If I were preaching on Easter. . .

I've been wrestling with Jesus for almost 50 years.

I mean, the guy has this way of getting all over you, under your skin, moving inside your head and never letting go!

The longer I have studied, listened to and observed him in the biblical record, in terms of his historical impact and in regard to the effect he has had on my own life and world, the more convinced I am that most people don't really understand him, what he said or who he was.

Jesus didn't talk much at all about church things.

He didn't provide much instruction on worship services or music styles.

He wasn't into institutional matters. In fact, he chaffed against the institutional leaders and voices of his own day. In my experience he continues that same tact today.

Jesus didn't talk about ordination or education or anything related to status in positive terms.

He talked about life. He talked about this world, its pain and how he wanted to open folks up to a new way of navigating their way through this life.

He connected the here-and-now of my life to the there and then of the next life.

So, if I were preaching this Easter Sunday (and, to the relief of so many, including myself, I am not!), my sermon would be a bit different than it was 15 or 20 years ago.

I would be pointing beyond the particulars of the resurrection narrative to the significance of the story, the claim and the man, as each relates to the real world in which I live today.

What, after all, is the power of the resurrection story for my world?

The resurrection story declares that death will not have the last word and that life beyond this life is certain. But, remember, this is a story about a person who dies, passes over and then returns. This movement toward this world is very important, or so it seems to me.

If my afterlife is squared away, I am free to concentrate on this world--its beauty, its ugliness, its pain, its joy, its need and its assets.

If I truly believe in the truth back of Easter, I am not carried farther away from this world. To the contrary, Jesus shows me that I am pressed deeper into it and its messiness.

So, my one-point message would be simple beyond belief.

To celebrate the resurrection, to signal your belief in its power and its truth, be a resurrection in your world! Live your life as an agent of resurrection, life, renewal and hope.

That's what I'd just have to say.