The wonderful Easter celebrations we enjoyed this past Sunday should give us hope throughout the year. It is simply the greatest news imaginable.
One would think the Resurrection of Jesus would be enough to gain and keep our attention. But many church leaders seem intent on adding their own pizazz.
A New Hampshire congregation’s helicopter drop of some 60,000 eggs to some 10,000 persons below resulted in trampled kids. One witness described the scene as “chaos” — not a word often associated with the resurrection.
Note: It is suppose to be an Easter egg “hunt” — not a bombing.
In Corpus Christi, Texas, one church drew a crowd by giving away televisions, furniture and other prizes. The focus of news reports was more on a bubbly woman praising God for her BMW rather than for eternal hope.
I saw a local news report in which the pastor of a church that sponsors a large outdoor Easter service told how his faithful had prayed away the rain — even though rain was essentially not in the forecast. I guess a “miracle” other than just Jesus being raised from the dead was needed to punctuate the occasion.
And perhaps keeping raindrops off that outdoor gathering tied God up too much to stop the earthquakes in Mexico and Southern California. Or, as I’m sure the pastor would explain, those people just didn’t pray as faithfully as his flock.
There are many wonderful ways to celebrate Easter. Trying to upstage the resurrection is not one of them.
Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.
