I grew up in the Christian faith tradition.  Within that tradition I would say we were more on the conservative end of the spectrum.  As I take a look back at the short history of my own life, it seems, honestly, pretty silly where I've come from.  Here's a quick example.

If you weren't aware, Jesus Christ is the central figure in the Christian religion and has been since it's inception.  It's also important to note that traditional arguments claim the resurrection as the make-or-break portion of what Jesus came to do.  I heard this statement on one of the popular Christian sub-culture websites the other day.  The quote said: "Without the resurrection, we have nothing."  I'll tell you why this has become a rather disturbing statement to me as of late.

The basic premise of that statement argues, what is life for is we don't have the resurrection ticket?  In short, why should we worry about being good people if Jesus isn't our ticket into heaven?  If Jesus didn't raise up from the dead, then there is no reason for me to live for him or call myself a Christian because, if I can't go to heaven, this life isn't worth living.  So, for who knows how long, traditional Christian thought has been tangled up in a delusion.  Our entire faith structure hinges on one event.  If the resurrection fails, everything fails.  Honestly?

I'm not buying it.  I'm tired of identifying myself with a group of people who have, for way too long and in horribly violent ways, refused to engage our brains, excluding anyone who thought differently.  I'm not claiming a lack of academic excellence from within the Christian tradition, because there are many who are very studied in matters of theology.  However, it's difficult for me to understand why we continue to live in a world where we don't ask questions.  We "have faith" and refuse to budge on anything that calls into question those things which we have called untouchable.

Basically, all I am suggesting this morning is that I don't believe the statement I quoted earlier.  "Without the resurrection, we have nothing."  No matter if I've got the reward of heaven or not, I must take an honest look at the life of Christ and gage whether or not it's a life that I deem worthy of worship.  My argument is that even if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, I'm still going to follow him, just as many follow Gandhi or the Dalai Lama.  Honestly, I'm more concerned about living a life, as Jesus, Gandhi and many others, of social justice, or concern for humanity.  Jesus claimed all through scripture that the kingdom of heaven is near.  That kingdom was near because of his presence in the lives of people.  He wasn't encouraging people to get their things packed up for their trip to heaven and it's gold paved streets.

As a popular Christian speaker Rob Bell says: "We, just like Jesus, have the opportunity every day to invite people to live in this new kingdom, a heaven of sorts.  Or, we have the choice to allow people to continue to live in the hell of this life."

It's time to retranslate the Christian tradition to language of today.  It's time to ask the question, especially to the mirror, "Is life worth living is there's nothing in it for me?"  My opinion is, absolutely YES!