{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Commons Church Podcast","title":"Naomi and the Grief That Takes Your Name - Jeremy Duncan","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1839,"description":"What happens when grief takes more than something you love, and starts to take something of you?\nIn the opening verses of the book of Ruth (Ruth 1:1–5), a woman named Naomi loses her husband and both her sons in a foreign land. In this first message of a series on Ruth, Jeremy Duncan explores why Naomi, not Ruth, is the central character of the story, why many scholars think this woman-centred book may have been written as a quiet protest against the exclusion of foreigners in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 13), and how the meaning of the names in the story reveals what is really going on: pleasantness has lost her very name.\nFrom there the conversation turns to us. Our sense of identity is often wrapped up in our roles, our careers, our status, and the ways people need us. When those things slip away, who are we? The baptism of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark offers a different foundation: before he did anything, Jesus was named beloved. Our worth does not come from what we produce, and grief, however real, does not get the final word on who we are.\nScripture referenced: Ruth 1:1–5, Nehemiah 13, Exodus 22, Isaiah 56, Mark 1.","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/icwXcrJQyrNlhck0A-v9WDGWKhB8Uyi0q6ZPjuvnhoM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kMDQw/ODJmNWNlZmZkYzUz/YzIyZDkwZTZiZmVk/MDllMC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}