Easter is so much more than bunnies and colored eggs.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I like the traditional American trappings of Easter.  As a boy I used to get a solid chocolate Easter bunny each  year.  I’ve always enjoyed coloring hard boiled eggs, first with my mother, then with my daughters and now with my grandchildren.  To this day every time I smell hot vinegar I have a flashback. I hunted Easter eggs in my back yard and love the high pitched scream of excitement when a child finds an egg.

And I miss the Easter bonnets. I know they are hard to see around in a worship service but still, I miss them. So when I say that Easter is about more than bunnies and eggs I am not being a grumpy old man.  I am merely saying that we must be careful not to get so caught up in the trappings of Easter that we tame the radicalness of the Easter message. Easter is about mystery.  It is about Mary and the women silently going to the tomb in the early morning darkness.  It is about the stone rolled away, the grave clothes neatly folded, and a Stranger meeting a couple of disciples on the road to Emmaus. It is about the mystery of miracle and faith. It is about the mystery of life and death and eternity.

After my father died I found in his papers a “faith statement” of sorts. On a time card he wrote, “My variety of Christianity is not one that explains everything. It accepts and appreciates the mystery.”

Yes, Easter is about more than bunnies and eggs. It is about faith.