"It's time for the Easter Bunny," declares one of my favorite movie characters near the end of one of my favorite films. It's said with such solidly Southern syllables and such satisfaction that it has become a sort of seasonal catch phrase for both my daughter and me. We can, by the way, gleefully quote large passages of the movie's dialogue to each other (or anyone else). So naturally today, when I spied The Bunny himself waving from the back of a pick up truck, the phrase sprang unbidden from my lips
The appearance was part of a Good Friday mini-parade that, to the delight of the local kiddoes—and adults, wended through the streets of my neighborhood this afternoon. It was a nice nod to tradition in what has been anything but a typical traditional springtime in Louisiana.
Facing down a pandemic this year we find ourselves donning face masks rather than Easter outfits. Some of my most beloved childhood memories involve posing for Polaroids in blue (or yellow, or whatever the color of a given year's ensemble) patent leather shoes. The shiny Easter shoes of course matched my Easter handbag. They paired beautifully with the white gloves and straw hat mandatory for little girls of my generation and were chosen to perfectly accent the pastel dresses my grandmother sewed for me.
I don't just associate Easter with sartorial splendor, mind you. I remember overwhelmingly splendid Easter dinners, too. The feasts concocted by my great grandmother were an open invitation to gluttony. Our matriarch insisted on serving seconds, as if the first overflowing dishes passed across colorful tablecloths were not already an over-indulgence. A refusal was an insult After dessert (just a "finger" of pie, she'd say), the gorgeous foil-wrapped chocolate rabbits and Elmer's Heavenly Hash and Gold Brick eggs (New Orleans area necessities) beckoned from heavy baskets.
And then there was the company! Having Easter Sunday company was rarified entertainment. For an only child being reared in the quiet of the rural South, an onslaught of various cousins and assorted relations of every ilk was indulgence, too. The house overflowed with relations like the Blue Wilow overflowed with food. The loud mix of storytelling, of jovial busyness and banter, was a sweet concoction—sweet and a little nutty. Balmy Easter afternoons in the "screen porch" shared by such a boisterous crowd were a social delicacy.
This year, though, that particular sort of memory-making won't happen. With COVID-19 looming, the holiday will be celebrated quite differently. There will be no church service where I can swish elegantly to the hymns in a new Easter dress. In this time of social isolation, even families are being enjoined to not gather; so I won't be conjuring fanciful menus for my own grand kids. Maybe, though, that's not such a bad thing.
We can FaceTime with family, congregate for worship via social media, search out inventive ways to celebrate Easter. With less distraction maybe those of us who celebrate Easter as the foundation of our faith will choose to spend a little extra time thinking about just what it is we are celebrating. We might pause to more fully consider that, with the resurrection of Jesus, we who believe are made alive with Him.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
My prayer is that with the interruption of our typical way of doing things this year, this Easter we will set aside trappings and traditions, as wonderful as they can be, to focus more intentionally on the resurrection of Christ Jesus. So how about good things being displaced by better things? Our typical may be wonderful. But doesn’t our God want more than typical for us--this Easter and always?
1 Corinthians 15:1-24 ESV
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
11 Whether then it was I or they,
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
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