Liv Larson Andrews
Director for Evangelical Mission
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
BTW: It’s okay to shout this as you fall into a pile of laundry on Easter evening. After all, it was the women who stayed. Who prepared. Who wept and wailed and yet brought their spice jars and oils and fresh linen cloths.
All for the holy work of grief. For the laundry. For the breakfast after laundry, and for every meal after that.
Then, angel messengers! (Goodness, where do they get their wash done?—it’s dazzling!) speaking long buried hopes into life: he is among the living.
News borne from women’s work has long been labeled an “idle tale,” nothing new about that. Still, it stings. Why not now? Why not here? Believe women!
Like baskets of sun-dried sheets, we carry their good news still:
Death could not hold him. God has acted again. Creation is set free.
Caretaking is no idle chore in the Body of Christ, be it laundry or lunch-making or legislation. In all our daily lives, we show up like the women. We anoint and wash. We weep and cry, we tell our truth even when it is dismissed.
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
Now go take a nap. There will be laundry, lunches, legislation and love-bearing tomorrow.
Alleluia!