Happy Easter

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Happy Easter.

Has the Easter Bunny been good to everybody?

Great!

You might have thought I would talk about the resurrection today; about who Jesus Christ is to us and why today is so important.

Nope.  Today I’m going to talk about that great Christian symbol, the Easter Bunny.

I think the Easter Bunny is a little bit like that stone that the builders rejected.  There is something distinctly wrong with it but God uses it anyway.  Not only does he use it, but he identifies the most important Holy Day in the Christian calendar with it.  He made it our chief advertiser.  Right up there with Santa Claus.  There are lots of people who know very little, if anything, about what Christ teaches us.  I doubt there are many who don’t know what the Easter Bunny does.

Well, that’s a good start.  The Easter Bunny advertises the name of the core of our faith. … So what. … How does that tell anyone about what Christianity is actually about?

What does the Easter Bunny do? … First of all, it is a bunny.  Like most other bunnies, it emerges in the spring.  Every year at the end of lent it springs up again.  Like other bunnies, once it gets out it spreads everywhere.  You see the first chocolate bunny in the stores and suddenly there are hundreds … thousands … they are everywhere.

The message (or chocolate) of the Easter Bunny is easy to spread and impossible to stop.  It is almost like it is spread by the wind, or in Hebrew, ruach.  It is almost like it is reborn every year about this time; appearing here and there to its disciples, the children, and then vanishing again, leaving behind miraculous gifts of eggs comprised mostly or entirely of chocolate.  Each one a message saying “you are loved.”

The Easter Bunny also describes Christianity in how it is different from other bunnies.

How does the Easter Bunny know when Easter is anyway?  I don’t know any other bunny that can figure out which day is the first Sunday after the first full moon after spring equinox.  He must be inspired by something.

There is something distinctly different about this bunny.  He is not like the other bunnies.  He lays eggs!  He turns the world of biology upside down.  This should not be possible.  This is a very important message.  He shows us that the world is not always what we expect it to be.  He shows us that those who are different from everyone else are worthy of our love.  He shows us that those who are different from everyone else can love us too.

The Easter Bunny is also a bit different from Santa Claus.  The Easter Bunny does not keep a list of who is naughty and who is nice.  The Easter Bunny doesn’t care.  He loves us all equally.

It doesn’t matter if you are poor or rich … the Easter Bunny loves you.

It doesn’t matter if you are bad or good … the Easter Bunny loves you.

It doesn’t matter what race you are … the Easter Bunny loves you.

It doesn’t matter if you are male or female … the Easter Bunny loves you.

Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter … the Easter Bunny loves you.

Thanks be to God.