A Reflection on Easter: Beyond Chocolate and New Bedding to the True Gospel
by Nadia Bolz-Weber 04-26-2011I’ve often wondered what people in America think when they actually read the story of Jesus rising from the dead for the first time. There’s simply no way the story could adhere to their expectations. I imagine them reading and re-reading it, shocked that they can’t find a single mention of bunnies or rabbits or painted eggs or white sales at Macy’s. Because let’s be honest, that is what our culture thinks Easter is about. Easter in America is really just an excuse to eat chocolate and buy new bedding, and each year we pretend that we can’t really just eat chocolate and buy new bedding whenever we want, which I think is so adorable of us. But honestly the church’s presentation of Easter isn’t less odd. For many churches Easter is another word for “church show off day” — when we spiffy up the building and pull out the lilies and hire a brass quintet and put on fabulous hats and do whatever we have do to impress visitors. It’s kind of like the church’s version of putting out the guest towels.
And don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate and I love fancy music … if I could possibly listen to the Hallelujah Chorus while eating a Cadbury Egg, I’d be in heaven.
But this all has very little to do with the actual gospel story because the gospel story is not fancy; it’s downright messy
Read full article at the Sojourners web-site
New Life Narrabri 
This has always bothered me. When my kids were young we had "Bunny Day", the day before Easter so they wouldn't feel like little oddballs at school, but it made a good separation between the bunny stuff and the true Easter.
LikeLike
That's a good way to do it Lois. We have small eggs at church, and we used to let our kids have Easter eggs in the afternoon. We always made sure that the main event was Jesus rising from the dead.
LikeLike