The Women
April 28, 2019 • Carrie Kramer
I am honored and delighted to bring the message this week for our United Methodist Women’s Sunday, especially after such an amazing and meaningful Holy Week and Easter Sunday. As we all prepare our hearts to receive God’s collective Word for us, I invite you to go back and read Luke 23:44-Luke 24:53. As you do, I encourage you to take note of who is with Jesus every step of the way from His Crucifixion to His Resurrection, and even at His Ascension.
Is it Peter? No.
Is it John? No.
Is it Judas? No.
The ones who stay with Jesus through it all are “the women.” Luke 23:27 tells us that “the women” were with Jesus as He carried His cross to Calvary. Luke 23:48-49 tell us that “the women” stood at the cross watching all the things that took place. Luke 23:55-56 tell us that “the women” saw Joseph of Arimathea place Jesus’ body on the tomb. And Luke 24:1-12 tell us that on the first day of the week at early dawn, “the women” came to the tomb and found the stone rolled away. It was “the women” who were met by the angels and were the first to hear the good news of Easter — “He is not here! He is risen!” It was “the women” who first ran from the tomb and share that same good news with others.
“The Women” — Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others — were the KEY WITNESSES of Easter. Without the faithfulness and witness of “the women”, the details that make up the heart of our faith would be lost. I don’t know about you, but I am immensely thankful for the witness of these women, as well as the witness of so many other women throughout the Bible and throughout my life. Without their witness, I would not be who I am today as a Christian, as a wife, as a mother, as a minister. Without their witness, neither would the Church and the Kingdom of God be what it is today.
This Sunday, I hope you will join us for United Methodist Women’s Sunday at either Celebrations at 8:45am or Traditions at 10:55am as we celebrate all that “the women” of the Bible, Christianity, GFUMC, and our lives have done to witness, lead and empower us to be the witnesses & leaders God has created and called us all to be!
In Christ,
Rev. Carrie Jones
