Easter Eggs? Easter Bunnies? What is up with that??

So many of our holidays have strange elements. Easter is no different. I am not talking about new shoes or a new Easter hat. I am talking about Easter Egg hunts, Easter baskets, and Easter bunnies.


I grew up in a home with that unusual combination. I raised my own kids that way. So what is the big deal?


There is actually an interesting history to this story. In 325 A.D. Roman Emperor Constantine "Christianized" the Roman Empire. For Christians who had been slaughtered by this empire for centuries, this change must have seemed to have been a welcomed relief.


But like every change, there is always the law of unexpected consequence. Constantine took the Christian practice of Easter and wed it with ancient fertility cult practices. To the untrained eye, one can tell the similarities. Jesus comes out the tomb and give new life, in much the same way that flowers burst forth out of barren soil and show that spring and new life have returned.


The egg and bunnies are obvious symbols of fertility. Easter is the story of new life in Christ. So what is the problem?


When religious beliefs or practices, become wed to secular ideas, religion suffers.


A recent CNN poll gives us a snap shot of religious belief.  74 per cent of Americans believe in God. 72% believe in miracles and 68 per cent believe in heaven. It also tells us that 42% per cent believe in ghosts, 29% believe in astrology, and  26% believe in witches.


Here is the one statistic that rings most true. 19% of all Americans believe themselves to be highly religious.


That seems much more believable than people simply saying they believe in God. The sad thing for me as a minister is that these per centages are dropping; and dropping quickly.


We live in a nation with a civil religion. We live in a culture where you can believe in God and ghosts; witches and miracles, astrology and the power of prayer.


For many people is just another day in their civil religion. They will nod toward God and some will even make their way to church. They will buy new outfits and gorge themselves on Sunday lunch. They will wake up on Monday and little has changed.


That is the world we live in. And much of that began with an Emperor who saw nothing wrong with wedding bunnies to the tomb.