can be small. They can be big. They can be very small that they just fit in somebody's pocket- no say that the person doesn't want to wear a shawl all the time, but they'd like something in their pocket to remind them. That's
Barbara: amazing. I love that. I had never heard that
Anita: before. Yes. They're called pocket shawls and there are pocket.
Yeah.
Shawls can come in any shape or size. This one happens to be a triangle and it can be worn like the one I have with like a collar or it can be worn over the shoulder.
So there's lots of ways to wear a shawl and lots of shapes.
this one would be for a new baby and it would be great for a baptismal Shaw because it's white. Sometimes we use the church, your colors, or the shells
Barbara: I have a different two-part episode to let you know about, and that is on November. 24th of 2020 in episode number 15, that's part two of an episode series that I recorded with Jennifer about racism and adoption.
Jennifer: I think one angle of fear is white. People are afraid if they admit they have. Biases or have done racist things. they're admitting that they are a horrible person, so it's easier to just completely deny the entire topic and just push it away and shame anybody who is talking about it. in fact, one of the ways this fear manifest is by saying, well, If you would just stop talking about it, it would go away.
And as we all know, someone with cancer or, mental illness or, a broken bone, you don't just stop talking about it to make it go away. You have to actually address it. Okay. I wonder if that's
Barbara: another situation of privilege in my privilege, I can ignore it and my life won't be too badly affected. Okay.
But then I'm ignoring the people who are very much effected by
Jennifer: it. And so the fear comes from admitting that we may have done, something wrong, thoughts, something wrong, or we might be wrong. And honestly, that's not what this whole journey is about. This whole journey is about recognizing, that all people.
We're created in the image of God and not all people are treated as such. so I think that's one fear. And then I don't know exactly which population of people has this fear, but, a lot of people fear that they're going to have to, share their wealth or, Yeah.
like give up half of their belongings so that other people can have their stuff. And I think that's been a prevalent message And I think that, if you look at scripture,
Barbara: we're called to give Jesus, say to the rich man. That's right. What
Jennifer: did he say to the rich man?
Barbara: Here's what happened in the book of Matthew chapter 19 verses 16 to 22, from the message version, a man stopped Jesus and asked teacher. What good things must I do to get eternal life? Jesus said, why do you question me about what's good. God is the one who is good. If you want to enter the life of God, just do it.
He tells you the man asked what in particular, Jesus said, don't murder. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. Don't lie. Honor, your father and mother, and love your neighbor. As you do yourself. The young man said I've done all that. What's left. If you want to give it all, you've got Jesus replied. Go sell your possessions, give everything to the poor.
All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me. This was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so crestfallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things and he couldn't bear to let it go. Okay.
Jennifer: Yeah. So I think we have a fear of loss. Sure. And I have read that I had read from some black individuals who speak to the matter white people have a fear of a loss of their status in this culture , and what that tells me is that white people do know that there's a privilege to being white.
So. We have the privilege of pretending we don't have a privilege.
Barbara: What's that.
To let you know about another popular episode that was recorded in January of 2021. And that is episode number 32 about preparing to go on a pilgrimage to Israel with my friend Lindsay. And the reason that we recorded this in addition to another episode with my friend, Teresa, about actually being in Israel is because.
It was a very meaningful process to actually prepare for this particular pilgrimage.
Lindsay: at the time of the trip, I was co-facilitating The Rock, the Road and the Rabbi by Kathy Lee Gifford and Rabbi Jason Sobel. it really was an amazing study. I just felt like.
It opened my eyes to a part of the Bible that I didn't even know before, like an onion that kept revealing another layer and stories that I've heard a hundred times or jumping off the page at me. When viewed through a different lens, like the Jewish lens I could see it completely differently than I had before.
And that was really eye-opening and amazing to me. Being in Israel was like history coming to life.
I am sitting on the Mount of Beatitudes. After having just gone sailing on the sea of Galilee, it was a beautiful, amazing experience. I feel Jesus in this place and it is so peaceful through the beatitudes. Jesus was telling us a better place and way to live, which set of rules are governing my life, the world or God's.
What are you worrying about? Let go and know that he is God.