On Easter, we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, but what does this amazing life-yielding miracle have to do with a bunny and painted eggs?

The short answer is, “Maybe not so much!”

Every year, Christians revisit Jesus and his disciples entering Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, the Jewish holy season that commemorates the Hebrews’ release from slavery. And, every year, we study our Lord’s arrest, crucifixion, death and resurrection.

It’s no surprise people of Jewish origin were among the first to celebrate the resurrection, likely as a new facet of the Passover festival. In fact, the Easter celebration, Pascha, in Aramaic and Greek, is derived from the Hebrew Passover. An early sacred ritual of Easter was the lighting of the Pashcal candle. You can see where this candle derives its name. The Pashcal candle symbolizes light out of darkness similar to the Christ candle of Christmas.

Originally, Easter was celebrated two days after Passover but this meant Easter could fall on any day of the week. In 325 A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicea ruled Easter would always fall on Sunday, this being the day of the week Christ rose from the dead.

It was also the Council of Nicea that decided Easter would be celebrated the first Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox. Easter would then always fall on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25. As Christianity spread through Europe, pagan European customs began to emerge and spread. In fact, some argue that Easter may have received its modern -day name from Eostre, the goddess of spring and fertility, which brings us to the Easter bunny and Easter egg.

Easter bunnies and Easter eggs were a perfect match, although one probably not made in heaven. The fertile bunny, at least in connection with Easter, didn’t show up until about the 16th century, but had long been a symbol of new life. Eggs, on the other hand, have been a symbol of life and birth for thousands of years.

The advent of Easter bunnies and Easter eggs led to children being told, if they were well-behaved, the Easter bunny would visit and leave Easter eggs as presents. It seems we are always looking for incentives to make children behave; thus, chocolate eggs and other gifts enter the Easter equation too!

President Rutherford B. Hayes, who served in the White House from 1877 to 1881, once said, “To avoid even the appearance of evil, I think sometimes I have unnecessarily deprived myself and others of innocent enjoyment.”

President Hayes deprived no one of innocent enjoyment when he approved egg rolling and egg hunting for the first time on the White House lawn, a tradition that remains today, at least unless it is cancelled due to sequestration …

I encourage you not to deprive yourself this Sunday. Celebrate the miracle of the resurrection.

If you choose to do so at Steeple on the Beach, please know we will have an Easter bunny and an Easter egg hunt for the children at 9:45 a.m. between Easter Sunday worship services! Why? Because children and church are the perfect match made in heaven!

Join us Holy Saturday at 6 p.m.in historic Briggs Hall to watch Mel Gibson’s movie “Passion of the Christ.” There is no charge for admission and refreshments will be provided.

Join us for a spectacular Easter Sunday Celebration at 8:30 a.m. or 11 a.m. in our beautiful sanctuary. The message this weekend is “Conquering the Inevitable” based on the 15th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

Reverend Andrews is Minister at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach) located five blocks south of Hillsboro on AIA. www.communitych.org or find us on Facebook.

Our son, still a very young man, takes a well-deserved early retirement from the army this week. He returned from Iraq last year with more injuries than desires to explain them. But he is among the ranks of our more fortunate veterans who physically, mentally and emotionally survive the call to duty. Like most Americans, we are grateful. Like most parents, we are proud.

I remember our son as a young boy playing on the floor with those little green rubber soldiers. He would, as a child with pretense and make-believe, make sounds and crashing noises he would hear for real as a young man. I suspect he prays to forget those noises now …

It was a great privilege to see him carry the flag for his graduating class. A few years later, it was an even greater privilege for his mother and me to join a few thousand family members in the wee hours before sunrise to welcome home a few hundred of our soldiers.

It was joyful when the troops marched in formation to meet families straining to see and have that first glimpse of their soldier. All around us, we heard families when they saw their soldier excitedly call out, “There he is! There he is!”

It was somber when the troops once assembled were held in formation. There was a respectful silence that set upon this jubilant crowd when the troops were addressed by their commanding officer.

He gave thanks for each soldier being safely reunited with families and he gave thanks for the honored few who had already returned home, soldiers deployed with these troops the preceding year, but returned earlier, after having been seriously injured or after having given the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

Billy Graham once wrote on the topic of duty that “every generation is strategic. God will hold us responsible as to how well we fulfill our responsibilities to this age and how well or how poorly we take advantage of the opportunities we have.”

If you believe as I do that answering the call to duty for our nation is important then faint not at the idea, it is even more important that we answer the call to duty in the church Christ leads.

When Jesus says, “Come, you that are blessed” he challenges the very people who say we are his disciples to chose a path that is neither pretense nor make-believe.

It is the Christian’s uncomplicated call to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned. And we will be held to account as to how well or how poorly we take advantage of our abundant opportunities to do these things.

MATTHEW 25

The Truth is we serve a Lord even greater than the greatest nation in the history of the world, who makes it possible for even fallen soldiers to reunite one day with loved ones.

JOHN 12:27

Jesus says, “For now my soul is troubled and what should I say — ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.”

Friends, these are among the reasons we are blessed to answer our call to duty!

Join us Saturday @ Six and Sunday morning at 8:30 or 11 a.m. The Sunday Message “Call to Duty” is based on Matthew 25: 31 – 40.

Reverend Andrews is Minister at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach) located five blocks south of Hillsboro on AIA. See more @ www.communitych.org or on Facebook.

Have you ever heard about the man who was quizzing his wife during half-time of the Super Bowl to find out if she had ever before been in love with another man?

The man’s wife finally answered, but only after reflecting on the question far too long.

“Absolutely not,” she said. “When I was in high school, I really liked one boy for his impressive intellect. Then, there was that spectacular athlete in college I admired because of his humor, courage and character.”

Then she paused, smiled and wistfully said, “And after college, oh my, there was that one young man I was attracted to because of his amazing good looks and charm. But surely you understand that, with you dear, the only explanation is love!” We can argue whether the man’s question or the woman’s answer is worse, but we can agree that we get more than a little confused about love and we trivialize that which we need the most.

Some people claim to love the Super Bowl, but have no idea who won the game last year. Other people say they love the Super Bowl commercials, but, the day after seeing them, have no remembrance of what they promote.

And, sometimes, perhaps like the woman responding to her husband’s prodding, we label something as love if we don’t know what else to call it or how else to explain it.

The truth is what the world needs most is love – genuine love, unending love, the kind of love Paul describes in the 13th chapter of his letter to the Corinthians. Read it, re-read it, and try your best to apply it to your life, especially to the people you love!

Some of you will remember Hal David’s song lyrics “What the World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love” put to music by Burt Bacharach and popularized by singer Dionne Warwick. The song was thought to draw special meaning out of the context of the turbulent 1960s and early ‘70s.

But, behind the simple lyrics and the catchy tune is a Biblical truth and a basic human need that passes like time from one generation to the next. Our need for love is really our need for God. The Ten Commandments and the holiness code of the Torah are based on God’s steadfast love that runs deeper and lasts longer than mere admiration, attraction, amusement or even personal enjoyment, even though we often seem to value these other things more.

God’s love flows much like the Jordan penetrates the wilderness. The heaven opens and the Spirit of Love descends like a dove, but somehow the song’s lyrics still ring true to me and you.

Love still is the only thing there’s just too little of, not just for some, but for everyone. Lord, we don’t need another mountain or another meadow. There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb. There are oceans and rivers enough to cross, enough to last ‘til the end of time. What the world needs now is love, sweet love!

The Good News is this.

God is love and the Holy Word of God made flesh reveals God’s unending love to the world in Christ. God comes to the world to save the world. And, in Christ, finally and forever, we have the love we need, all the instruction, all the encouragement and the foundation for a song that never ends.

What the world needs now is not a new Super Bowl champion. What the world needs now is for us to share the love we already have.

Join us this weekend Saturday @ Six or Sunday morning at 8:30 or 11 a.m. The Message “What the World Needs Now” is based on 1 Corinthians 13.

Rev. Andrews is a minister at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach) located five blocks south of Hillsboro on AIA. See more @ www.communitych.org or on Facebook.