As a good Baptist, I love an Early Sunday Morning. My favorite service of the year is a sunrise service at a church just down the road from me. They didn’t have a service this year, but I was able to catch a sunrise service at one of my favorite YouTube churches. I love the early morning service at the Alfred Street Baptist Church for many reasons, but one of my favorites is the preacher. The early morning service is usually led by Dr. Judy Fentress-Williams. She’s basically my role model. She’s beautiful, she’s brilliant, and she is a biblical scholar.
Anyway, as usual, Dr. Judy blew my mind. Check her early morning sermon out. Anyway, she reminds me that it was the women who were at the foot of the cross, and that it was the women who sought to honor Jesus, even after his death. It was the women who first received the good news of the Gospel, and it was the women who first proclaimed that good news to other people.
Thank God for the women.
On Easter Monday, I always wonder what happened to the women. After all their service to Jesus and his ministry, they disappear from the narrative. I wonder what they did while the brothers gathered in Galilee? I wonder why no one ever thought to document their journeys. I wonder if they continued to gather, even without the brothers.
The women’s voices mattered. The women’s voices matter today. They matter to me, and they ought to matter to you. But most importantly, the women matter to God. He loved them then, just as he loves us now. And every now and then, I need a sister to remind me just how much God loves me.
Thank God for the women, the ones who brought us the gospel the first time, and those who dare to stand in pulpits and share it today.
Thank God for women.
The Gospel According to Gabrielle 