This morning, the house gives evidence of the Easter holiday. Red and violet tulips stand straight and tall on the dining room table. Little bunnies hop on windowsills. A pot of yellow daffodils peeks out the kitchen window. Easter baskets from yesterday still contain yet uneaten chocolates and jellybeans buried in cellophane grass. An Easter lily stands in front of the fireplace, it’s five freshly opened, pure white flowers trumpeting the arrival of spring, echoed by the mockingbird outside my window who has been going all night. Colored eggs are stacked in the refrigerator waiting to be cracked open and eaten. Everything is bathed in pastels.
As Beverly’s poem pointed out yesterday, it’s not about eggs and bunnies; it’s about what Christ did for us on the cross, and what he won in his resurrection. But knowing this doesn’t mean we have to do away with the cultural icons of this season. You can have your eggs and bunnies and your resurrected Christ as well.
Much of what Christians have thought was their witness in the world has relied on a sort of cultural antagonism that pits the gospel against secular influences as if they were mutually exclusive. They aren’t. After all, God invented spring. He put the mockingbird outside my window, and God was the one who put resurrection power in a flowerbed. We don’t need a culture war in order to be distinctive. A lot of that is artificial.
Christians love to manufacture what makes them different from the world instead of embracing what makes us the same. Don’t you think the gospel can travel better on a track that affirms what is culturally true instead of always pointing out what is wrong with the world? No wonder non-Christians cringe when they see Christians coming. We are such cultural killjoys.
There is so much in the world that already affirms the truth. Let’s focus on that instead of creating enemies.
John Fischer The Catch 
Thank you for having the courage to say what so many are thinking…….my daughter and I have had this discussion many times over the past few years and we are in total agreement with your view…….it is WAY PAST time for this world to starting finding a united front and stop claiming SENIORITY over others and their beliefs.
I so enjoy reading your comments each day and they have helped me in more ways then you will know.
I’m so glad. Thank you for letting us know.
“Don’t you think the gospel can travel better on a track that affirms what is culturally true instead of always pointing out what is wrong with the world?”
Yes. Exactly. Well said!
AMEN!
Reposted on my facebook page.
Thank you!
Amen, amen, and amen.
I usually agree with most of what you say but when you say that Christians love this or Christians do that, I would rather hear you preface it with “some”, “many”, or even “most”. Please don’t lump all Christians together. You would never say, “people are mean” because not all people are mean. Some are, but not all.
Thank you. I enjoy your column–usually….. : )
Point well taken. Thank you.
Sounds like you and Marti and family had a LOVELY Easter, John! I enjoyed the visuals you provided with the tulips and the pot o’ daffodils 🙂
I’m with the gang here who are applauding. Your ongoing yearning for more Christians to find cultural common ground with “secular” culture — it’s so important! How can we let God’s love radiate through us to others if others run away from us?
Laura, you said, “How can we let God’s love radiate through us to others if others run away from us?” Sometimes I think some believers want others to run away from them. It’s safer. It’s easier. For instance, my dear sweet daughter is a prodigal right now. My husband and I take her daughter (our grandaughter) to church. I keep waiting for her to be rejected by the other children’s parents. Her dad isn’t in her life much, her mom is away from God. She isn’t from a “perfect” mom-and-dad-and-children-family. I wonder if the other parents will invite her over as she gets bigger. Will she be included? We all “say” we want others to become believers but they come lugging all their baggage right in the church house. They are positionally perfect but in real life it ain’t pretty most times. As a christian that grew up in the church I have struggled with being judged. My father didn’t attend with my mom and I. And I have even judged…do I want my girls around that child? Thank God for his grace to me in both situations. Forgiving others and forgiving me. I think we must be brave and live so the world won’t run away. Be afraid but do it anyway. God will help us if we do.